Metal is a harder vocal removal than pop, and the page should say so
A dry pop vocal in front of a band separates cleanly. A scream printed into a wall of distorted guitars does not. You will get a usable backing track on a lot of modern metal. You will also get songs where a harsh consonant stays in the guitar bus. Waiting for the HD pass is not optional here. The preview will sound like the vocal is still in the room.
Clean sung choruses over the same guitars usually come out better than the screamed verse. Judge the song by the harshest section, not the intro.
Where each part of a metal mix goes
Four stems, same as every other page. The arrangement is what changes.
| Part | Stem | In the backing track |
|---|---|---|
| Scream or growl | Vocals | Muted, with more bleed than a clean vocal |
| Clean hook | Vocals | Muted, usually cleaner |
| Rhythm guitars | Other | Kept |
| Guitar solo | Other | Kept, sharing the stem with the rhythms |
| Kick, snare, cymbals | Drums | Kept |
| Bass guitar | Bass | Kept, unless it was only a layer under the kick |
Learn the riff, or play the whole song
For a full-band rehearsal, leave drums, bass and other up and only the vocal down. For a guitar part, mute drums and bass too, slow the riff in keep-pitch mode, then put the rhythm section back and play it at tempo.
Double-tracked guitars will not become two files. You hear the pair. That is enough to learn the rhythm. It is not a re-amp.
Give the model a real file
A 128 kbps MP3 of an already distorted mix is the worst case: the encoder and the guitars eat the same frequencies as the scream. WAV, FLAC or a 320 kbps file is the fair test.
Keep the tab open on a phone. A five-minute song with a loud master is heavy. A laptop finishes it and is less likely to throw the tab away. No upload, no account, no watermark.