How to Remove Vocal Tracks From a Song

When all goes well in a recording studio, be it at home or in a professional studio, the end result is a song with great instrumentation and good vocals. There are, however, times when the vocals aren't that great or when you need to remove the vocal tracks from a pre-existing song, either to replace them or to create karaoke tracks. There are two primary ways of removing the vocals from a song.

Things You'll Need

• Home recording or vocal remover software
• .Wav file of a song

Instructions

Remove Vocal Tracks Manually

1. Purchase or download an audio editor program that will allow you to manipulate the left and right channels of an audio file.

2. Create a stereo .wav file of the song from which you wish to remove the vocal track and load it into your audio editing program.

3. Copy the left and right channels to separate edit windows.

4. Highlight the length of either the left or the right channel.

5. Choose "Invert" (or "Flip" depending on the program) from the Process menu to flip the polarity of the channel.

6. Use the parametric function from the "EQ" menu to adjust the slider arrow to 200 Hz to apply a low frequency shelf to the new channel. In some programs, you may have to manually type in "200."

7. Repeat this process with the other (left or right) channel. Remember that the frequencies you cut from one channel will be present in the other channel after you reverse the polarity.

8. Use the "Mix" mode to paste the new channels together and save the result as a .wav file.

Use Vocal Remover Software or Plugins

1. Investigate plugins (such as Vocal Remover) that can be used with your current home recording software. Most programs are either DirectX or VST compatible, so try looking for a VST plugin or the DirectX version of the same plugin.

2. Look for specific programs designed to remove the vocal track from a song. Keep in mind that while some are free to download, others require you to purchase and register them before use.

3. Download the software that best fits your needs. If you are looking to make karaoke tracks for parties, the software you choose needn't be as sophisticated as if you were using it for professional recording.

4. Install the software or plugin.

5. Open the song file in the program and follow the on-screen instructions to remove the vocal track.

Tips & Warnings

• Bear in mind that while the vocal track can be significantly reduced in volume, there's no software or function that can remove it completely without having access to the unmixed audio track.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish