So I want to rip a clip from a dvd. My question is, after I get the clip, is there a way to remove or quiet the background music so I can have the dialogue louder?

Any way to do this or am I out of luck?

You can carve some of the bg music out using iZotopr RX. They just released RX2 for 10000 cheaper than 1, ad 250.00.

The problem is that music covers a large part of the spectrum, but you can cut the bass substantially without affecting the dialogue. Or you can select individual dialogue bits and turn them up. In RX you can just turn up a part of the spectrum, so its much better than simply turning up the whole thing.

Here is an example video: YouTube - iZotope RX - Overview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im2b--e7xCA)

iZotope RX - Complete Audio Restoration: Declipping, Declicker, Hum Removal, Denoiser, Spectral Repair, Restore, Remaster, Download (http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/index.asp?t=whatsnew)

If the dialog is centered and the music is spread wide in the stereo field, you can try using M/S (mid-side) processing to split the mono and stereo sound info and may be able to get some more separation between the dialog and the music.

Andrew

where I saw a couple of packages that claim to do exactly what you're looking for ie separating music and vocal. They work on the principle that Andrew mentioned above in that they assume the voice is centered and music not, so anything that's identical on both R and L is voice.

On the other hand they'd probably take out the very center of the orchestra as well, but if you only want to lower the music/raise the vocal, most of the centered music will still be there - might work OK, might not. Hopefully I can remember a couple of names of packages - there was thread here a year or so ago as I remember.

Edit - follow up some links referenced in the Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal

EDIT: Oops wrong forum...