No Lyrics Versions Of Police Songs

[CHA]

I desire

No Lyrics Versions Of Police Songs

I have wanted this for a long time.
That's right, no singing at all. Making every song an instrumental.
Not elevator music, just the boys in fine form and nobody singing.
Sometimes I just don't want to hear Stings voice, or Anyones voice.
As a musician I think I would hear even more Stewart & Bass & Guitar Interplay.


Does it exist?
Remixed original recordings, not Karaoke or re-recordings.
(I've aslo heard there is a program that removes vocals but I know nothing about it)

[TheEqualizer]

I've only heard of a few that I can recall. If I can find the links, I will post them for you. The one that comes to mind is EBYT.

[Krokodyle]

The only two songs that I've seen "officially" released without lyrics are Every Breath and Roxanne. They appeared on a special karaoke 7" record, from A&M Japan, from 1983. I bought two when they appeared in my local shop. They are the original songs, only the vocals have been removed. Every Breath does have the last 30 seconds of Sting's background vocal track, however.

Now as far as "unofficial" ones, there are some out there, as I've made them myself with mixed results. Since we don't have access to the original recordings, we have to make do with the next best thing: the 5.1 disc(s). Since usually the vocal track is set for the "center" channel, usually it's a relatively simple process of removing that channel and mixing the other four channels to reduce any remaining vocals, then mix that into a normal stereo recording (it sounds complicated but really isn't). Some worked really well, some didn't. But even the ones that didn't work (as far as just removing the vocal track and leaving the rest of the song intact) produced some really, really interesting tracks, usually sourced from the two 'surround speaker' channels.

[Krokodyle]

Here's the single: http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=325973

[Duke]

Poor man's trick - turn on 5.1 set to a vocal preset sound and turn off the cener speaker.

You can also turn the vocals way down with programs like Cakewalk I think.

[CHA]

[quote="Krokodyle"]as far as just removing the vocal track and leaving the rest of the song intact) produced some really, really interesting tracks, usually sourced from the two 'surround speaker' channels.[/quote]

That's very intersting to me. I love hearing only half the music sometimes.

Oddly enough Roxanne & EBYT are the last ones I wan't to hear.
And expensive from what I can tell on that page, but Thanks so much.
You've been a big help Kroko. Gave me some good ideas too.
But WHAT is 5.1? Completely lost me.

I would really appreciate it EQ! if you come across anything at all.

& YES Duke I need the poor mans approach, being poor and a man. I've never used Cakewalk but I'm about to try it.

[Krokodyle]

Yeah, some of the ones I made came out really well. I posted them a long time ago online, but I don't think they're around anymore. But it really isn't that hard.

As far as the two "official" ones, if you can locate the fan-made collection "Missing In A Box", those two tracks appear on it. It's on the net, usually in mp3 form however. Boooo.

5.1 is short for the 5.1 Surround Sound system (or the DTS version, which is slightly different) generally used for movies. They've taken certain albums and remixed them for the 5.1 channel mix you get with 5.1 systems, and they usually sound f***ing incredible. Or, in the case of The Police, one of the selectable channels of the "Every Breath You Take" DVD video collection is DTS 5.1. The catch is that for DTS, you have to have a DTS-capable player & receiver, though that's becoming more common. I'm not going to go into a huge post about it here, but essentially the music has been remixed so that instead of the usual stereo 2-speaker mix, the engineer now has 5 speakers to work with (+1 sub-bass, the .1), which can result in a fuller, more enriching musical experience.

For example, in the case of The Police studio stuff that was done in 5.1, certain parts of the original recording were sent to the rear (surround) speakers, including Andy's guitar overdubs or other previously hidden parts of the song. Which, when tinkered with, can create some pretty interesting remixes.

Take "Wrapped Around Your Finger". By isolating (or listening to only) the rear surround channels, you get a completely different song. One that (much to the chagrin of the fans here) has essentially NO drum sounds on it, just Andy's guitar without overdubs, the keyboard track, and Sting's vocal without any processing. And the result (at least on that track), is pretty darn cool.

It's not that hard to do, really. If you *do* have a home theater system, the easiest way is to only connect the speakers you want to hear (like the rear surrounds). A definite step up would be to rip the disc with software so you can access all of the channels for each song, then remix as you like, and create your own version of the song.

[TheEqualizer]

Bad news Cha.
The gigasize link that I had for Roxanne has been deleted. And something is goofy regarding the EBYT link I had. Those are the only two that I knew of.
Try the 5.1 thing, though.

[Krokodyle]

Hey there you miscreants...for those of you who found this thread interesting, here's a link:
http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=32wb63fkywd

It's a quickie/rough job, and as much as I hate them, mp3s to keep the download small. At least they are encoded at a high bitrate.

[TheEqualizer]

This link for the backing track for Roxanne SHOULD work:
http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=lm4bcb7k07d

[Krokodyle]

I'll see if I can find the Every Breath backing track somewhere and post it...

The Channel Mixes are only 7 tracks, 41MB, so it's pretty small.

[Police Boy]

Something must be wrong with the link to the Channel mixes as when I try to download, it only shows a very small file that won't open.

[Krokodyle]

The link is good, tested it earlier, sometimes Gigasize gets borked and messes up the files. I'll re-upload and update the link.

[Police Boy]

Thanks. Much appreciated. Really enjoying the Roxanne instrumental right now and can't wait for more. Thanks to you all for sharing.

[Krokodyle]

OK, the link in my post has been fixed. Try it now and let me know what you think.