How to remove vocals in Audacity

Funnily enough, removing vocals from your audio track is a task that is more common than you would think. In this article, we will show you how to remove vocals in Audacity, with ease and simplicity to provide you with a high-quality result.

There are many reasons to remove vocals from a track, potentially you’re looking to use it for karaoke, you might want to re-dub some of the scenes if there’s an issue with the vocals, but you need to keep the ambient sound. 

There are a number of reasons to remove the vocals from your audio track, and removing the vocals is much easier than you think. 

Whatever the reason is for you to remove the vocals, Audacity is the program for you. We will breakdown the steps in which it takes to remove vocals in Audacity, with simplicity and quality. 

Let’s check it out:

How to remove vocals in Audacity

Here’s how you can remove vocals in Audacity in 5 simple steps. Follow these guidelines for a fast and efficient process, leaving you with quality audio.

Step 1: Load up your audio file into Audacity

Firstly find, and load the audio file you wish to remove the vocals from into Audacity. To do this simply click  File > Open and select the file from which you wish to remove the vocals.

Step 2: Split your track in Audacity

Next, you will need to split your audio in Audacity. Now you have loaded your audio track into Audacity, it is time to split the audio. To split the audio simply click on the dropdown menu and select “Split Stereo Track”. This will split your audio into its left and right audio channels. 

This may be of interest to you: How to split audio in Audacity: The Ultimate Guide

Step 3: Invert your bottom channel

Next, you will need to invert the audio of your bottom channel. To invert the audio click on your bottom channel and select Effect > Invert from the Audacity menu bar.

Step 4: Set each track to mono

Next up, you’ll need to set each one of the tracks to mono. To do this click on the top track (Left channel) and select the menu. Once the menu pops up select Mono. Then do the exact same thing with the bottom channel (Right channel). 

The reason for setting each channel as “Mono” is so you are setting each individual track to have one singular source of audio.

Step 5: Save your audio

Now it’s time to save your audio! You have successfully removed the vocals from your track and ready to be inserted straight back into your film or commercial. To save each audio track, simply click File > Save.

And there you have it, that is how you remove vocals in Audacity in five simple steps. 

A final reminder (A tip) – Audio Volume

One thing you may find occurring is the new audio seems to be lower than you’d expect. This isn’t a problem, to simply solve this go to Effects > Amplify. This now needs to be set to a negative level. 

Make sure you only incrementally move the levels to ensure you don’t raise the volume to an unbearable level and will distort it. 

Have a play around until you have an audio track with a volume level to suit. Then you are ready to import your audio back into your film, commercial, music video, or whatever you are working on!

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