Remove the guitar from any song

Why remove the guitar instead of using a backing track

A guitar backing track from the actual song keeps what a generic jam track cannot: the real drummer, the real bass line, the vocal phrasing you have to leave room for, and the exact arrangement of stops and dynamics. You are playing the song, not a loop in the same key.

It is also the fastest way to hear whether you have the part. With the original guitar gone, your timing, your tone and your voicings are the only guitar in the room. Covers bands use guitarless tracks to rehearse, teachers use them in lessons, and players use them to record a new part against a finished mix.

Free four stems or six stems?

Quick Split, the free mode, separates vocals, drums, bass and other. Guitar is inside other, together with piano, keys, synths, strings and anything else that is not voice, drums or bass. Muting other on a guitar, bass and drums rock song removes the guitar cleanly because the guitar is the main thing in that stem. On a song with keys or synths, muting other removes those too. That is a useful free workaround for guitar-led songs.

Full Separation splits other further, giving guitar and piano their own stems. That is the mode to use when you want the guitar gone and the keyboard part kept. It is included in Pro, which is US$6.99 a month or US$49 a year with a 7-day free trial for eligible accounts. If you only need one song, a US$1.99 credit runs one Full Separation, never expires, and downloads as MP3.

What ends up in the guitar stem, from an engineer’s chair

Rhythm and lead share one stem. The separator removes guitar, not a specific guitar part. If the record has a rhythm guitar and a lead guitar, both go into the guitar stem and both come out when you mute it. To practise the lead over the rhythm part, you need to play both or use a guide level on the fader and follow along.

Doubled guitars come out together. Most rock and pop records double or quadruple the rhythm guitar and pan the takes left and right. Those layers are the same instrument playing the same part, so they separate as one and mute as one. The stereo width of the original goes with them, which is why a guitarless mix of a wall-of-guitars song can suddenly sound narrow and roomy. That is the arrangement, not a fault in the split.

Distorted and acoustic guitars behave differently. A distorted guitar is dense and spread across the spectrum, which makes it distinctive and easy to identify. A strummed acoustic sits in the same range as a piano and shares a lot of its percussive attack, so on acoustic ballads some strum can land in the piano stem, or some piano in the guitar stem. Solo both stems for a few bars before you commit to a mix.

Piano and guitar overlap on busy records. When a piano and a clean electric guitar play the same chords in the same register, they blend into one sound on the record. The separator uses tone and attack to pull them apart, and a little crossover is normal. If you are removing guitar to play it yourself, a trace left in the piano stem is inaudible once you are playing.

Effects travel with the guitar. Delay and reverb printed on the guitar mostly go into the guitar stem. Shared room reverb on the whole mix stays behind as a faint ambience.

Practising over the guitarless track

Keep a little guitar in for the first passes. Set the guitar fader low, just loud enough to hear the voicings and strumming pattern, then take it out as the part settles. Free accounts get the live mixer and basic A/B looping, and sessions save so the balance is there next time.

Pro turns the track into a practice room. Change the key without changing the speed if you tune down or your singer needs a different key. Slow a fast solo to 75% with the pitch locked. Name loops for the intro riff, the verse pattern and the solo so each one is a click away, and add a count-in from a tapped tempo so you come in cleanly. Bounce the finished mix as WAV to take it to rehearsal.

Remove, isolate or practise?

This page is about the mix minus the guitar: a guitarless version of the song. If you want to hear the guitar alone to work out a riff or study the tone, see isolate guitar. If you want a full practice routine built around playing along, see practise guitar with a backing track. For other instruments, there are guides to removing bass and removing drums.

What is free and what is Pro

Pro is US$6.99 a month or US$49 a year, with a 7-day free trial for eligible accounts (card required). A US$1.99 credit buys one Full Separation on one song: it never expires and does not include WAV or the practice tools. See plans.

Frequently asked questions

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