How do I make a drumless version of a song?

Split the song into stems and mute the drums stem. In zann, upload the song or paste a link, wait about a minute, then press M on the drums row. The bass, vocals and other instruments keep playing in sync.

Can I hear only the drums?

Yes. Press S on the drums row to solo it. The other three stems go silent until you release the solo.

Does the drumless track still have a click or tempo reference?

There is no click track. The bass stem usually carries the pulse clearly, and the Find the groove panel shows a tempo estimate and a 16-step map of where the drums and bass hit, so you know the feel before you play.

Will all the percussion be removed?

Most of it. The model (htdemucs) catches kick, snare, hats and cymbals well. Subtle percussion such as shakers or hand drums can end up in the other stem, and some drum bleed can remain. Listen to the result before relying on it.

Is it free and can I keep the files?

Yes. No account, no payment. Download all four stems as a zip of 320k MP3s and load them into any player or DAW.

Play along to any song without the drums

To practise drums along to a song without its drum part, split the song into stems and mute the drums. zann does this free in the browser: upload a file or paste a link, wait about a minute, then play the bass, vocals and other instruments together while you supply the drums.

The same split works the other way round. Solo the drums stem and you hear the original part on its own, which is the quickest way to learn a groove or a fill by ear.

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 four stems: drums, bass, vocals, and other, which holds guitars, keys, synths and everything else. It takes one to three minutes.

You get four waveforms that play in sync. Each row has solo, mute, volume and pan. Click anywhere on a waveform to jump there; the spacebar starts and stops playback. Press M on the drums row and you have a drumless track. Press S instead and you have the isolated drums.

Practising with it

Start with the isolated drums, not the full mix. Loop a few seconds of a fill or a transition and listen to it ten or twenty times before you try it. Details you never noticed in the full song, a ghost note, an open hat on the "and" of four, become obvious when nothing else is playing. Then mute the drums and play the part yourself against the rest of the band. Switch back and forth and compare by ear. The listening checklist describes this loop-and-compare habit in more detail.

Below the stems, the "Find the groove" panel shows a tempo estimate, a 16-step map of where the drums and bass land in a bar, a rough key and the most frequent bass notes. These are estimates from the audio, not a transcription. Slow songs in particular can come out at half or double the real tempo, so check against what you hear.

Bassists use the same tool to isolate the bass line, and if you play in a band, the drums and bass stems soloed together show how the two lock, including where the bass rests exactly on the kick.

What to expect from the separation

htdemucs handles kick, snare, hats and cymbals well on most recordings. It is less sure about quiet percussion: shakers, tambourines and hand drums sometimes land in the other stem, and on dense mixes or very reverberant recordings you may hear some bleed or a watery warble in the remaining stems. Hard-panned or heavily processed drums separate less cleanly than natural kits. Your ear is the final judge of whether a result is good enough to practise with.

Singers make backing tracks the same way by muting the vocals instead; see karaoke backing tracks. Producers pull vocals with the acapella extractor. The general page on the stem splitter covers formats and limits.

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

FAQ

How do I make a drumless version of a song?: Split the song into stems and mute the drums stem. In zann, upload the song or paste a link, wait about a minute, then press M on the drums row. The bass, vocals and other instruments keep playing in sync.
Can I hear only the drums?: Yes. Press S on the drums row to solo it. The other three stems go silent until you release the solo.
Does the drumless track still have a click or tempo reference?: There is no click track. The bass stem usually carries the pulse clearly, and the Find the groove panel shows a tempo estimate and a 16-step map of where the drums and bass hit, so you know the feel before you play.
Will all the percussion be removed?: Most of it. The model (htdemucs) catches kick, snare, hats and cymbals well. Subtle percussion such as shakers or hand drums can end up in the other stem, and some drum bleed can remain. Listen to the result before relying on it.
Is it free and can I keep the files?: Yes. No account, no payment. Download all four stems as a zip of 320k MP3s and load them into any player or DAW.