Best app to remove vocals from a song?

[[Member Sogr…]]

Hi everyone!

This message is mostly addressed to those who actually upload and arrange songs on Smule and specifically who work to remove vocals from song with a software. 

I'm looking for the best application or software to remove vocals from a song. I have used Audacity (which is free on the net) a couple of time but the result is awful and I would say terrible, totally lack of quality. I have done many research on Internet on the subject so I have a lot of information. I know that it is not really possible to remove the voice completely and to have a perfect result.  However, I think that it is possible to do it without loosing too much quality. Because sometimes, I can hear some songs that have been uploaded , we can  hear the vocals from afar (but just a tiny bit), but the quality stayed pretty good!  I don't mind paying for a software but two important things : the process of removing the vocals has to be rather "user friendly", not too complicated and also, the result has to be of a good quality.  Can anyone give me advice or share their experience with the process? I thank you in advance, Cheers! :-)

[[Member open…]]

I wrote down my thoughts on this here: 

You might have seen it, but even if you did, it makes sense to link it in this discussion. 

[[Member Sogr…]]

Thank you for your answer, I appreciate a lot.  However, I am familiar with this basis information,  I'm rather trying to find someone who use a specific software beside Audacity of course because it doesn't do the work very well. I wish I could hear someone that's having very good results. But thanks again! :-)

[[Member open…]]

2 minutes ago, Sogrenake said:

I wish I could hear someone that's having very good results. 

As mentioned in the article, that does more depend on the specific recording than the extraction software. 

[[Member Sogr…]]

Yes, thanks for reminding me this point! Thank you so much! :-)

[[Member 911J…]]

Mind If I add something? I have uploaded a few songs to Smule myself. I personally pay about a dollar to download karaoke tracks to my computer and then uoad them to Smule.

As a singer, one of my pet peeves is opening a song on Smule to sing, and it has vocals in it or just sounds terrible.

Using something to remove vocals is not the way to go. It will remove some if the vocal but not all and the end result will be an awful sounding mess.

Just my 2 cents, but if you're wanting to upload songs to Smule, search the internet for karaoke track downloads. I have had much luck on a website called Karaoke Version.

Plus many karaoke tracks you purchase will allow you to download multiple versions of the song such as with background vocals, or in a different key.

 

Sorry, I know you were probably wanting a different answer, but I would stay away from software that removes vocals and just pay a buck to buy a karaoke track.

 

[[Member Sogr…]]

HI John, thank you so much for your answer. I do many searches on severals Karaoke sites to find the tracks I want but a lot of them I can't find. For example : "Woman" from Scorpions.  I even found a site that would produce the instrumental version of any song you want, 8$ for songs already done and 180$ for songs that they have to produce from scratch! And a couple of times, I have paid the 8$ for a song I couldn't find any where but there.  Their site is "Midifiles.com" if you're interested to know. So thanks again, I appreciate you trying to help! :-)

[[Member Brai…]]

I imagine this is quite obvious, but sometimes I've found good backing tracks in youtube.
You can convert them easily to audio file using an online converter, like this: https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/es/mp3-converter#  

[[Member Wick…]]

Not to be a downer, and unless something has changed recently there is no way to completely remove the vocals from an already recorded pressing (whether it's digital, CD, Cassette, Vinyl, etc...). I have been in the music business for quite some time and although I do not know everything, I do know that you can't do that (again, unless they invented something new), which is part of the reason why when bands record they do it in tracks. As some have said you can minimize the vocals but completely getting rid of them isn't going t happen.

[[Member Sogr…]]

Thank you for you answer, I've come to accept that fact, even if I don't like it! Have a great evening!😗🤗

[[Member PHNX…]]

So, I've been uploading to Smule for 5+ years and have over 800 uploaded songs currently on Smule. I've uploaded every genre from doowop, to hard rock, to country, to comedy. And yes, I've even uploaded songs that I've had to remove the lyrics from myself using Audacity. Unfortunately, there are many songs that we all love, but a karaoke version just doesn't exist, so we do what we have to just to be able to sing these songs on Smule, despite the lower audio quality. 

That being said, I have found the most amazing new website that not only removes the vocals of any mp3 track better than ANY other method I've used or heard, but also gives you the option of downloading JUST the vocals without the backing track. Granted, it's a bit pricey, costing $4 for a single song, or you can buy a package deal for less money per song, but let me tell you, for anyone who uploads to Smule, this website is hands down the best option for those elusive songs that don't have karaoke versions available.

The name of the website is PhonicMind (phonicmind.com). It's true, completely removing the lyrics from an mp3 is impossible, but this website's creators have found a better way than any other option I've ever found. If nothing else, it's worth your time to at least check it out. They give you the option of previewing the removed vocal version, as well as the vocals only version, before paying for the whole song and the ability to download it to your computer. I HIGHLY recommend it and have used it for at least 10 song uploads to Smule. 

 

[[Member Sogr…]]

Oh, I'm so glad to read your post! 😃 Great to know that there's something else than Audacity (which we have to admit gives a poor result)!  I will go to check right after I write this! Very nice of you to share that information, hope I can do something with it! I love uploading songs in Smule! And by the way, after uploading more that 800 songs on Smule, did you get to upload songs the way that is done with the timeline and like adding pitch lines to each song to tell singers which notes to sing throughout the song? Or did you do it like any Smule user?  I would love to be able to do it this way!  I wrote to Smule team, never get any answer yet.  I would like to become part of the producer's team.  Thanks again, I appreciate, I'll surely let you know after I used this new site! Cheers!😀

[[Member Isma…]]

I'm an uploader too and I suffer from this dilemma as well 😂 and Audacity doesn't help much, but after a long research I found a paid website that has an AI vocal remover, so I tried it. Judging from the 30s preview, the result was unexpectedly awesome! I mean the vocals weren't 100% removed of course, but at least the quality of the instruments including bass and drums were dope!

The only bad thing about the website is it's pricey, 1 vocal removed song costs 4$ and 20 songs cost 30$😭

Link: phonicmind.com

[[Member stev…]]

I know a guy on Fiverr that removes vocals from songs just as good as phonicmind but cheaper (for small amounts). He does 3 songs for $10, I'm pretty happy with his service so far (I use it for youtube videos though).

I don't know if I'm allowed putting links here (if not, then tell me I will remove the link) but here he is:

https://www.fiverr.com/petark777/remove-vocals-from-your-song

[[Member Sogr…]]

Oh thank you so much for your information,😘 I'm still uploading and trying to find that miracle result with removing vocals without touching the sound quality.  I will consult the link! 😄

[[Member _GJA…]]

if recorded properly audio is left and right and vocal audio is center   and that can be isolated and removed easily  problem is it has to be recorded properly   ive used vocalremover.com with a perfect result and one usable result and one garbage   ive also had decent results on android using singplay and other apps.  Also if youre using the vocal remover option in audacity yeah garbage if your spliting to mono isolating and all that jazz  decent results but not user friendly until you do it a load of times    

Edited August 14, 2019 by _GJAM_

[[Member smul…]]

you can use adobe audition for making karaokes for smule 

[[Member __La…]]

If you want to remove them fast and actually pretty damn good just go to remove vocals.org u literally just upload the track with the vocals snd they remove it in literally 30 sec comes out great. Some might say it’s not Safe but I’ve uploaded over 100 songs and never had an issue. There’s a couple other free good ones too. 

[[Member Rock…]]

izotope's RX series does a pretty good job once you get the hang of it. I do a lot of spectural mixes which require tracks to be separated; it's my go-to. I use RX 8.

[[Member show…]]

Discovered splitter.ai and it is pretty good. It's not for free for splitting voice and the music track. The free one gets to split it into 5 different tracks (voice, piano, drums, bass and others). I used Garageband to put all the tracks together (except for voice) and export it as an mp3 file.

[[Member Sogr…]]

Ah wow!   Thank you so much for your marvelous advises! I will surely download the apps you mentioned, as I regularly upload songs on Smule. I take it to the heart to produce a high quality level result and a high quality result upload. I'm excited to explore them! Ohhh yeah! 

[[Member john…]]

On 8/12/2019 at 7:09 PM, stevejohnson13 said:

I know a guy on Fiverr that removes vocals from songs just as good as phonicmind but cheaper (for small amounts). He does 3 songs for $10, I'm pretty happy with his service so far (I use it for youtube videos though).

I don't know if I'm allowed putting links here (if not, then tell me I will remove the link) but here he is:

https://www.fiverr.com/petark777/remove-vocals-from-your-song

I know that this if an older post but I had to comment regarding this reply here.

I have tried soooo many services - phonicmind, splitter, vocalremover, moises, lalalai, bought special software like FL Studio, izotope rx - you name it. None of them gave me good enough results. Granted, some were definitely better - especially the paid methods but nothing that had really low amount of noise or distortion. 

Then, I found this forum and this topic. Upon finding the comment about this guy on Fiverr that the other member mentioned I decided this would be it and I'd give online services one last try before giving up. I didn't have great expectations but since there were so many happy customers, I decided to message him.

He agreed to provide a free sample which was great - at least I am not going to lose any more money unnecessarily. He provided 2 versions from his basic and premium package. Boy was I blown up. The results were jaw dropping. I could remove the vocals from my favorite song and it almost sound like studio produced. I'm not kidding...

Since then, I became a regular with this guy and he was happy to provide discounts, especially for bigger orders. If anyone is still looking to get high quality instrumentals from songs I'd highly recommend you check him out before giving up.

[[Member Sogr…]]

Hi Johnny, this is surely going to be interesting to explore, cause I need help for what I'm doing now.  I always search for the highest quality instrumentals (often new songs), and it's not easy to find. I've started a small business in karaoke animation with my own equipement and all. And I also make karaoke videos to keep up with what's unavailable everywhere.  So... I'm very grateful for this post you've made, THANK YOU SO MUCH, I will contact his guy very soon.   

[[Member john…]]

Of course, it is my pleasure and I am always happy to help. Wish you all the best with your endeavours.

[[Member Wish…]]

I've uploaded just over 300 songs since October 2022 and I've only use Moises which I'm very happy with. I tried the free account first, where you can upload only five songs a month and the songs can only be split into a Vocal track and an Instruments track.

That did the trick for awhile, but then I ended up having a paid account (like $5 a month), where you can upload unlimited songs and the songs can be split into Vocals, Background Vocals and then other instruments. For my needs, the paid account is mostly good for when I want to keep some background vocals to a song.

There are some obvious limitations, especially with some recordings where tracks bleed into other tracks, but Moises is perfect for a dummy like me.