Can You Remove Drums from a Song in GarageBand iOS? (Try an Easier Way with LALAL.AI)

Isolating or removing drums from a song can be incredibly useful, no matter what you're working on—a mashup, remix, splitting a track for a sync placement, making a Dolby Atmos track, or simply a karaoke backtrack. GarageBand for iOS provides a way to do this using built-in tools, but the process is far from seamless. Equalisation tweaks, noise gates, and compression can help reduce drum presence, but they often affect other parts of the track as well.

Read also: How to Remove Drums From a Sample

For those looking for a cleaner, faster approach, LALAL.AI’s iOS app offers a more precise way to remove drums from a song without degrading the overall sound quality. Let’s take a look at both methods so you can decide which one works best for you.

How to Remove Drums in GarageBand iOS: A Manual Approach

GarageBand, Apple’s free music production app, doesn’t have a dedicated drum removal tool. But you can reduce drum elements through frequency adjustments and noise gating. Here’s how it works.

1. Open GarageBand on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Import the track you want to modify.
3. Once the song is in the workspace, position it on an empty track.

Drums, especially kick and snare hits, occupy specific frequency ranges. By adjusting the EQ, you can lessen their impact:

4. Open the Track Editor, tap Plugins & EQ, then select Visual EQ.
5. Reduce the low-end frequencies (below 100Hz) to soften the kick drum.
6. Lower the mid-range (150Hz–500Hz) to suppress snare and toms.
7. Reduce some high frequencies (5kHz–10kHz) to take the edge off hi-hats and cymbals.

A noise gate can help filter out drum hits that persist despite the EQ adjustments:

1. Tap Plugins & EQ, then select Noise Gate.
2. Slowly increase the threshold until you notice drum sounds fading, but be careful not to remove too much of the song’s other elements.

Since removing drum frequencies affects the balance of the track, light compression can help restore some lost energy:

1. Go to Plugins & EQ and select Compressor.
2. Set a low ratio (2:1 or 3:1) to avoid flattening the entire mix.
3. Adjust the attack and release to maintain the natural feel of the song.

Besides, GarageBand comes with editing tools such as automation and split tracks to refine your audio in post-production. The split tracks feature breaks audio files into chunks so you can edit or remove them as needed.

1. Create a drum track.
2. Duplicate the drum track.
3. Add a MIDI track.
4. Copy-paste the drum track into the MIDI track region.
5. Copy the MIDI track into one of your drum tracks.
6. Delete the parts of the drum track that you don't want.
7. Duplicate and rename the tracks as needed.

What are the drawbacks of GarageBand’s approach?

Such adjustments can reduce drum prominence, but they don’t fully separate drums from the rest of the music. Other elements, like basslines and vocals, may lose clarity in the process. For those who need a cleaner drum removal method, a more advanced tool is necessary.

A faster & more precise alternative: Remove drums from a file with LALAL.AI’s iOS app

Instead of manually tweaking EQ settings, noise gates, and compressors, LALAL.AI’s iOS app can do the job in a few taps. Using AI-powered stem separation, the app isolates drums with precision, leaving the rest of the audio untouched.

How to remove drums with LALAL.AI on iOS

1. Download and install LALAL.AI from the App Store.
2. Open the app and select the song you want to edit by clicking Split Files.

3. Choose Drums as the stem you’d like to remove.
4. Choose the model. LALAL.AI offers three generation of algorithm to choose from. We recommend Perseus, the newest model to isolate drums.
5. Let the AI process the track.
6. Preview the results, then download the edited track to work with later in your DAW or audio-editing tool.

Why Choose LALAL.AI Instead of GarageBand?

The AI takes care of everything automatically, so no manual adjustments required. The accuracy of isolated tracks is typically as the app isolates drums cleanly without distorting vocals or instruments. Unlike manual EQ adjustments, LALAL.AI keeps the song’s overall clarity intact.

So if you need a faster, cleaner solution, LALAL.AI’s iOS app provides an effortless way to remove drums from any track while maintaining high audio quality. Whether you’re remixing, practicing, or just experimenting with new sounds, it’s a tool that makes the process far more efficient.