I have some old compositions of mine done back in the early 1990’s that I did on a on-board sequencer of a Korg O1/W that I no longer have. Back then I was so new to music production I didn’t know what a DAW was… And, being on a really tight disability budget, the only way to save these pieces was to a cassette tape (yeah, really ancient stuff - lol).
Later once I got my first version of Cubase (SX), I eventually physically digitized them as single stereo .WAV files.
Figuring out/listening to and re-creating the instruments used on the O1/W is impossible, but I can probably guesstimate some semblance of them through my (also ancient “silver beast”) Korg Trinity workstation or VST synth/s. My stuff is mostly synth stuff - main chords with riffs/melody over them, some percussion. No bass per se as I recall.
The problem/challenge is obviously isolating frequency bands so that I can at least figure out the chords and notes I used. Maybe something like the free TDR Nova dynamic EQ could be a way to go: have stacks of the stereo .wav files each in its own track and set Nova or something similar to do that isolation.
Definitely rather messy, but this isn’t for production purposes, just figuring out what the hell I played so long ago…
If anyone has any other ideas – and please be aware that I am still on same tight budget (just upgrading to Cubase 11 from 6 was a big step in and of itself). In short some free to under USD$ 50 solution of some sort.
Thanks, @Martin.Jirsak . I haven’t used Spectral Layers One in Cubase 11 yet - just watched a couple of YT videos and it seems that it would take the Pro version to be able to isolate the way I wish to - each instrument in its own lanes/layers or tracks.
The free One version in Cubase only does “Vocals” (which are not present in my work) and “Piano+Drums+Bass+Other”. I can’t afford to buy Pro, but maybe I could come up with something by getting creative with One.
The built-in SpectraLayers in Cubase 11 has one algorithm intended for vocals, but you might want to try a trial of the full version of SpectraLayers, however there is a learning curve.
Given your budget:
… there’s not much other than Spleeter, with a simple GUI such as the one here. It’s all based on open source software so don’t get duped into paying anyone for it (but by all means feel free to donate to the projects that make this AI-driven magic possible!).
@MrSoundman - Good points and I will consider what you suggested. Looks like iZotope offers the same type of ability in their RX plugin - I think they call it “rebalancing”; but from what I can tell the Standard version is is the cheapest of the RX to include that - and it’s USD$299. Outside my wallet range…
I also have RX, and “Music Rebalance” is not available as a plugin, so can only be used as a function inside of RX, however IMHO SpectraLayers is better, but as I say, with a much higher learning curve if you want to do much better than the automated seperations. For certain materials, SpectraLayers is my first choice. Another good one is RipX but again, the better edition is pricey.
You need to try all of these out on your own material – most have 30-day trials, but RX for example won’t let you save the results.