You can remove vocals from a song in GarageBand by muting the vocal track in the mix. You can also try to remove vocals in a prerecorded song with all elements in a single track by using the EQ to isolate vocal frequencies.
My name is Donovan, and I love making music. I have years of experience writing, recording, and producing music of all kinds and am also very familiar with using GarageBand and other music production apps and software.
This post will show you how to remove vocals from a song in GarageBand. I’ll show you all the necessary steps to make this happen and provide you with other tips to consider as you mix your track.
Let’s jump in.
Contents
Key Takeaways
- The easiest way to remove vocals from a song in GarageBand is to mute the vocal track or delete it.
- If you don’t have an isolated vocal track, you can try to use EQ to remove the vocal frequencies.
- The process for muting a vocal track is essentially the same in the macOS and iOS versions of GarageBand, but adjusting the EQ is different.
Initial Thoughts
There are a few different ways to approach removing vocals from a song in GarageBand, so it’s a good idea to assess your situation before attempting to perform the task.
The easiest way to remove the vocals is to simply mute or delete the track within your project. If you recorded the entire project in GarageBand, you’ll have a dedicated vocal track, which makes it easy to adjust or remove the vocals.
You can do this right within your project window, and I’ll show you the steps in the section below.
The other method for removing vocals involves adjusting the EQ to remove the specific vocal frequencies from the mix. This method can work when you have an entire recorded song on one track and can’t isolate the vocals.
The EQ method doesn’t always remove the vocals completely and can alter the mix in weird ways. But it might be your only option if you don’t have an isolated vocal track and still want to remove the vocals.
How to Remove Vocals from a Song in GarageBand Mac
If you have an isolated vocal track in your GarageBand project on your Mac, removing the vocals from a song is easy by simply muting or deleting the track.
Follow these steps to mute or delete vocals in GarageBand on your Mac.
1. Open the GarageBand app on your Mac.
2. Open the project with the vocal track you want to remove.
3. Click the Mute button in the track controls window to the left of the track’s waveform. This will mute the vocals and they will be removed from the song upon playback.
4. If you want to delete the vocal track entirely from the song, click on the vocal track to highlight it and then press Delete. This will permanently remove the vocal track, and you won’t be able to access it to make changes or work it into the mix.
If you don’t have an isolated vocal track, you still might be able to remove vocals from a song by using the EQ features in GarageBand. This is a bit more complicated and doesn’t work as well, but it can be your only option if you want to remove vocals from a prerecorded song.
To remove vocals from a song in GarageBand using EQ, follow these steps.
1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above.
2. Click on the entire song track.
3. Click the Smart Controls button to access the EQ settings.
4. Click the Track heading in the Smart Controls window.
5. Click EQ in the Smart Controls window. A graphic EQ display will appear and you can adjust things to try and remove the vocals.
6. The graphic EQ display allows you to adjust the level of specific frequencies within the mix of a song. Vocals will typically fall in the range from 85 to 350Hz on the EQ chart, so you need to drop those to remove them from the mix.
Find the frequency range on the EQ graph and then click and drag down to lower the frequencies. You can play around with the exact location of this EQ edit to find the precise settings for the song you are working with. Every vocal track will be a little different.
Quick Tip: Note that removing the vocals by adjusting the EQ will affect the entire mix of the song and not just the vocals. If there are other audio elements within the same frequency range, they will also be removed.
How to Remove Vocals from a Song in GarageBand iPhone
Removing vocals from a song in GarageBand on your iPhone is similar to removing them from your Mac. And you can also mute or delete the track if you have the vocals isolated.
Follow these steps to mute or delete vocals to remove them from a song in GarageBand for your iPhone.
1. Open the GarageBand app.
2. Open the project with the vocals you want to be removed.
3. Tap the Mute button in the track window. This will mute the entire vocal track, and it will turn grey. You might need to slide the track window open if you don’t see the mute button on your screen.
4. If you want to delete the entire track, tap it and then choose Delete from the options that appear. This will remove the entire track from the project, and you won’t be able to use it later on.
If you don’t have a vocal track isolated, you can still try to remove the vocals by using EQ. Follow the steps below to do this.
1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above.
2. Tap the Controls icon.
3. Tap the PLUG-INS & EQ heading.
4. A window will appear with more settings, and you’ll have a few EQ options. Tap the VISUAL EQ option to see a Graphic EQ display.
5. You can now adjust the EQ frequencies to try and remove the vocals from the mix. This is a similar display to the Graphic EQ display in GarageBand on your Mac. Tap and hold the dots on the line and drag them down to remove specific frequencies.
6. Click Done when you are finished making adjustments to the graphic EQ. This will get you back to the main project window.
Remember that the visual EQ approach might not remove the vocals entirely and will also affect other elements of your mix that fall on the same frequencies.
Conclusion
The easiest and best way to remove vocals from a song in GarageBand is to simply mute or delete the vocal track from within the project window. This is quickly done on your Mac or iPhone following the steps highlighted in this post.
If you want to remove vocals from a song that is already recorded, you’ll need to use the graphic EQ features in GarageBand because you won’t have an isolated vocal track. This approach is more complex and might not remove the vocals entirely, but it’s better than nothing.
Have you ever needed to remove vocals from a song in GarageBand? How did you do this, and why did you want them removed? Let me know in the comments below.
