Backing Track Maker: Take Out Any Parts and Keep the Band

How to make a backing track from a song

Open the song and split it into six stems, then mute everything you're going to cover yourself. A singer who plays guitar mutes Vocals and Guitar. A duo with a drummer mutes Vocals and Drums. A sax or violin player taking the vocal line mutes Vocals and keeps the band. If you still want a little of a part as a guide, pull its fader down instead of muting it. Set the key with the pitch control if the singer needs it lower, and the speed if the song is too quick for the band; changing one doesn't move the other. When you rehearse in the player, turn on the count-in so everyone comes in together. Then export the mix as WAV or MP3 with the speed and pitch applied, and send the file around or play it through the PA. If you only need one instrument gone, the vocal remover, guitar remover, drum remover, bass remover, and remove the piano pages start with that part already muted. Your song isn't uploaded.

Decide who is still on the record

A backing track is the band minus the people in the room. Write that down before you touch a fader. A singer who also plays guitar mutes Vocals and Guitar. A three-piece whose drummer is coming mutes Vocals and Drums and leaves the bass, because the bass player is not at this rehearsal. A sax or a violin taking the vocal melody mutes Vocals and keeps everyone else, including the guitar that was answering the singer.

If a part should stay as a guide, do not mute it. Pull the fader down until you can hear it and still hear the person covering it. A quiet vocal is how a new singer finds the phrasing. A quiet guitar is how you remember a riff you are not ready to drop. Six stems is the split that makes those choices real. Four stems fold guitar and piano into Other, and then you cannot mute one without the other.

Key, speed, and a count-in for the whole band

Pitch and speed do not drag each other. If the singer needs the song down a semitone, move the pitch and leave the speed. If the song is too quick for a new drummer, lower the speed and leave the key. You can do both, and the export can apply both, so the file the band plays to is already in the key and at the tempo you rehearsed.

In the player, turn on the count-in once the tempo reads clearly. It is four clicks, and it gives everyone the same downbeat when you repeat a chorus. The click is for the room you are practicing in. It is not mixed into the exported file. Drop markers on the sections you restart most, and you can jump to the bridge without scrubbing through the song.

What one stem cannot split apart

Horns, strings, synths, pads, and organ live in Other. Muting Other takes them out together. A sax line sitting on a string pad cannot be pulled apart from that pad, so a horn player covering a pad part has to live with the strings or mute both. That is a limit of one stem, not a fader you have missed.

If you only need one instrument gone, start on the page that already mutes it, including the page to remove the piano. This page is for the night when more than one chair is empty. Export the mix as WAV or MP3, or any single stem as a WAV, one at a time, and send that file around. Your song isn't uploaded.