7 8
SWITCH UP THE STRUCTURE
To prevent your sampled vocals
from clashing with the original,
you may want to replace sections
of your first song with an instrumental
version taken from a different section
(such as an intro or instrumental break).
First, solo track 1, use the Selection tool
to select the section you want to replace,
leaving a little extra behind on the start
and end points for blending, and choose
Edit > Split Delete to delete it (or select
Edit > Split New to preserve the unwant-
ed selection in a new track, which you
can use as a scrap bin). Then select the
replacement section, taking a little extra
beyond the start and end points for blend-
ing, and copy and paste this into track 2
below the hole in your timeline. Unsolo
track 1, mute tracks 3 and 4 so that only
tracks 1 and 2 are enabled, and play back
your work. Move the region if needed so
that it syncs up with the song. To make the
edit less noticeable, apply a little fade-in/
fade-out to your overlapping edit points.
Select the end point overage in track 1
and choose Effect > Utility > Fade Out,
then select the start point overage in track
2 and choose Effect > Utility > Fade In.
Now click anywhere before the edit point
and press the space bar to check it. Do the
same for the ending edit, except fade in
the track 1 restart point and fade out the
track 2 region ending.
CLEAN UP AND BLEND PARTS
Finally, do some cleanup to reduce
or remove any extraneous instru-
mentation in your mashed-in vocal
parts and blend everything together. While
it’s almost impossible to isolate a vocal
completely from its instrumental accom-
paniment, there are things you can do. Try
using the EQ to turn down the frequencies
outside the vocal range—solo the track,
select the region, choose Effect > Filter >
Equalization, select the Graphic EQ button,
notch down some frequency sliders, and
click Preview to hear your progress. How-
ever, depending on the instrumentation,
this might not be very effective. Another
way to do this is to remove the instrumen-
tation between each vocal utterance—solo
the track, zoom in on a region, select stuff
between two vocalizations, choose Edit
> Split Delete to remove it, and repeat
as needed. To ease any abruptness in
your edits, try using the fade-in/fade-out
technique on your region snippets. When
you’re satisfied with your mix, select File >
Export to save your project as an audio file
in your preferred format.