Keep the music and drop the voice with Isolate music

Sometimes the talking is the part you want gone. You may have a clip with a music bed that suits your new narration, or a recording where the speaker no longer belongs. The Isolate music card in Quick tools keeps the music and background sound and removes the voice.

What the dialog tells you

The dialog says it removes the voice and keeps the music and background sound. It also gives two cautions. It uses credits, by the length of the video, and a faint trace of the voice can remain.

Take the second caution seriously. Plan the edit so that a whisper of the old voice does not matter. A new voiceover on top, a sound effect over a pause, or a section where the music carries the scene all cover it.

Run Isolate music

1. Open the Projects page and find the Quick tools row.
2. Click Isolate music.
3. Drop a video onto the dashed box, or press Choose a file.
4. Press Run.
5. Watch the stages: Uploading, Extracting audio, Finding the voice, Removing the voice, Adding the new audio, and Rendering. Removing the voice shows a percentage as it works.
6. When the dialog says "Done", your download of the video should have started.

Stay on the dialog until then, because the file arrives automatically.

How the removal works and what stays

The run first finds the voice in your video's audio with a hosted voice isolation step. Then it takes that voice out of the original audio inside your browser tab. What remains replaces the clip's own sound, and the video renders with it.

The removal works from that isolated copy of the voice, which is why the dialog warns that a faint trace can remain.

The run leaves a project in your Projects list. In it, the original clip is muted and the music sits on the soundtrack as a clip named after your file, ending in "music.wav". Open the project to trim it, add a fade at the end, or lay a new voiceover over it.

Tips for the result

• Start with a short clip. Credits follow the length of the video, so a short test shows how clean the music comes out.
• Listen to the loudest spoken moments first. That is where any trace shows.
• Pair the result with a fresh voice. Record your own narration or generate one, then use Duck others on the voice clip so the music drops while it speaks.
• Check that you have the right to use the music before you publish.

When it fits

Isolate music suits a clip where the music runs steadily under the speech. Think of a recorded event with a band playing behind the host, or a screen recording that has a soundtrack under your commentary. For the reverse job, keeping the speech and dropping the music, use Isolate voice.

A first run

Open DepCut, go to Projects, and run Isolate music on a short clip with speech over music.