How to remove background music from video or audio
Background music is a song or track playing under your recording, from a speaker in a shop, an event, or a car, sitting under the rest of your audio.
The setup
Remove
"background music" ยท preset
Off
Step by step
- 1 Drop your video or audio file into SoundScrub.
- 2 Set the mode to Remove.
- 3 Pick "background music" from the sound list.
- 4 Run it. You get the file back with that sound removed and the rest untouched.
Why this works
Remove mode with the "background music" preset drops the music and leaves everything else, including your voice. You don't describe your voice at all, you just tell it what to take out.
Why the usual fixes fall short
Muting kills everything else with it, and the music overlaps the rest of the sound, so EQ can't split it out. You need actual source separation.
Another way
Want your voice on its own, with the room and everything else gone too? Use Keep only with "people speaking" instead.
Honest heads-up
How well the music separates depends on the mix. When the music is quieter than the rest, it comes out well. On a dense mix where the music is as loud as everything else, expect it to come down rather than vanish entirely.
Common questions
How do I remove background music from a video but keep the voice?
In SoundScrub, set the mode to Remove and pick the "background music" preset. You never describe your voice, you just name what to take out, and everything else stays, including the talking.
What's left after the music is removed?
Everything that isn't the music, a voice, ambience, sound effects, whatever else is in the clip. Note that if the music has singing in it, that singing is part of the music and comes out with it, not the rest.
What about copyrighted music for Content ID?
Removing the music takes it out of the audio, which can help avoid a claim. Test the result before relying on it.
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