How to Remove Vocals from Any Song on Windows

Want to sing along to a song that has no karaoke version, practise over the band, or play a song without the singer at a party? With ZenPoint Media Manager, the companion app that comes with Digital Center, you can take the vocals out of the songs you already own and get an instrumental backing track - on your own Windows PC, with no upload to a website and no fee per song. This guide shows how, for one song or a whole library. For the bigger picture, see the Media Manager page and the karaoke page.

What you get

When you remove the vocals from a song, Media Manager listens to it, separates the singing from the music and saves a backing track - the music without the voice - right next to your original. Your original file is never changed or replaced. In Digital Center's Karaoke center, the singer can then switch between the original and the backing track while the song plays.

Removing vocals is done by listening, not by a simple trick, so the result is usually very clean. Like every vocal remover, it is not perfect on every song: a heavily processed voice or a recording where the voice and instruments blend closely can leave a faint trace of the singing.

What you need

• A Windows PC with Digital Center installed. ZenPoint Media Manager installs together with it.
• The songs, for example MP3s from your own collection.
• An internet connection the first time, so the tools can be set up.
• Time: the work runs on the computer's processor by default, so a single song takes a little while and a whole library takes a lot longer. A PC with an NVIDIA graphics card can do it many times faster (see Step 6).

Step 1: Put the songs in your karaoke folder

Media Manager uses the same library folders as Digital Center. In Digital Center, go to Administration, Karaoke and look at Folders with karaoke tracks. Copy the songs you want to work on into one of those folders, or add the folder they are in.

Step 2: Open Media Manager and set up the tools

Open ZenPoint Media Manager - from the Media Manager tile in Setup on Digital Center's front page, or from the Windows Start menu - and choose the Karaoke tab. Your songs are in the list.

The first time, the karaoke tools need a one-time setup. Go to Settings, Karaoke and choose Install karaoke tools. It downloads what is needed and you can follow the progress. You only do this once on each PC.

Step 3: Choose how much singing to remove

Under Method you choose what the backing track should keep:

• Take out all singing - the standard. Every voice is removed: the lead singer, the backing vocals and the harmonies.
• Keep backing vocals and harmonies - removes the lead voice and leaves the choir parts in, which many songs sound much better with. It needs an NVIDIA graphics card, a separate one-time install under Settings, Karaoke (Install lead-voice removal), and it takes considerably longer per song. If a song cannot be done that way, all the singing is taken out of that one instead.

Media Manager tells you in Settings, Karaoke whether this PC's graphics card is likely to manage the second method, so you do not download anything in vain.

Step 4: Remove the vocals from one song

Select a song and choose Remove vocals. The job runs in the background, so you can keep browsing, editing tags or starting other jobs. When it is done, the song shows that it has a backing track, and the song appears in Digital Center with the backing track ready.

Step 5: Do a whole library at once

To prepare many songs, choose Remove vocals · all missing. Media Manager starts the work only for the songs that do not have a backing track yet, and leaves the rest alone. You can also select a group of songs and start them together. The jobs run one after the other in the background - a good thing to start in the evening and let run.

Step 6: Make it faster with a graphics card (optional)

On a PC with an NVIDIA graphics card, go to Settings, Karaoke, under Faster with the graphics card. Choose Add the faster way, then Test this machine. If the test says yes, turn on Use the graphics card for vocal removal and word timing. The faster way is added next to what you use today and takes up several GB; if it does not work on your PC, or you switch it off again, everything goes straight back to working as before.

Step 7: Use the backing track

The backing track is now part of your karaoke song:

• In Digital Center's Karaoke center, the song plays with the backing track, and the singer can switch to the original and back while it plays.
• Add lyrics and word timing in Media Manager, and the words light up on screen as they are sung - see how to make a karaoke version of any song.
• With the singing on its own, you can also make a clean vocal track for fine-tuning the word timing (Make a clean vocal track). It is only for fine-tuning and changes neither the lyrics nor the backing track.

Good to know

• Your files stay yours. The songs never leave your PC, and the originals are never changed.
• Only songs you have the right to use. Media Manager works on the music you already own; it does not come with songs.
• Room screens can still sing. A Room screen in another room plays the karaoke songs - backing tracks included - that your main machine shares. See how to share your music library with another PC.

Questions people ask

Does it work on any song?

It works on ordinary song files in the common audio formats. The result depends on the recording: songs where the voice sits clearly on top of the music come out cleanest. A song that is mostly voice, or where the singer is heavily processed, can keep a little of the singing.

Does it need the internet?

Only for the one-time setup of the karaoke tools (and, if you want them, the faster graphics-card way and the backing-vocals method). Removing vocals itself happens on your PC, and your songs are never uploaded anywhere.

How long does it take?

It depends on the PC and the song length. On the processor alone, expect a while per song and plan a whole library as an overnight job. With the faster graphics-card way on a suitable NVIDIA card, the same work runs many times faster.

Can I undo it?

There is nothing to undo: the original is never touched, and the backing track is an extra file next to it. If you are not happy with one, delete it and make it again with the other method.

What about lyrics?

Removing vocals only makes the backing track. For lyrics that light up as they are sung, follow the four-step workflow in how to make a karaoke version of any song.

Read more on the Media Manager page, or plan a karaoke night with the home karaoke setup guide.