---
name: voice-isolator
description: Remove background noise and isolate vocals or speech from audio files using the ElevenLabs Voice Isolator API.
license: MIT
---

# ElevenLabs Voice Isolator

Removes background noise from audio and isolates vocals/speech — useful for cleaning up noisy recordings, prepping audio for transcription, or pulling dialogue out of a mixed track.

> **Setup:** See [Installation Guide](references/installation.md). For JavaScript, use `@elevenlabs/*` packages only.

## Quick Start

### Python

```python
from elevenlabs import ElevenLabs

client = ElevenLabs()

with open("noisy.mp3", "rb") as audio_file:
    audio_stream = client.audio_isolation.convert(audio=audio_file)

with open("clean.mp3", "wb") as f:
    for chunk in audio_stream:
        f.write(chunk)
```

### JavaScript

```javascript
import { ElevenLabsClient } from "@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js";
import { createReadStream, createWriteStream } from "fs";

const client = new ElevenLabsClient();

const audioStream = await client.audioIsolation.convert({
  audio: createReadStream("noisy.mp3"),
});

audioStream.pipe(createWriteStream("clean.mp3"));
```

### cURL

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/audio-isolation" \
  -H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" \
  -F "audio=@noisy.mp3" \
  --output clean.mp3
```

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `audio` | file (required) | — | Audio file with vocals/speech to isolate |
| `file_format` | string | `other` | `other` for any encoded audio, or `pcm_s16le_16` for 16-bit PCM mono @ 16kHz little-endian (lower latency) |

## Isolating from a URL

```python
import requests
from io import BytesIO
from elevenlabs import ElevenLabs

client = ElevenLabs()

audio_url = "https://example.com/noisy.mp3"
response = requests.get(audio_url)
audio_data = BytesIO(response.content)

audio_stream = client.audio_isolation.convert(audio=audio_data)

with open("clean.mp3", "wb") as f:
    for chunk in audio_stream:
        f.write(chunk)
```

## Low-Latency PCM Input

If you already have raw 16-bit PCM mono @ 16kHz, passing `file_format="pcm_s16le_16"` skips decoding and reduces latency:

```python
audio_stream = client.audio_isolation.convert(
    audio=pcm_bytes,
    file_format="pcm_s16le_16",
)
```

## Supported Formats

Any common encoded audio/video container works as input (MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, WebM, MP4, etc.). Response is a streamed MP3 by default.

## Common Workflows

- **Clean up interview/podcast recordings** — strip room tone, HVAC, traffic before editing.
- **Prep noisy audio for Speech-to-Text** — isolate voice first, then pass through `speech_to_text.convert()` for better transcription accuracy.
- **Extract dialogue from mixed tracks** — pull vocals out of a track with music/SFX.
- **Pre-processing for Voice Changer** — isolate the source voice before applying voice transformation.

## Error Handling

```python
try:
    audio_stream = client.audio_isolation.convert(audio=audio_file)
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Voice isolation failed: {e}")
```

Common errors:
- **401**: Invalid API key
- **422**: Invalid parameters (e.g. wrong `file_format` for the supplied audio)
- **429**: Rate limit exceeded

## References

- [Installation Guide](references/installation.md)