Isolating Audio Frequencies

[nootin]

I'm not sure if I'm using the correct terminology here, but is there a way to isolate individual frequencies in and audio file? What I mean to say is, if I have a wav file whose music is composed of drums, vocals, etc., would it be possible to isolate them from one another using some form of software?

[mergeright]

no not really u can make some sound more dominant then others by nothimg out there
main khz or hz but u can seperate them to remix it of coarse unless some brainiac figured it out some how

[nootin]

Sorry for a stalled reply, what software would you recommend for this and price?

[+Erik+]

i would think this was impossible, but if you believe anything you see on CSI, they can work wonders with audio. i have no idea whether they can actually do what they claim to do with sounds on that program but if its possible then surely the same can be applied to audio.

i would say its not though. imagine a table and a chair. if the chair is in front of the table, you can still see the table and know its a table. if you take away the chair how you can recreate what you can't see? its the same with audio, one instrument masks part of another instrument so you cannot fully extract it taht way. thats why we use eq to stop different instruments from getting in the way of each other, what we are doing is making other parts of the frequency more audible so we can hear it.

[Holger-Lagerfeldt]

You can isolate some parts by phasing out unwanted parts.

This is practically impossible since it requires the phasing parts to be identical for it to work.

Best shot is EQ'ing and playing around with stereo spreading software which will enable you to reduce idenical L/R content in order to isolate some sounds.

But what you're after is damn near impossible.

[anakinskye]

Waves makes a fantastic Multi-band compressor that could help, but what the last reply stated is ultimately true.

[serotone]

yeah...it's pretty much impossible.

This software is supposed to do exactly what you were asking:
http://www.replayinc.com/decomp.htm

...unfortunately, it doesn't. It tries to remove instruments via filtering, but it sounds pretty bad.

Just listen to the audio examples and you'll realise how hard it is to isolate individual isntruments.