Ultimate Vocal Remover Made Your Backing Track. Now Make It Start on Cue
· 7 min read
Ultimate Vocal Remover is the tool that shows up in every "how do I make a backing track" thread, and for good reason. It is free, open source, runs on your own computer, and the MDX-Net and Demucs models inside it separate a song about as well as anything you can pay for. Strip the vocal to sing over the band, strip the guitar to play the solo yourself, strip the bass to work on the bass line. Ten minutes later you have a file.
And that is where UVR stops. It is a converter, not a player. It has no metronome, no count-in, no playback controls beyond checking the result. What it hands back is a plain WAV (or FLAC or MP3, depending on your save format) that starts exactly where the original song started: cold, with nothing to tell you when beat one lands.
If you only listen to that file, it does not matter. If you play or sing along with it, it matters every single time you press play.
Why a UVR instrumental is harder to come in on than the original
The original recording had a cue you never noticed: the part you just removed. When the vocal starts on beat one, the singer's breath and the first syllable told everyone where "one" was. When the guitar riff opens the song, the riff was the count-in. Remove that part and the remaining band plays exactly as before, but the thing that told you when to enter is gone.
Some songs survive this. A track that opens with four bars of drums still counts you in. A track that opens with the vocal over a sustained chord, or with the guitar riff you are now supposed to play, does not. You end up guessing, rewinding, and building a habit of starting late.
The fix is the same thing a drummer would do in the room: one or two bars of count, ending on the downbeat. You want that baked into the file, so it plays from a phone at rehearsal, from the laptop on stage, or from whatever playback app you use, without UVR or any other software open.
Step 1: separate in UVR the way you normally do
Nothing special here. Pick the model you trust, tick "Instrumental Only" if you do not need the vocal stem, and process. Two settings are worth a thought, because they affect the next step:
Save as WAV or FLAC, not MP3, if you can. CountIn accepts MP3 too, but a lossless file keeps the drum transients sharp, and sharp transients are what the tempo and downbeat detection lock onto. You can export MP3 at the very end if you need a small file.
Keep the drums in. If you are making a track to play guitar or sing over, only remove the part you are replacing. A UVR instrumental with the full rhythm section is an ideal input for a count-in: the beat is clear, the tempo is steady, and the downbeat is easy to find. Tracks with the drums removed are a different problem, and not one a count-in solves.
UVR names the output for you, something like Song_(Instrumental).wav. That is the file you take to the next step.
No GPU, or nothing to install on the machine you are using? StemPlayer, our sibling tool, does the same six-stem separation in the browser, free while in beta. Mute the vocal or the guitar there, export the mix as a WAV, and carry on with step 2.
Step 2: bake in the count-in
Open CountIn in the browser and:
- Drop in the UVR file. WAV, FLAC, MP3, M4A and OGG all work. Nothing to install, no account.
- Check the preview. CountIn detects the tempo and the downbeat and builds the count-in on its own. Press play and listen for one thing: the last click should land exactly where the band comes in.
- Fix the downbeat if the song has a pickup. Many songs where the vocal or the riff came in before the bar line will have a pickup left in the instrumental. If the click lands a beat early or late, drag the DOWNBEAT marker to where "one" actually is. What is a downbeat shows how to find it by ear.
- Pick the sound and the length. Hi-hat or sticks if you want it to sound like a drummer counting in. A spoken count if you want to hear "one, two, three, four" while you are still learning the entrance. One bar for a song you know, two bars if you need time to settle into the tempo.
- Change the key at the same time, if you need to. A singer using a UVR instrumental often wants it a semitone or two down. That is one more setting on the same export, with the tempo untouched.
- Export. The count-in is part of the audio now. The file plays from anything.
That is the whole workflow: UVR for the separation, CountIn for the start. The full click-by-click version is in how to add a count-in to any backing track.
Why not add the count-in in a DAW?
You can. Import the UVR file into Logic, Reaper or Audacity, insert two empty bars at the front, put a metronome on those bars, line the end of the click up with the first downbeat, bounce. It works, and if you already live in a DAW it takes about ten minutes per song.
Most people using UVR are not doing that, which is the point. The whole appeal of UVR is that you get a usable file without a production session. CountIn keeps that promise for the last step: drop the file, check the preview, export. A setlist of ten songs takes the time one song would take in a DAW.
Two things UVR users ask about
The instrumental has a little of the vocal left. That is separation bleed, and every tool has it. It does not affect the count-in at all, because the count-in is timed to the drums and the tempo, not to the part you removed. If the bleed bothers you, try a different UVR model or an ensemble; the count-in step is the same afterwards.
The track has a long intro before the part I play. The count-in leads into beat one of the song, not into your entrance. That is usually what you want, because you play along with the intro anyway. If you would rather start the file at your entrance, trim it in UVR's source (or any editor) first, then add the count-in to the trimmed file.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ultimate Vocal Remover have a count-in or metronome?
No. UVR is a separation tool. It processes audio files and saves the result; it has no playback features such as a metronome, tempo control or count-in. Those live in practice apps, and only a few of them survive the export. Moises, for instance, does not export its count-in.
Which UVR output format works best with CountIn?
Any of them. WAV or FLAC keeps the drum transients cleanest for tempo detection; MP3 is fine if that is what you have. CountIn exports to MP3 or WAV.
Can I use CountIn on a UVR track where I removed the guitar or the bass?
Yes, as long as the drums are still in the mix. UVR's Demucs models can pull out guitar, bass or piano separately; a track with one of those removed and the rhythm section intact is exactly what the count-in is for.
Does CountIn add a click through the whole song?
No. It adds a count-in: one to eight bars of clicks that end on beat one, then the music. For the difference, and when you actually need a full click, see click track vs count-in.
What does it cost?
Ultimate Vocal Remover is free and open source. CountIn is free to upload, detect the tempo and preview; exporting the finished file is a one-time $19 with unlimited exports after that. No subscription, no account.
CountIn bakes a synced count-in into any backing track, right in your browser. Try it free.