Make a play along track from any song
Upload your own copy of a song — a file you have the rights to use — and Stairway2Fast splits it into six instrument tracks. Mute the track for your instrument and what's left is a minus-one: the rest of the band, ready to play along with, looped and slowed to whatever speed you can manage today. This works on files you upload only — it does not, and cannot, split YouTube videos.
▶ Open the app — the loop & slow core is free, no signup
How it works
- Upload a song. Your own copy — a purchased download, a rip of a CD you own, a recording of your band or your lesson. Uploading is free; it lands in your library like any other video or audio file.
- It splits into six tracks (Pro). Vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano, and "other" (everything else — strings, synths, percussion). The split runs on our servers and takes a few minutes; you'll see the tracks appear on the player when it's done. "Play along" — muting one track and hearing the other five together — is prepared the same way: the first time you choose it after a split, give it a moment to build that mix before it plays.
- Mute your instrument and play. Solo and Play along controls sit right in the player, alongside Full mix to bring everything back. Kill the guitar track and you're the guitarist; kill the vocal and it's a karaoke-grade backing track from the actual song, not a MIDI imitation. The loop handles and speed control work exactly as they do everywhere else — and everything stays in sync, because the split tracks share the original recording's timeline.
That last point is what makes it a practice tool rather than a novelty: you can frame the eight bars you can't play yet, drop the whole minus-one to 0.7× with the pitch untouched, and drill it with the real band behind you.
What splits well — honestly
Separation quality varies by instrument, and we'd rather you know before you spend a separation. Vocals, drums, and bass split cleanest — these are the mature cases, and the results are good enough for serious practice. Guitar and piano are experimental and separate less cleanly: on dense mixes they can smear into each other or into "other". If your goal is a drumless track or an isolated bass line, you're in the strongest territory — that use case has its own page.
You get 15 separations a month included with Pro, use-it-or-lose-it, and packs of 50 separations that never expire for £6 / €6.99 / $7.49 if you need more in a given month.
Don't have a file to upload yet? Quick Jam builds a live backing track from a chord progression you type — no upload, no split, and it's free — a different route to the same "play along" feeling.
The part that stays yours: the record
Most play-along workflows end when the audio stops. Here, the song you uploaded behaves like every other item in your library: it remembers its named loops ("bridge", "solo bars 3–4"), the speed you left off at, and every minute you practised against it. Weeks later you can see the climb — the day the solo you started at 0.6× finally hit 0.9× — with the streaks and per-song history that make it worth coming back tomorrow.
Free vs Pro, honestly
The core of Stairway2Fast — looping, pitch-preserved slow-down, named loops, and all the practice tracking — is free, no signup, on any YouTube video. Uploading your own audio or video file is free too, on a free account, and sits in your library exactly like a YouTube video. What's paid is the splitting itself: Pro (£4.99 / €5.99 / $6 a month, or £47 / €57 / $58 a year) adds the monthly allowance of song splits, cloud sync for your own uploads across devices, and the deeper practice insights. If you never need a minus-one, the free tier is not a trial — it's the product.
FAQ
Can it split a YouTube video into tracks?
No — unambiguously no. Track-splitting works only on files you upload: your own copy of a song or your own recording. YouTube videos play through YouTube's own embedded player; nothing is downloaded or extracted from them, and no tool in this app rips YouTube audio. If the music you want a minus-one of only exists to you as a YouTube video, this feature can't help — you'd need to own a copy of the recording.
Which instruments split best?
Vocals, drums, and bass come out cleanest. Guitar and piano are experimental and separate less cleanly — often useful, sometimes smeared on dense mixes. The sixth track, "other", catches everything that isn't one of the five named instruments.
Do I own the result?
The split tracks are made from your file, for your own practice use, stored in your account and deletable by you. You must have the rights to the audio you upload — your own purchases, your own recordings — and what you may do with the results is governed by the rights you hold in the original. We don't claim any ownership of your music.
What's a minus-one track?
A recording of a song with one part removed — the part you play — so you can supply it yourself. It's the practice-room cousin of karaoke (which is a minus-one for vocals). Musicians also call it a play-along or a backing track; the point is that you rehearse your part against the real arrangement, in time, in key, at a speed you choose.
Is there a free way to try the practice side first?
Yes — the whole loop/slow/track workflow is free with no signup on YouTube videos. Get the practice habit going there; upgrade when you want minus-ones and your uploads synced in the same library.
Stop practising alone. Upload the song, mute your chair in the band, and play the part — looped, slowed, and remembered.