How-to guide
How to remove vocals in Ableton Live vs VocalSplit
Ableton Live 12 added Stem Separation as a Suite-only feature. It is a welcome addition if you already own Live Suite. Anyone on Standard or Intro still needs a dedicated tool — and Suite users sometimes prefer one too.
Ableton's separator splits into drums, bass, vocals and other. It runs locally and is included free with Suite, but it ties you to the DAW. VocalSplit is DAW-agnostic and works on any device.
Step-by-step
- Ableton method — Import the audio. Drag the song into a Live set as an audio clip.
- Ableton method — Run Stem Separation. Right-click the clip then Stem Separation. Pick which stems to extract. Wait for processing.
- VocalSplit method — Open vocalsplit.io. Any browser. No Live Suite license required.
- VocalSplit method — Upload and pay. Drop in the file, pay $0.99, wait around 15 seconds.
- Import into Live (either way). VocalSplit WAV stems drop straight into a Live set and time-lock with the rest of your arrangement.
Tips for better results
- Ableton Standard and Intro users: VocalSplit is the cheapest path to clean stems without upgrading to Suite.
- VocalSplit is the faster option for one-off jobs where you do not want to open Live just for a single separation.
- Both produce comparable vocal quality on most modern mixes.
Try VocalSplit free
Upload a song and get clean vocals and instrumental stems in under 15 seconds. First split is $0.99.
Split a song