Isolate the vocal,
out of anything.
Isovocal is a Max for Live device that isolates the vocal of whatever clip is playing, keeps it in cache, so you can mix with the acapella anytime you want.
Press play, then drag the dial up or down. Middle is the original track. Right is the bare vocal. Left is the instrumental.
You are hearing "With You" by Drop Frame & Boydex, separated by the device itself.
Instant download. Ableton Live 12 Suite on macOS, Apple Silicon or Intel.
One dial. Instrumental to vocal.
Every position between the instrumental and the bare vocal is a usable combination, and the middle is the original untouched track.
It maps to a MIDI controller like any Live parameter. Fade an acapella over your next track, or drop it to the instrumental, then snap back to the middle for the original track.
No bounced stems. No extra tracks. Your clip stays a clip.
Made for live sets.
The processing is done at home, not on the stage. Each song is separated once, offline, then cached. On Apple Silicon the separation runs on the GPU: a full track takes about twenty seconds. During the set, playback is a buffer read - with minimal CPU load.
The device reads your clip's warp markers, tempo and transpose through the Live API, so the vocal stays locked to what Live is actually playing. Loops, retriggers and tempo changes included.
Change the warp or tempo later and the device will let you know when to re-process. The old render keeps playing, in time, until then.
- Separation
- Demucs v4 hybrid transformer, on-device
- Processing
- 12x realtime on Apple Silicon GPU, once per song, cached
- CPU on stage
- Minimal, just playing another stem
- Sync
- Warp markers, tempo, transpose, loop points
- Dial
- MIDI-mappable, automatable, 0 to 100
- Engine
- 200 MB download on first load, one time
- Requires
- Live 12 Suite, macOS 13+, any Apple CPU
Drop it on a track. Press Process. Done.
Isovocal sits on an audio track like any Live device. Launch a warped Session clip and press Process. On an Apple Silicon Mac the GPU does the work and a typical track is ready in about twenty seconds. Then the dial is yours.
Every processed song stays in the cache, so prepping a set is something you do once. Load the same clips next week and they are ready before you are.
Questions, answered.
- Is the vocal isolation real time?
- The dial is real time. The separation is not: each song is processed once, offline, in well under a minute on Apple Silicon, then cached. On stage the device only reads from a buffer, so the CPU cost during a set is close to zero.
- How is this different from Ableton's built-in stem separation?
- Live 12 bounces stems out as new clips on new tracks. Isovocal keeps your clip a clip: one MIDI-mappable dial morphs between instrumental, the original track and the bare vocal, in sync with the playing clip, with nothing added to your set.
- What do I need to run it?
- Ableton Live 12 Suite (it is a Max for Live audio effect) on macOS 13 or newer, Apple Silicon or Intel. Windows is not supported yet.
- How good is the separation?
- It runs Demucs v4, the hybrid transformer model from Meta AI research. It is the same model family behind the stem tools used in commercial DJ software, running locally on your machine.
- Does it touch my clips or my project?
- No. It reads the clip's file path, warp markers, tempo and transpose through the Live API and writes nothing back. Your project stays exactly as it was.
- What happens if I change the tempo or warp markers later?
- The device notices and shows a Process button. The previous render keeps playing, still in time, until you re-process. Re-processing takes seconds because the separation itself is cached.
- Which audio formats work?
- Anything Ableton Live can warp: WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A, FLAC and more. The clip needs to be warped and in a Session slot.
- Is there an internet connection required?
- Only when the device is downloaded and the initial fetch of the 200MB engine when first loaded. Processing and playback are fully offline.
Isovocal. $23.
One dial, any track, your set.
Requires Ableton Live 12 Suite on macOS, Apple Silicon or Intel.
Instant download, free updates. If it does not work in your set, reply to the receipt and you get your money back.
Isovocal is made and sold by Drop Frame. Checkout is handled by Stripe, and your card statement will say DROP FRAME.