Free drum remover

How to remove drums from a song

Drop the song, wait for the split and download the track. This drum remover works on any file your browser can play, so you can remove drums from a song you have as an MP3, a WAV or the sound of a video. The result is the song with no drums: the vocals, the bass, the guitars, the keys and all the rest stay in place, and the drum part is gone.

You get a second file for free. Drums only is the drum part that was taken out, on its own. Both files come from the same split, so together they add up to very nearly the whole song, and you can listen to each and to the original before you save anything.

Drumless tracks for practice

A drumless track is a backing track with a real band on it. Drummers play along with the arrangement they are learning, hear where their fills sit against the other instruments, and find out how the part feels at full speed without the original drummer covering their mistakes. It is also a way to learn a song you want to cover: play it with the band, then take the band away.

Because the file is the original recording minus the drums, the tempo is the song's own and it does not drift. If you want a click to count with, find the tempo with the BPM finder first. If you practise on an electronic kit, send the track to your module or your interface as any other backing track.

Bassists and guitarists can use it in a different way: without the drums, the bass and the guitar parts are easier to hear against each other, so a drumless track is useful for working out how the rhythm section locks together.

The drum extractor: drums on their own

If you came to extract drums from a song, the Drums only file is that. It is the drum part with the rest of the song taken away, so you can study a groove, hear exactly what a fill does, write the part out by ear or check the swing and the ghost notes without the other instruments in the way.

Producers use drums-only files as a reference for how a kit was mixed and as a guide for their own programming. If you plan to use anything from someone else's recording in your own music, remember that the drums are still part of their work.

Tips for a cleaner drumless track

Start from the best file you have. A WAV or a high-bitrate file gives the model more detail than a small MP3, and cymbals are the first thing a low bitrate smears. If some of the drums stay in the track, run the song again in HQ: it is a newer model that separates more cleanly on public benchmarks.

Listen to the whole track before you rely on it, and listen on headphones. The low end is where the two parts meet, so a kick and a bass guitar that play together can leave a trace of one in the other. Hi-hats and cymbals are bright and can leave a faint shimmer in the drumless track on a dense mix.

If we lowered the files to keep them from clipping, you will see a note under the player. Both files drop by the same amount, so the two still add up the same way.

Where the model gets it wrong

Drums are one of the easier parts for a model to find, because they are loud, sharp and repetitive, but the result is still an estimate. Percussion that is not a kit, such as congas, shakers, tambourines or a synth that clicks like a snare, may land in either file. A drum loop that was mixed into a sample can stay partly in the track.

Songs with heavy effects on the drums, very busy mixes and low-quality files are the hardest. If a track is not clean enough for you, try HQ, try a better file, or fix the one spot with a short edit.

Free, quiet and in beta

The work happens on your device, so your song is never uploaded and we have no server bill that would force a limit on you. There is no sign-up, no credit counter and no daily cap, only a length limit of 10 minutes per song, or 6 in HQ. The tool is in beta: it works, it is new and it is getting better. Tell us what you think at info@obra.art.

Learn more, or get a person on it

Read the mastering guides, comparisons and data, or send your tracks to an engineer with OBRA ULTRA.