Effects to Remove Vocals in Adobe Premiere CS4

By Melissa McCormick

Updated September 22, 2017

Remove vocals several different ways using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.
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Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is a version of Adobe Premiere Pro, a professional video editing software that is part of the Adobe Creative Suite. The software allows users to edit everything from commercials to feature length films. The software provides hundreds of video and audio tools. These tools consist of everything from simple commands to complex effects and give users the option of adjusting and removing audio vocals during the editing process.

Deleting Tracks

The easiest method for deleting an entire audio clip in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is simply to highlight the audio clip in the project timeline by clicking on it with your mouse and then hitting the backspace or delete button on your keyboard. This will remove the audio, including the vocals from your project. However, do not use this option if your audio track is connected to a video track because you will also loose the video track.

Volume Effect

There are dozens of audio effects located in the effects panel of your Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 project screen. All of these audio effects will adjust your audio is some way. Several of the effects allow users to completely remove the audio. The volume effect is one of these. To add the volume effect to a clip, simply click on Audio Effects and select the type of audio you are working with such as mono or stereo. Then select "volume" and drag and drop it onto the audio clip in your timeline that you would like to change. You can choose to lower volume levels so you no longer hear the vocals. This will remove the volume, but it will keep the video.

Channel Volume Effect

In the effects panel of your project, you will also find an effect called "channel volume." This effect is different from the "volume" effect in that it will let you remove the vocals on a specific channel while still keeping volume on another channel. For example, if you recorded background noise at an event on the left channel of your camera and a voice over on the right channel of your camera, you could choose to remove the audio in the left channel to eliminate any distracting vocals or interfering noises.

Exponential Fade

To gradually remove vocals, consider the exponential fade effect. This effect can be found in the effects panel by clicking on "audio transitions" and then "exponential fade." Drag the effect to the end of an audio clip in your timeline. This effect will slowly reduce the volume of the vocals until the vocals are completely faded out. Other effects in the effects panel will not remove the vocals, but they are meant to help users adjust vocals to remove crackling or humming interferences for a more professional sound.

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