Pedal Steel Guitar Extractor

How to extract the pedal steel 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 Extract the pedal steel guitar. The price is on the button before it runs: 1 credit per minute of the song. New accounts get 5 credits.
3. Listen and download. You get Pedal steel guitar and Without the pedal steel guitar. Click a reel to hear it alone, then download it as an MP3 at 320 kbps.

Failed jobs are refunded.

What a pedal steel sounds like

The pedal steel is played flat on a stand, with a metal bar in one hand and pedals and knee levers changing the pitch of the strings. That gives it the long, bending, crying sound you know from classic country and Americana, and it also turns up in gospel and in some rock and indie records. Its notes slide into each other, and chords swell and melt from one to the next.

In a song it usually does one of two things. It plays long, sweet fills in the gaps between vocal lines, or it holds soft chords under the singer like a pad.

Why pull it out

• Learning the style. Pedal steel players listen to records and copy the slides. Hearing it alone, with no band, makes the pitch bends audible.
• Sampling. A clean slide or swell makes a good one-shot or a loop.
• A track to play over. Take it out and add your own steel, or another instrument, in its place.
• Mix checks. Hear what the part is doing before you decide whether to turn it up.

What it gets confused with

A pedal steel can be mistaken for several things. A slide or lap steel guitar has the same gliding tone. A violin or fiddle in a country mix sits in a similar range and also slides. A synth pad with a lot of vibrato can come close. A normal electric guitar with a volume swell is another lookalike. If a violin line lands in the wrong file, check with headphones and treat the result as a good first pass.

For plain electric and acoustic guitars, see the Guitar Remover, the Electric Guitar Extractor and the Acoustic Guitar Extractor. To turn the isolated steel part into notes, use Audio to MIDI and choose Guitar.