The World's Most Advanced Vocal Remover

Thompson Vocal Eliminator^TM  Model VE-4
Advancing The Art of Vocal Elimination^TM For Over 34 Years - The Only Serious Vocal Eliminator^TM
 Manufactured and Sold Exclusively By LT Sound

Theory of Operation       Upgrade Ability  Demos  Superior Quality  Customer Comments   Specifications   Literature  
  The VE4 uses Advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP) running on a SHARC 32 Bit Processor.  Even though it is the most advanced Vocal Eliminator, it is also the easiest to operate.   Over 300 times a second, it automatically readjusts over 43 parameters to produce the most elimination with the least impact on the background instruments.   The VE4  employs Two Distinctly Different Methods for removing the vocal.  Far more advanced than the simple center channel removal scheme we invented back in 1976.  The VE4's software is upgradeable (if you are the original purchaser) allowing you to take advantage of the ongoing advances we are making in removing more vocal with the least amount of impact on the background instruments. 

    As the original inventor of Vocal Elimination^TM  this has been our "mission in life" for over 30 years. Incidentally, even our original method of vocal elimination has not even been copied well by others attempting to follow in our footsteps.   Even our VE1 produced in the seventies will outperform any of the software computer programs on the market.   The VE4 is in a totally different league! Employing an advanced 32 bit Floating point SHARC processor made by Analog Devices, we implement proprietary algorithms and do not disclose the more advanced ones.  Needless to say we would not need to use DSP to implement our original algorithm.  We are using some highly intensive DSP techniques which even required an upgrade from the VE3+'s  DSP processor to a platform with a wider bit path, a faster processor, and over 40 times the amount of memory to implement.  If you are wondering how much better it is than our previous units, please check out our customer testimonials. The algorithms implemented in the VE-4 do not have some of the same problems of the center channel method.   We preserve most of the original stereo content .   Flash upgrade-ability is crucial because we are slowly but steadily advancing the state of the art over time and the results the VE-4 produces will change accordingly.  
    The VE-4's algorithms do not have the potentially catastrophic effect of removing the drum tracks or making the bass weaker and muddier as the center channel method did.   More voice elimination and much better sounding background accompaniment !  In short, today's Vocal Eliminator^TM is a different animal than yesterday's.  

How Well It Works.   MP3 Demo for Range of Results   Demos of Your Recordings
    How well the Vocal Eliminator^TM works is constantly in a state of improvement with each software release.  Results on a given song depend on the some factors in the recording itself.  With a broad sampling of stereo records by solo artists the results can be broken down into about four equal divisions with 25% of the records producing results in each category. 

25%   Vocals will be virtually inaudible through most of the record,
       even without the addition of your new vocal. Vocal Remover

50%   Vocal will be barely audible without your new vocal being added
       and completely inaudible with the addition of your new vocal.

15%   Vocal will be audible but at a substantially reduced volume. Complete
         masking of the original is possible but requires a high quality new vocal
         with equalization and echo or reverb like that provided by the VE-4.

10%   Borderline or non usable results.

   Compact discs generally produce the best overall results with records being the second best and tapes producing not quite as good results as either records or compact discs. You will have some tapes that work better than some CDs since the main variable is how the recording was mixed in the studio. However, the same exact recording on a CD will produce about 5% better elimination than the same recording on a record and about 5-7% better elimination than the same recording on a cassette tape. MP3 varies widely depending upon the quality of the encoder and the decoder.  The results are roughly what you would expect from tape.... a notch below CD on the best MP3 recordings, and the poorest of the lot on the ones that are poorly encoded.  We have found that the Creative encoders and decoders packaged with SoundBlaster products are quite good.  Many of the "FreeWare" encoders an decoders you find on the internet are quite poor.
Which Types of Recordings Work Best?
   In general, the louder the background music, the more likely you are to produce a better result. That's not to say that you won't get some truly excellent results from recordings with soft backgrounds, you will. It's just that your odds are improved with a loud background. Most categories of popular music including rock, pop, country, and contemporary Christian have a prominent background and produce a breakdown of results like that shown on the demo record. Classical and the older style of gospel, typically produce fewer excellent results due to the fact that the vocal is often so much louder than the background. Many ethnic recordings, such as Greek, Indian, Oriental and to a certain extent Spanish music may or may not be recorded in a manner which will produce less vocal removal. For this reason, we recommend that you allow us to prepare a free custom demo tape of your recordings, so you can see what the Thompson Vocal Eliminator^TM is capable of doing on your recordings before you buy.