How to Turn a Song into a Karaoke Track

Do you want to transform a song into a karaoke track? Instead of just listening to music, would you like to sing along to it? But before we dive into that topic, there are a few important things you need to know.

• Removing vocals from a song is pretty tricky because all the sounds blend together into one track.
• You’ll need to experiment and make several changes to get a good-sounding song without vocals.
• To achieve better quality, you’ll need a few music apps to work on your song.
• In general, it’s better to use paid karaoke software instead of free software because you’ll have more control and better results.
• You might need to use various plugins that might not be included with the software by default.
• The results and quality will be affected by the compression levels and file extension of each song.
• You’ll never have a song that sounds perfect without the lyrics. The best you can get with voice removal software or plugins is reduced vocal levels that are still partially drowned out by other sounds.
• The final result will never be as clean and clear as the original song with the lyrics, but it can come close.

Try an Online Vocal Remover Website

If you’ve tried all the suggestions below and they didn’t work for the songs you have, you can give PhonicMind a try. It’s an online vocal remover that uses artificial intelligence, and it does a great job! PhonicMind is not free, but it’s also not expensive. They offer affordable packages for a certain number of songs. All you have to do is upload the track, and it takes care of the rest. You can preview each song before using your credits, and during the preview, you can also mute and unmute the vocals, bass, drums, and other sounds. This is not an ad; we just thought it was so amazing that we wanted to share it with you.

How Can You Remove Vocals from a Song Completely?

To get started, you’ll need music apps that have features like vocal removal, low-pass filters, and high-pass filters. It’s not possible to completely remove vocals, but you can reduce them quite a bit. Vocal removers try to get rid of the frequencies that produce the voice, but this also results in other frequencies being lost, which can make the song sound low-end or distorted. Low-pass filters allow lower frequencies to pass through while blocking higher ones, while high-pass filters let higher frequencies pass through without lower ones.

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Why do you need low-pass and high-pass filters? As mentioned earlier, the vocal remover also takes away many other frequencies. The low-pass and high-pass filters allow you to bring some of those frequencies back by mixing them into one track. You can also use an amplifying plugin (for low-pass and high-pass filtered tracks) to enhance the lower and higher frequencies, which helps in drowning out the vocals and boosting the bass and treble. However, if you want to avoid boosting the remaining vocals, you won’t get all the low and high frequencies.

Software for Removing Vocals

Audacity by The Audacity Team

Audacity is a totally free, open-source program that works on pretty much any computer system, like Windows, Mac, Linux, and BSD. It was originally made for Linux but now it works on other systems too. Audacity has been around for a long time and it’s a popular choice for removing vocals from songs for free. Plus, it has a bunch of tools for editing and making music. You can either install it or get the source code. You COULD just use Audacity by itself, but it might be easier to use it with another music app to get rid of the vocals even better.

Get Rid of Vocals Using Audacity for Karaoke

1. First, open Audacity and you’ll see the main screen.
2. Select the song you want to convert and drag it into the screen or open it from the “File” menu.
3. Copy the track: Click the “Select” box for the loaded track, go to the “Edit” tab on top, and then choose “Copy.” You can also just select the track and press Ctrl-C on Windows.
4. Click below the track in the empty area of Audacity and choose “Edit -> Paste” from the tab menu to make a duplicate copy. Or you can press Ctrl-V on Windows.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 to have a total of 3 tracks (Groups).
6. On the bottom two tracks (Groups 2 and 3), click the “Mute” box so you won’t hear them when you play the split track in Group 1).
7. On the top track, click the small black “down arrow” to the left of the waveform screen.
8. Select “Split Stereo to Mono.” Both tracks need to be the same for the inversion process to cancel out the vocals.
9. Select one of the split tracks by clicking the “Select” box. The other track will turn light gray, and the selected track will have a colored border. The waveform is the blue sound display in the middle.
10. Select “Effect -> Invert” from the top menu. The selected track will be inverted to get rid of the vocals in both tracks of group 1.

Most web articles usually stop here and say you’re done with the inversion process, but most of the time, the result is not great. To hear how it sounds before you continue enhancing the track, click the Play button with only the “Group 1” tracks unmuted. This is where the second and third copied tracks (Group 2 and 3) come in handy.

1. Mute the Group 1 tracks (the two monaural tracks) and the Group 3 tracks (last group).
2. Select Group 2 using the “Select” box.
3. Select “Effect -> Low-Pass Filter” from the top menu.
4. Click the Preview button to listen. You want the bass to sound powerful while the vocals are “buried” or at least minimal.
5. Adjust the frequency level up or down until you get good bass with less voice. You can also try changing the roll-off (dB per octave) to see if it helps.
6. Once you’re happy with the low-end, click OK to save it.
7. Preview the results: Make sure Group 3 is muted and Groups 1-2 are unmuted. Press the Play icon to listen. You can compare the results by muting and unmuting Group 2. You’ll see how Group 2 improves the overall quality.

At this point, you might be done, or you might not be. Group 3 will only be useful if the High-Pass Filter can make the song sound good with minimal vocals, which can be tricky.

1. Make sure that Groups 1 and 2 are muted. You can also click Solo on Group 3 to do the same thing.
2. Select Group 3.
3. If applicable, unmute Group 3.
4. Click “Effect -> High-Pass Filter” from the top menu.
5. Adjust the frequency (Hz) level up or down until you get good treble with less voice. The preview will probably be much quieter, but you can adjust that in the next step. You can also change the roll-off (dB per octave) to see if it improves the output. When you change the roll-off, you may need to readjust the frequency, so remember your previous setting.
6. Once you’re happy with the high-end, click OK to save it.
7. Preview the results: Make sure Groups 1-2 are unmuted (use the Solo button on Group 3 to turn solo on/off) so you can hear the full spectrum from all three groups. Press the Play icon to listen. You can compare the results by muting and unmuting Group 3. You’ll see how Group 3 enhances the overall quality.
8. If Group 3 (the high frequencies) isn’t helping much, try using the Amplify plugin to boost it, like we had to do. Make sure Allow Clipping is checked, or you won’t be able to preview the edit.

Now that you’re done with the final mix and there aren’t too many vocals, you can save it as a single track in MP3 format.

1. Simply go to File, then click on Export, and finally select Export as MP3.

Let’s dive right in! Here’s what you need to do to export your file as an MP3: first, select “File,” then choose “Export,” and click on “Export as MP3.” Got it? Great!

Now that you’ve exported your file, it’s time to label it. Give your new karaoke file a name that stands out. Get creative!

Okay, now that we have our file ready, let’s test it out on your favorite MP3 player. See how it sounds and make any adjustments if needed. Don’t forget to have some fun with it!

Congratulations! Your Audacity track is now complete. Now, let’s move on to option number two.

Introducing WavePad by NCH Software. It’s another great alternative to Audacity. If you don’t want to pay for premium features, look for the free version on their website. It’s really user-friendly and produces better results when it comes to removing vocals. However, keep in mind that your experience may vary. WavePad was designed for Windows, but you can also install it on Linux using Wine or associated Wine programs. It has all the plugins you need and is ready to go. It may not have a built-in phase inverter like Audacity, but it uses a different technique to remove vocals from songs.

Here’s how you can remove vocals using WavePad: open your chosen mp3 file, then select “Voice” from the featured buttons. Click on “Reduce Vocals.” In the “Reduce Vocal” window, make sure the box next to “Perform Only Simple Channel Subtraction (L-R)” is checked. Now, click the play icon to hear a preview. Adjust the “Vocal Level” and “Preserve Bass (Hz)” until you’re satisfied with the minimal voice level. You can keep making changes and clicking the reload preview button. When you’re ready, hit apply.

Next, open MixPad by selecting “MixPad” from the featured buttons. MixPad will open and place your newly edited track at the top. Go back to WavePad and repeat the steps to create a high-filtered track and a low-filtered track using the associated plugins. Remember to delete the initial file or replace it with the new one. Mixing all three tracks (voice reduced track, low-filtered track, and high-filtered track) is where MixPad comes in handy.

Once you have all three tracks in MixPad, you can tweak them further. You can even boost the sound level of the low-filtered and high-filtered tracks to drown out the vocals even more. Just remember to save before you experiment.

Overall, WavePad is a fantastic audio editor packed with useful tools, just like Audacity. It looks great and works even better. You can create the vocal-reduction track in WavePad and let Audacity handle the other filtered tracks. The choice is yours. As mentioned before, this process takes time, trial and error, and the understanding that it won’t be perfect.

Now, let’s talk about Wavosaur by The Wavosaur Team. It’s the last suggestion on this list of “vocal-removing” programs. While it offers a simple, one-click vocal reduction, it didn’t quite hit the mark like Audacity or WavePad. However, it may work well for certain songs. Give it a try before exploring the other options. You never know, it might surprise you.

Now that you’ve removed the vocals from your song, let’s add some lyrics to your karaoke track. If you have iTunes or a similar premium audio app, you can use the MP3 tagging option to add lyrics. Some mobile players also display lyrics, but it’s not as common on computers. If you want to add lyrics manually, you can visit MetroLyrics, AZLyrics, or any other lyrics website. Download the lyrics file for your chosen song. You can print the lyrics or have them displayed on your screen. They won’t be synchronized, but they can still be useful.

For media players, you can create your own karaoke video using the voiceless tracks you created. Add your audio track to any video maker, then export the project as an MP4 or another video format that suits your needs. Open your video player and use a caption plugin to display the lyrics over the video. You may need to create an SRT file for the captions. VLC is one source that accepts caption plugins for video playback.

Lastly, if you have a CD-G capable burner, you can burn a CD-G disc with the lyrics displayed. It’s a great option if you have a karaoke machine. Regular CD players can still play the audio on a CD-G disc too! So grab your earbuds, pain relievers, and get ready to enjoy some “Road-Trip Karaoke” fun!

Remember, this process requires patience, trial and error, and the acceptance that it won’t be perfect. But with a little persistence, you can create the ultimate karaoke experience. Now go ahead and rock those vocals!