How to Remove Vocals from a Song on iPhone
Want to remove vocals from a song so you can sing it yourself, rehearse a cover, or hear what the band is really playing? AI stem separation now does on your phone what used to need the original studio multitracks. Here's how to make a clean karaoke track or instrumental, and when to leave a little of the singer in.
Import the song into Song Practice and let it split into vocals, drums, bass and other on your device. Open Mix, tap the Karaoke quick mix, and the vocal is muted while the band plays on. Export the result as WAV or M4A.
Why old vocal removers sounded so bad
The classic trick relied on the lead vocal being mixed dead center. Flip one stereo channel upside down, add it to the other, and anything identical on both sides cancels out. The problem is that the kick drum, the bass and the snare are usually in the center too. They vanished along with the singer, and reverb on the voice was left floating around like a ghost.
AI separation works differently. A trained model recognizes what a voice sounds like compared with drums, bass and other instruments, and rebuilds each one as its own track. Nothing has to be panned in a particular way, and the bass stays in your instrumental where it belongs.
Step by step: remove vocals from a song on iPhone
- Get Song Practice. Download it free from the App Store on iPhone or iPad.
- Import the song. Pick it from Files, your iTunes file sharing library, a video in Photos, cloud storage, or paste a link. DRM-protected tracks such as Apple Music downloads can't be imported.
- Let it split into stems. Song Practice separates the song into vocals, drums, bass and other. This runs on your device, so the song isn't uploaded while it is split.
- Open Mix. Each stem gets its own fader, measured in dB, so you can see exactly how loud every part is.
- Tap the Karaoke quick mix. The vocal stem drops out and the band keeps playing. That's your instrumental.
- Adjust the vocal fader if you want a guide. Instead of muting completely, bring the vocal up to a quiet level. Tap Reset any time to go back to the full mix.
- Export. Save the mix as lossless WAV or M4A, or long-press a single stem to export just that part.
Choosing the right quick mix
Karaoke is only one of the preset mixes. Each one is a shortcut to a fader setup that suits a different kind of practice.
| Quick mix | What you hear | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Full mix | Every stem at its original level | Reference listening and checking your part against the record |
| Karaoke | Drums, bass and other, vocals muted | Singing, rehearsing a cover, making an instrumental |
| Vocals only | The isolated voice | Learning melodies, harmonies and phrasing, making an acapella |
| No drums | Everything except drums | Drummers playing along to the band |
| Rhythm | Drums and bass only | Locking in with the rhythm section, playing guitar or keys over the groove |
Karaoke track, guide vocal, or acapella?
Fully muted vocals are right for performance, but they're not always best for practice.
For learning a song, leave the vocal fader pulled down rather than off. A quiet guide vocal tells you when to come in and keeps you honest on pitch, while your own voice sits on top. As you get confident, lower it further until it is gone.
For harmonies, go the other way. Tap Vocals only to hear the acapella and pick out the backing parts. Slow it down if the harmonies move quickly; slowing down without changing pitch keeps every interval exactly in tune.
For instrumentalists, the same idea applies to any part. Mute the guitar-heavy other stem and play the part yourself, or isolate the bass to learn the line underneath. Our guide to making a backing track from any song goes deeper.
Practice routine for singers
- Listen once to the Vocals only mix while following the synced lyrics, which highlight each line as the track plays.
- Switch to Karaoke with the vocal fader a little up, and sing along.
- Loop the phrase that trips you up, at a slightly slower speed.
- Mute the vocal fully and sing the whole song through. Export that mix to rehearse away from the app.
Common questions
Will the instrumental sound perfect?
AI separation is very clean on most modern recordings, but you may hear faint traces of the voice in busy or heavily effected passages. For practice and home karaoke this rarely matters; the band is intact and the vocal is out of the way.
Can I remove the vocals from a video?
Yes. Import a video from Photos or Files and Song Practice works with its audio track the same way.
Can I save the vocal on its own?
Yes. Long-press the vocal stem to export it as WAV or M4A, or export it as MIDI if you want the melody notes.
Is vocal removal free?
The app is free to download and your first few stem separations are free, so you can hear the Karaoke mix straight away. Exporting the instrumental as WAV or M4A needs Song Practice Pro, which also unlocks unlimited separations and removes ads.
Make your first karaoke track
Free on the App Store. Stems split right on your device.
Download Song Practice Free