How to Remove the Voice From a Song and Only Hear the Background Music

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
You can use audio editing software to strip a song’s vocals for karaoke.
Image Credit: Thinkstock/Comstock/Getty Images

Once a song has been mixed, the only way to cancel out the vocals and leave only the background music is to use an audio editing technique called "phase inversion." When a song is mixed, the vocal track is traditionally panned to the center, so that the vocals sound exactly the same on both the left and right stereo channels. By inverting one of the channels, everything that is equal on both -- in this case, the vocal track -- is canceled out. Many audio editing applications come with a built-in vocal removal tool that performs this edit effect automatically.

Advertisement

Audacity

Video of the Day

Step 1

Load the CD that has the song you want to edit into the computer's CD drive.

Video of the Day

Step 2

Launch Audacity.

Advertisement

Step 3

Go to the "File" menu, click "Open" and browse to the CD drive. Select the song you want to edit. Click "Open" to import the song onto a track in Audacity.

Step 4

Click the "Audio Track" arrow. Select "Split Stereo Track" from the drop-down menu. What was a single stereo track is split into two separate tracks, one for the left stereo channel and the other for the right channel.

Advertisement

Step 5

Click just above the "Mute" or "Solo" button on the second audio track to select the track. Open the "Edit" menu, and click "Invert."

Step 6

Click the "Audio Track" arrow for the second audio track. Select "Mono" from the drop-down menu.

Advertisement

Step 7

Click the "Audio Track" arrow for the first audio track. Select "Mono" from the drop-down menu.

Step 8

Click the Play button to hear the results.

Advertisement

GoldWave

Step 1

Load the CD that has the song you want to edit into the computer's CD drive.

Advertisement

Step 2

Launch GoldWave.

Step 3

Go to the "File" menu, click "Open" and browse to the CD drive. Select the song you want to edit. Click "Open" to import the song onto a track in GoldWave.

Advertisement

Step 4

Click on the track to select it. Type "Ctrl" plus "A" to highlight the entire waveform.

Step 5

Open the "Effects" menu. Point to "Stereo." Click "Reduce Vocals."

Advertisement

Step 6

Click the Play button to hear the results.

WavePad

Step 1

Load the CD that has the song you want to edit into the computer's CD drive.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Step 2

Launch WavePad.

Step 3

Click the "Open File" button in the menu, and browse to the CD drive. Select the song you want to edit. Click "Open" to import the song onto a track in WavePad.

Advertisement

Step 4

Click on the track to select it. Type "Ctrl" plus "A" to highlight the entire waveform.

Step 5

Open the "Effects" menu. Click "Reduce Vocals."

Step 6

Click the Play button to hear the results.

Advertisement

Waveosaur

Step 1

Load the CD that has the song you want to edit into the computer's CD drive.

Step 2

Launch Waveosuar.

Step 3

Go to the "File" menu, click "Open" and browse to the CD drive. Select the song you want to edit. Click "Open" to import the song onto a track in Audacity.

Step 4

Click on the track to select it. Type "Ctrl" plus "A" to highlight the entire waveform.

Step 5

Open the "Process" menu. Click "Vocal Removal."

Step 6

Click the Play button to hear the results.

Advertisement

Advertisement

references