Backing Track vs Instrumental vs Karaoke: What Is the Difference
Backing track vs instrumental vs karaoke track: what each one is, which one a singer needs and when, and where a karaoke video with the words fits in.
Backing track, instrumental and karaoke track get used as if they meant the same thing, in shops, on forums and in audition notices. They overlap, but the difference decides whether the file you bring suits the job. Here is what each one is, which one a singer needs and when, and where a karaoke video fits.
The short answer
- Instrumental: the finished song with the vocals left out, usually a version the artist or label puts out.
- Backing track: any recording you perform over. It is named for the job it does, so it can be an instrumental, a re-recording or a band's own pre-recorded parts.
- Karaoke track: a backing track made for singing along. The lead vocal is gone, and the backing vocals often stay so the chorus still sounds full.
- Karaoke video: a karaoke track with the words on screen, each one lighting up as it is sung, so anyone can follow a song they do not know by heart.
Instrumental: the song without a voice
An instrumental is the record with the vocals left out of the mix. Artists and labels often release one beside the main version, or supply one for film, TV and adverts. In hip-hop and a lot of pop writing it is also the starting point: the beat a producer sells or leases to an artist, who writes a verse or a topline over it.
For a singer, an official instrumental is as faithful as a backing track gets, because it is the record itself. The catch is availability. Plenty of songs never get one, and the ones that do usually lose the backing vocals too, so a big chorus can feel thin with only your voice on top.
Backing track: named for the job, not the contents
A backing track is whatever recording you perform live over. The name describes how it is used, not what is in it: an official instrumental becomes a backing track the moment you sing over it at an open mic.
Backing tracks sold for singers are usually re-recordings by session players, often offered in a choice of keys, with or without backing vocals. That is their strength: the right one sits in your key, runs the length you need and needs no screen.
Karaoke track: a backing track built for singing along
A karaoke track is a backing track for singing a song as it goes, rather than performing your own arrangement of it. The lead vocal is gone, the arrangement follows the record as closely as its maker could manage, and the backing vocals often stay, so the chorus still lands when the whole room joins in.
For decades most karaoke tracks were re-recordings, because the record without its singer rarely left the studio that made it. They came with the words on screen, on CD+G discs and later as MP3+G files, each line changing colour as it was sung. Good ones are close to the record; cheaper ones drift in small ways, a guitar tone or a tempo, that you notice most when you sing.
Karaoke video: the track and the words, in time
A karaoke video is a karaoke track with the lyrics on screen, timed to the music. It is what plays on the TV at a karaoke night, on a karaoke channel and in a singing lesson. The line being sung is set large, its words light up as they are sung, and the next line waits underneath, smaller and faded, so whoever holds the microphone can read ahead.
The timing is the point. A highlight that moves word by word tells the singer when to come in and how long to hold a note, which an audio file on its own cannot do. A karaoke video works for a song you half know; a backing track works best for one you know cold.
A lyric video is the nearest relative, and a different thing: it plays the song as released, vocals in, with the words shown line by line. If you want the vocal left in, how to make a lyric video covers that format.
Which one do you need?
- Learning a new song: a karaoke video with a quiet guide vocal under the music, so you hear how each line goes while you read it. See practise singing with a guide vocal.
- A gig, a wedding or a function: a backing track in your key. By then the words need to be in your head, not on a screen.
- An audition: exactly what the panel asks for, usually a backing track, often cut to a set length.
- Writing a topline or a verse: an instrumental, and if you plan to release what you write, one you have licensed.
- Vocal lessons: a karaoke video, with the guide vocal up while a student learns the melody and down to 0 once they have it.
- A karaoke night at home, a party or a bar: karaoke videos on the biggest screen in the room. See karaoke night videos for a party or a bar.
- A karaoke channel: karaoke videos of your own songs, of songs you have licensed, or of songs whose owners allow it.
Making a karaoke video from the song you already have
The old obstacle was the music: you needed an instrumental or a re-recording before you could start, and many songs have neither. Karaoke starts from the full song instead. Upload it as it is, vocals and all, as an MP3 or WAV of 30 seconds to 10 minutes and up to 200 MB, and the music plays without the vocals, in the preview and in the finished video. A song is prepared once, the first time you open it in Karaoke. Meanwhile the full song plays, the frame stays open to edit, and Render waits until it is ready.
Paste the words, one line per sung line, and every word is timed to the song; choose Wipe or Pop for how each one lights up. If a line lands early or late, drag it under the waveform.
Vocal volume lets one project serve more than one of the needs above. At 0 you hear the music alone; turn it up and the original singer comes back underneath as a guide, up to the full vocal at 100. The render uses the same mix you hear, and renders are unlimited on the Creator plan, so a version with a guide and one without are simply two renders. How to make a karaoke video has every step.
When a karaoke video is the wrong choice
Karaoke makes a video, so it is built for a screen. If there is nothing to watch, at a wedding, a function or an open mic, a backing track is the simpler thing to bring.
Rights come with the song
Whichever version you use, the song still belongs to someone. A karaoke video carries the song's music and its words, which belong to the people who wrote and recorded them, and taking the vocals out does not change that. Post karaoke versions of your own songs, of songs you have licensed, or of songs whose owners allow it, and expect YouTube to check the upload against Content ID as it does any music.
Have a song you want to sing? Start a karaoke video with the full track and the words, and decide how much of the singer to keep.