We regularly get questions from DJs and producers about the best places to find acapellas for mixing into your set or building into a remix. Spotted this morning on Reddit’s r/DJs is a brand new site that seems to be aiming directly at the dance music market, Voclr.it.
Voclr.it: EDM Acapellas Overload
It’s pretty easy to identify with the core goal of the Voclr site – finding good quality acapellas on a site that’s easy to use (we’re looking at you, Acapellas4u). The intro text puts it well:
[..] we searched far and wide we could never find a good source, we ended up using a particular website which wasn’t the easiest to use and became very frustrating, sometimes we would even resort to ripping acapellas from Youtube or Soundcloud
Voclr also allows signed-in users to quickly filter acapellas by BPM and by musical k ey- which is exactly what producers who are working on their own bootlegs might want to add in a variety of vocal samples. The site currently has over 1,600 acapella files on it – many of them electronic tracks ranging from Mr. Fingers to San Van Doorn.
There’s also a paid Pro account – which allows audio previewing, personal collections of acapellas, and no advertisements – for 15 British Pounds a year (about $24).
Acapella Legality
Something that’s interesting here is that acapella sites and distribution of them are always in a serious legal gray area – just because the audio is out there and available to download doesn’t mean that it’s legal to do so. It also doesn’t give a producer the right to use the samples in their original productions without clearing them through a rights organization first.
Nevertheless, loads of bootleg remixes are great tracks and incredibly useful for DJs – so it’s a bit of a catch-22. What do you think the law should be on using acapella tracks in an edit or remix? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Got an acapella you want to flip into a soundpack? Check out Mad Zach’s tutorial here.
