Where to find instrumentals and acapellas

If you want to make a track with a vocal it's best to pay for the license for an acapella or record one yourself with a singer.

Youtube is a great database of acapellas and you can download them for free using a service like YoutubetoMP3. The problem with Youtube is that you don't have legal permission to use these acapella samples in any tracks you produce and the quality of youtube rips is very low. However, they are easy to use in DJ sets and live performances. You can find many acapellas on Youtube by following channels dedicated to acapellas.

You can also get other samples from Youtube for DJ sets including radio drops, sound FX and dialogue from films. Many producers will find a famous quote from a film and use it just before the beat drops! LSA production course graduates will be familiar with Splice.

We use it because it's one of the best databases of samples on the internet and if offers an organised way to search and tag your favourite media. You pay monthly for this service and get access to a huge range of music production tools including vocal samples acapellas.

One of the best things about Splice is that it shows you the key of sample so you can make sure you mix it with an instrumental in the same key. It's really important to use acapellas harmonically. Voclr is our favourite browser-based database for acapellas. We even reached out to them about this blog and they've given our readers a special discount code! Click here for their pro package details. One of the most useful features on Voclr is the unique acapella charts, making it easy to find a hit vocal fast.

Acapellas4u is one of the biggest online databases of free acapella downloads. They have over 33k acapellas, samples and DJ tools that are kbps or above. It's easy to search their database and download up to 30 free acapellas per month. If you become a donator, actively contributing to the database you will be given access to the entire library!

Many DJs and producers are using it and have been for many years to find those rare acapellas. This service is perfect for DJs. You should also be looking for a file that you have the rights to use and most of the popular acapellas on here are owned by the big labels, if you use them without permission you can get stung. Actually one the best ways to find an acapella that few people might have and in a high quality format is to rip it yourself from a vinyl record.

Vinyl pressings often come with acapella versions as bonus tracks and many acapellas were only released on the vinyl version to encourage people to buy the records. If you go hunting in a record shop ask them if they are stocking any records with acapellas. Get yourself a record and then take it to a studio with a record player, record it digitally in a high quality format like Wav or AIFF and you'll have a gem worth keeping!

We highly recommend this process because you might be lucky and find something rare. Beatport is the biggest digital music store which means it has a huge range of all genres available online. So when composing a list of where to get acapellas, there was no doubt Beatport would be on there. Founded in , with the primary aim of servicing DJs, Beatport gives you access to hundreds of thousands of high-quality audio files.

You also have the benefit of knowing that you are supporting the industry at the same time. However, if you are looking for something specific then Beatport is well worth checking. They have also just launched Beatport Link. This is a subscription that lets you stream over six million tracks directly into Rekordbox to then play it out.

Which is a great way of boosting your arsenal of tracks. This is a free site that specializes in acapellas. They do require you to sign up for a free account which gives you 5 free downloads per month. Especially given that they cover all types of music. In fact, there are plenty of rock and pop tracks to be had. Ever wondered if it ok to rip tracks from YouTube?

Your answers are here. Given that there are over , free audio loops and samples available for download. As well as a very active community of like-minded producers. Where do you find acapellas though? In their dedicated acapellas tab, where they currently host nearly 9, acapellas. Each is tagged and searchable by BPM and genre but Looperman even goes further. The acapellas are even searchable by sex and vocal style, a very nice touch.

You are required to sign up for an account but it is free and then you are let loose. Looperman is an absolute goldmine of audio files, as well as software and samples.

The name is actually a little misleading as not all of their downloads are free. You, in fact, have around free featured acapellas at any one point. Although you would then have to pay extra if you wanted to use the acapellas commercially. Where this does vary from the others in the list is that it has a team of vocalists on staff. This allows you to order custom vocals if you want to. This does not have to be original music either, for example: If you are unable to find the acapella for a specific, released track that you like then you can order it.

Simply listen to the vocalists on offer, choose the closest match to the original vocals and pay them to record an acapella cover for you. This is a great workaround for that hard to find track. It also gives you have a unique edge, as you would be the only DJ with that acapella in your library.

Even if it is a cover. It looks like it stopped being updated back in , which is a shame as they were building a good range of tracks on there.

A little bit different from the typical acapella website, Remix Packs specializes in offering complete remix packs on their website. Hosting over 6, packs that include all the stems to each song. As well as also offering the ability to sort by Key and BPM.

So not only do you get everything you need to put together a quality remix, you could potentially land yourself the title of an official remix.

Looperman was created as a community for musicians, video producers, and DJs. Hopefully, this list has opened your eyes to a few new websites.