Vocal remover
What is dead centre in the mix, taken out — or kept.
Drop files here
or click to choose from your deviceAccepted: MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, OGG, OGA, OPUS, FLAC, WEBA, MP4, M4V, WEBM, MOV, MKV
One file per runUp to 20 MB per file5 runs per dayRemove limits with Pro✓ Works offline
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This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and you can even turn off your internet connection before you start.
Example
Example: a backing track from a community theater cast recording
A singer cast in next spring’s show wants to rehearse a solo over the band. The company’s own cast recording is a stereo MP3, cast-recording.mp3: 4 minutes at 320 kbps, about 9.6 MB, inside the free 20 MB. Settings: What to keep Everything but the centre, Put the bass back below 150 Hz, Save as MP3, 256 kbps.
- One channel is subtracted from the other. The solo voice, mixed dead centre, cancels completely; the piano and strings, panned left and right, stay.
- Only the difference between left and right survives, so a part panned hard to one side comes back at about half its level, in both channels.
- Then the centre is put back below 150 Hz: the bass and the kick drum, also centred, keep their weight, while the voice, whose notes sit higher, stays out.
- The result is saved as cast-recording-karaoke.mp3, still in stereo.
| A centred sound at | Bass not put back | Below 120 Hz | Below 150 Hz | Below 250 Hz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 Hz (kick drum) | 0 % | 83 % | 88 % | 95 % |
| 80 Hz (low bass note) | 0 % | 69 % | 78 % | 91 % |
| 110 Hz (low male voice) | 0 % | 54 % | 65 % | 84 % |
| 220 Hz | 0 % | 23 % | 32 % | 56 % |
| 440 Hz (a sung A) | 0 % | 7 % | 10 % | 24 % |
| 1,000 Hz | 0 % | 1 % | 2 % | 6 % |
cast-recording-karaoke.mp3: the band without the solo voice, with bass and kick kept. The table shows the level that comes back: a low male voice is the hard case, since about two thirds of a 110 Hz note returns at 150 Hz, so for a baritone try 120 Hz. Reverb on the voice spreads left and right, so a faint echo can remain.
How it works
- Add a stereo track — MP3, M4A, WAV or FLAC, or a video whose sound you want.
- Choose whether to keep everything but the centre, or only the centre.
- Leave the bass coming back at 150 Hz: the kick and the bass guitar are centred too, and without this the track is gutted.
- Listen before you use it. How well this works depends entirely on the mix.
Frequently asked questions
- How does it work, and when does it work well?
- A lead vocal is nearly always mixed dead centre, which means it is identical in the left and right channels. Subtract one channel from the other and everything centred cancels. It works well on recordings with a wide stereo mix — older pop, rock, a lot of jazz — and poorly on a modern master where everything is pushed to the middle.
- Why does the drum or the bass disappear too?
- Because they are centred as well, and the arithmetic cannot tell them from a voice. That is what the bass setting is for: the middle is put back below the frequency you choose, which keeps the low end while the voice stays out.
- Is this the same as the AI vocal removers?
- No. Those run a separation model that has learned what a voice sounds like; this is arithmetic on two channels. It is instant, needs no download and works offline, but it cannot do what a model does — and where the mix does not suit it, nothing here will help.
- It made the track sound thin and hollow.
- That is the sound of the centre being removed from a mix that has most of its content there. Try “only the centre” to hear what was taken out, and if that is nearly the whole song, this method cannot separate it.
- Why does it say my file is mono?
- Because the method compares the left and right channels, a mono file has nothing to compare, and it is refused with a message rather than returned silent. Many voice memos and some old recordings are mono. A mono file saved as “stereo” has two identical channels, so everything in it would cancel.
- How long a track can I use?
- On the free plan, one file per run of up to 20 MB, 5 runs a day. That is about 8 minutes of MP3 at 320 kbps, but under 2 minutes of CD-quality WAV, which takes 10.6 MB a minute: for a long WAV, use the MP3 or FLAC of the same recording.
- Is my music uploaded?
- No. It is decoded, processed and re-encoded in your browser.