A backing track is for the room, not for a session folder
The instrumental maker gives you a file to produce on. This page is the rehearsal and the small gig: one mix, vocal out, band in, ready to play from a phone or a laptop into a speaker.
You are not building a new arrangement. You are removing the person who will be in the room, so the record can hold the parts you are not playing tonight.
Who turns which stem down
Start from vocals muted. Then mute the instrument that is actually showing up.
| Who is in the room | Mute | Leave |
|---|---|---|
| A singer | Vocals | The whole band |
| A drummer as well | Vocals and drums | Bass and the harmonic instruments |
| A bass player as well | Vocals and bass | Drums and the rest |
| You are learning the guitar | Vocals, or vocals and other | Drums and bass, so you have a clock |
| Nobody yet, just a sketch | Vocals | Everything, and a faint guide vocal |
Level, key, and the file that will not embarrass you
Play the chorus on the speaker you will actually use. Phone speakers hide a missing kick. A leftover vocal tail is much louder in a bare room than it was in headphones.
Export MP3 for a phone playlist, WAV if it is going into a playback rig. There is no watermark. Build the set before people arrive. The first song also downloads the separation model, about 166 MB, and after that each song starts immediately.
Phones in a rehearsal room
Make the tracks at home on a laptop if you can. Playing them back on a phone is fine. Splitting a long set on a phone, while people are talking and the screen is locking, is how splits get abandoned.
If you perform the backing track in public, the composition still belongs to whoever wrote it. This page only separates a file you already have.