Guitar Remover

How to remove the guitar from a song

1. Upload the song. MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC, up to 10 minutes. You sign in with Google the first time.
2. Press Remove the guitar. The price shows on the button before it runs: 1 credit for every minute of the song. A new account starts with 5 credits, enough for one song up to 5 minutes. Most songs finish in 1 to 3 minutes.
3. Play and download. Two reels appear: Without the guitar and Guitar only. Click one to hear only that file. The small waveform next to each reel shows where there is sound. Download either one as an MP3 at 320 kbps.

If something goes wrong during processing, your credits come back.

What you get

• Without the guitar. Vocals, drums, bass, keys and every other instrument, minus the guitar. Play your own part over it.
• Guitar only. Every guitar in the song in one file. Acoustic and electric are both counted as guitar, so a song with strumming under a lead line will give you both together.

This page takes out one instrument. If you want guitar, drums, bass and vocals all as separate files, the stem splitter does that from one upload.

Play along with the band

The usual reason to remove a guitar is to be the guitarist. Put on Without the guitar and play your part over the rest of the band. It is a better way to practise than a metronome, because the drummer pushes and pulls the way a real one does.

A few ways to use it:

• Learn a song. Listen to Guitar only until you can sing the part, then switch to the full song to check yourself.
• Make a backing track for a cover. Record your own guitar over Without the guitar, or use it as a track for a live set where you are the only guitarist.
• Take over a part. In a band with two guitarists, mute the part you are playing and learn what the other one does around you.
• Practise a solo. Slow the Guitar only file down in your player to hear each bend and slide before you try it.

Hear a guitar part clearly

A guitar sits in the middle of the mix, tangled with keys and vocals. In the Guitar only file the other instruments are mostly gone, so it is easier to hear which strings are ringing, where the player slides, and whether a part is doubled. This also helps you transcribe: you can write the chords or tab with the other instruments out of the way.

If you want the notes as a MIDI file, take the Guitar only file to Audio to MIDI and choose Guitar. The conversion runs in your browser.

Which songs work best

• A single clear guitar part, like a strummed acoustic under a vocal, separates well.
• Several guitars at once, for example two distorted rhythm guitars and a clean lead, all come out in one Guitar only file. They are not split by player.
• Heavy distortion is harder. Distorted guitar fills a wide range of frequencies, so a little of it can end up in the Without the guitar file, and some cymbal noise can end up in the guitar file.
• Keys and synth pads with a similar tone to a guitar can be mixed up with it. If you hear organ in Guitar only, that is the reason.
• Live recordings share sound between all the microphones, so expect more leftovers.

The result is a very good start, and not a clean-room copy of the original guitar part. Check it with headphones.

Guitar, bass and more

Guitarists often want the bass out of the way too. See the Bass Remover, the Piano Extractor, or the Every Instrument Splitter if you want about 50 kinds of instruments separated.