Can I keep only the vocal to learn the melody?

Yes. Press S on the vocals row to solo it. You hear the singer alone, which is the easiest way to pick up phrasing, breaths and harmonies.

Will backing vocals be removed too?

Usually. The model puts lead and backing vocals together in the vocals stem, so muting it removes both. It cannot keep the harmonies and drop the lead.

How clean is the backing track?

Good on most recordings. On songs with heavy vocal reverb or dense mixes you may hear a faint ghost of the voice or a slight warble in the instruments. Listen before you perform with it.

Yes. Download all four stems as 320k MP3s in a zip. Play the drums, bass and other files together, or combine them in any audio editor, for a backing track.

Make a karaoke or backing track from any song

To make a backing track from a song, split it into stems and mute the vocals. zann does this free in the browser: upload a file or paste a link, wait about a minute, then press M on the vocals row. The drums, bass and other instruments keep playing, in time, with the voice gone.

Solo the vocals instead and you have the opposite: the singer alone, as a guide track for learning the melody, the phrasing and where the breaths fall.

Split a song now

How it works

Upload an MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AAC, MP4 or MKV file up to 50 MB, or paste a link from YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Suno and a few other sites. zann separates the song with the htdemucs model into drums, bass, vocals, and other, which holds guitars, keys, synths and everything that is not one of the first three. It takes one to three minutes.

The result is four synced waveforms with solo, mute, volume and pan on each. For a backing track, mute the vocals. To rehearse a tricky passage, click the waveform to jump to it and press the spacebar to start and stop. You can also turn the vocals down rather than off, so the original singer sits quietly under you while you learn the part.

Learning a song with it

Start from the vocal stem, not the full mix. Solo it, pick one phrase, and loop a few seconds of it in your head by clicking back to the same spot several times. With the band out of the way you hear how the singer leans into a word, where the vibrato starts, how the harmony parts are stacked. Then sing it with the vocals muted and everything else playing, and compare by ear. The listening checklist sets out this loop-listen-compare habit.

The "Find the groove" panel shows a tempo estimate, a rough key and the most frequent bass notes. The key is a guess, labelled as one; if you need to transpose, confirm the key against the bass stem or your own instrument before trusting it.

The vocal remover page covers the same muting step from the other direction; this page is about using the result to practise. Instrumentalists do the equivalent with drumless tracks and the isolated bass line.

What to expect from the separation

htdemucs removes lead and backing vocals together; it cannot keep the harmonies and drop the lead. On most pop, rock and electronic recordings the backing track is clean enough to perform with. On songs with heavy vocal reverb, the tail of the reverb can linger as a faint ghost of the voice, and on dense mixes the instruments can carry a slight warble where the vocal used to be. Voice-like sounds in instrumental passages, a vocoder or a sampled choir, often end up in the vocals stem too. Listen through the whole backing track before you rely on it; your ear decides whether it is good enough.

Producers who want the vocal itself, for a remix or a mashup, should read the acapella extractor page. Formats and limits are on the stem splitter page.

Use audio you own or are allowed to use, for your own practice and performance. Separating a song into stems does not transfer its copyright. Files are processed on zann's servers.

FAQ

How do I make a karaoke version of a song?: Split the song into stems and mute the vocals stem. In zann, upload the song or paste a link, wait about a minute, then press M on the vocals row. The drums, bass and other instruments keep playing as your backing track.
Can I keep only the vocal to learn the melody?: Yes. Press S on the vocals row to solo it. You hear the singer alone, which is the easiest way to pick up phrasing, breaths and harmonies.
Will backing vocals be removed too?: Usually. The model puts lead and backing vocals together in the vocals stem, so muting it removes both. It cannot keep the harmonies and drop the lead.
How clean is the backing track?: Good on most recordings. On songs with heavy vocal reverb or dense mixes you may hear a faint ghost of the voice or a slight warble in the instruments. Listen before you perform with it.
Can I download it?: Yes. Download all four stems as 320k MP3s in a zip. Play the drums, bass and other files together, or combine them in any audio editor, for a backing track.