Capo includes a cutting-edge isolation effect, powered by SuperMegaUltraGroovy's Neptune isolation engine. With just a few adjustments, you can easily extract or eliminate the instruments or vocals in a song.
The isolation effect replaces Capo's old Effects (MONO, Equalizer, and Vocal Reduction) with a much more sophisticated tool to achieve the same goal—to better hear the parts of the song you are trying to learn.
A stereo mix is made up of many "sound sources" such as a guitar, drums, bass, lead vocals, backup vocals, and so on. When a song is mixed on a mixing board, individual sources are panned between the left and right channels to create the illusion of positioning, or a "sound stage", if you will.
By manipulating Capo's pan and width sliders, along with the frequency range control you can pinpoint these individual sound sources within a stereo mix so that you can hear them more clearly.
TIP: Capo's isolation does not operate on MONO audio files, for (hopefully) obvious reasons. |
When the isolation effect is running in Solo mode, your isolation settings define the panning and frequency range of the instrument or vocal that you're trying to hear more clearly.
When the isolation effect is running in Mute mode, it behaves the opposite way as Solo. Your isolation settings define the panning and frequency range of the instrument or vocal that you wish to eliminate from the track.
The Pan Energy display—as well as your ears—helps you locate the position of the source among the mixed song. While listening to the track play, you will see a display of the energy as it is spread across the stereo field. For example, when you see (and hear!) energy on the left-hand side of the mix, you know that you need to adjust the Pan slider to the left.
The Pan slider controls where in the stereo field that the sound source is located. When you adjust the pan slider, you will hear the sound update in real time as you make adjustments. It works similar to tuning an old analog radio (remember those?) and is just as easy to use.
The Width slider is closely related to the Pan slider in that it allows you to adjust how narrow or wide a range to apply the isolation effect.
In some mixes, there are effects applied to sounds that cause them to occupy more of the stereo space than where the source was panned on the mixing board. In those cases, you might need to experiment with the pan and width sliders to find the entire range that your sound encompasses.
TIP: In some cases, the sound you're interested in appears to come from "everywhere but the center." In that case, pan to the middle of the track, apply a narrow range, and try finding your desired sound source that way. |
TIP: When isolating or eliminating vocals, set the narrowest width while panned directly in the center of the stereo field for the best results. If you play bass or drums, you'll also find a lot of your "desired energy" located here as well. |
The Neptune isolation engine allows you to define a frequency range in addition to the pan and width values described above, making it especially powerful. Just as with Capo's old Vocal Reduction feature, you can define a low and high frequency value that defines where your desired sound is located.
For example, if your goal is to isolate or cancel the vocals in a song, you can set a range from approximately 300Hz to 8000Hz to get started. This will ensure that the bass is not captured as part of the isolation process, and "splashy" cymbals and hi-hats won't muddle up the vocals. Adjust the frequencies at either end, and stop adjusting when you can hear the voice clearly.
TIP: The Frequency Range display shows a live picture of the isolated spectrum behind it when Neptune is operating in Solo or Mono mode, so it will help you find the low and high frequencies that correspond to your desired sound source quickly. |