PhonicMind – new web-based tool for extracting vocals from tracks
Have you ever wanted to create a remix, but you were unable to find an acapella of the specific track?
You might want to check out this awesome web-based application, PhonicMind. It boasts that it uses artificial intelligence to decode music and break it down into separate vocal and backtrack channels. PhonicMind deploys “Deep Learning” – listening to music at incredibly high-speeds – learning the characteristics of a large variety of sources.
It’s not the first time we are seeing tools that attempt to split vocals from a backtrack, there’s a method that has been widely used for many years – using phase cancellation. The problem is that it didn’t work on every source. Often missing large portions of the spectrum and sometimes even creating very displeasing results.
When I first heard about PhonicMind, I was weary – I wasn’t convinced until trying it for myself on commercial examples as well as my own recordings. All of which created very usable results, perfect for resampling, remixing or mash-ups. In fact, I will probably end up using this tool rather extensively!
What are the legalities involved?
Sampling and Remixing has long been under fire from legal communities, based on the nature of artists using material which was created by other artists. PhonicMind, however falls into a bit of legal grey area, as they have a very clear and concise disclaimer on their website:
“PhonicMind.com is just an audio processor. We do not take any responsibility or authorship rights over what our users upload to our site. We do not review or republish audio tracks uploaded by our users. Uploaded tracks are only available for people who uploaded them. We do not publish and do not use these tracks anywhere except for giving back as a processed result back to our service users. Our users take full responsibility for not breaching any copyright and authorship laws when using our service or end results of our service.”
Whether you are for or against the use of samples, I’m sure you can see the benefit in PhonicMind. Pricing starts at USD $3.99 (Around R50) per track, with bundle deals offered as well. You can try the service for free, although it doesn’t supply the full track for free users.
Check it out.
