Instrumental Background Music Guide: How To Use Compelling Tracks Without Vocals

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So you’re finishing up your video, and just one element remains. The visuals are eye-catching, the voiceover is informative, and now – you just need the perfect background track!

Choosing an instrumental background track is a great choice when you have other sounds in your video.

For example, a voiceover track shouldn’t compete with singing vocals. That’s why instrumentals are so popular.

But, choosing a good instrumental background track is an art. Plus, it’s important to know a few techniques to balance it in your editing tool of choice. In this article, we’ll show you how to use background music effectively.

Instrumental Inspiration

It always helps to have inspiration pieces to set the bar. In the example from Google below, you’ll see the perfect balance of background music with other content.

The background music carries the tempo of the video, but it doesn’t overwhelm the content. It leaves plenty of room for the voiceover on the audio stage. This balance will be the perfect inspiration for the rest of our article.

How to Balance Background Music With Voiceover and Sound Effects

Maybe this is your first time working with background music. You go to place the audio on the track, play the preview, and whoa – that didn’t turn out quite as expected! The background music might overwhelm voiceover or feel entirely out of place.

Making your background music fit with your video is an art. Let’s look at three tips that you can use to balance background music in a way that feels natural.

Adjust Audio During the Video

One mistake that many beginners make when working with background music is to leave the volume of a track constant throughout the video.

Most apps will let you use keyframes to set adjustment points for your audio. That allows you to adjust it up and down throughout the video. Background music might need to fade in and out to balance with other elements.

Make sure to learn how this feature works in your app of choice. Search for terms like “keyframe audio Premiere” to adjust it within the track.

Experiment With EQ

Equalization is as much of an art as selecting background music. When you equalize an audio track, you adjust the frequencies of audio in a way that changes the sound. Equalizing the two tracks (background music and spoken word) ensures that they feel cohesive.

Match The Music to The Purpose

As video producers, I think we can all admit that a video takes form during the edit. There have been many times that I sat down to start producing with a folder full of footage without a clear vision.

Eventually, a video begins to take shape. You get a few tracks on the timeline and make a few cuts and pretty soon, your vision comes together. Matching audio to the purpose and vision takes practice to perfect. Make sure to choose tracks with the tempo, sound, and mood of your video.

Because the edit is so impactful, it’s important to wait until later in the production process to select your background music. If you choose it too early, you’ll box yourself into a style or wind up with mismatched music. Selecting the right track might just be the key success factor when working with background music.

How to Do Right With Copyright

No matter what type of background music you use, you have to keep copyright in mind. Using an unauthorized track could put you at legal risk or de-monetize your upload on many sites.

So what should you consider when you choose a background track? Here are three “don’t do’s” when it comes to copyright:

Copyright is not something you should risk. Check out our guide to learn how to buy music rights and protect your production.

Before you scour the web for tracks with questionable copyright terms and questionable quality, let’s take a look at a better source. Read on to find out.

The Best Source for Background Music (With Unlimited Downloads)

It’s easy to say “don’t look for free background music” for your next video. But let’s face it: the project budget is always a concern, and many producers do go looking for free background music.

For not much more than free, you can unlock a massive library of free tracks. That’s thanks to Envato Elements, a flat-rate creative library. With a single subscription, you’ll unlock the entire audio library with no royalties or copyright concerns.

Here are three reasons that every video producer should consider subscribing to Envato Elements:

With almost 20,000 tracks included, you might be wondering: how can you find instrumental tracks that are right for your next video? Luckily, Elements has a lot of filtering options that make it easy to browse the collection. That helps you pinpoint the perfect track to match your project.

Envato Elements is the perfect alternative to crawling the web for tracks. Subscribe to lock in your costs and protect yourself every time!

6 Top Tracks Perfect for Background Music

Here are six expert-selected tracks that are perfect for background music. Each of them will complement your content perfectly.

Remember, all of these instrumental background tracks are included with Envato Elements. Download them all and try them out.

Inspired and serious, this video might bring more than a little hope to your next production. It’s the type of track that you’re bound to hear in one of those uber-popular inspirational videos on YouTube. Click here to listen!

The ivory keys set the perfect stage for an upbeat yet thoughtful video. Piano music evokes just enough seriousness for a heartfelt, important video. Click here to listen!

Corporate videos are truly a genre of their own. You have to pick background music that feels upbeat and optimistic no matter the condition. This track fits the bill perfectly to introduce a corporate presentation, for example. Click here to listen!

With a splashy guitar track, positivity is sure to radiate from your next video. This track has an almost country music vibe to it that can help set the stage perfectly. Click here to listen!

Looking to teleport the viewer to the islands for a tropical video? Listen no further. Those unmistakable steel drums are sure to make the audience think of their next vacation to somewhere sunny. Click here to listen!

Producing your own action film? You need the high energy background music track to fit the occasion. Use this electronic, intense music to really amp up the energy of your video. Click here to listen!

Conclusion

With the right selection and techniques background music can add so much to your video. Balancing the music with your video ensures that the music feels like a natural addition that complements your video.

Choosing the right track is important. So is using the techniques and adjustments that we mentioned in this article. It’s even easier when you have a deep library of tracks to work with, so don’t forget to check out Envato Elements.