Feel & analysis
Speechiness
Speechiness estimates how much of a track is talking rather than music — a skit, an intro monologue, a podcast. It is not a vocal detector, and mistaking it for one is a very common waste of an evening.
In practice
It finds talking, not singing. If you are hunting vocals with it, it will tell you that you own none.
Find vocals the way that actually works: the version name does most of the job, since extended, dub, instrumental and acapella are all stated in the metadata, and a tag of your own covers the rest. Save this column, where your software has one, for the thing it is genuinely good at — spotting records with spoken intros, which are the ones you want to cue past rather than mix into.
Talking
What it looks for
Not singing
What it will not find
Version name
How to find vocals instead
Where these come from: What the measure is for and how to find vocals in practice — not a setting. Ours reads exactly zero on 49.92% of analysed tracks, which is the detector declining to fire rather than half the catalog being instrumental. We do not publish it anywhere, and a column that returns nothing on half your library is not one to sort on. For what we can measure, see how to actually find vocals.
Why it matters
The distinction catches people out constantly. Singing is music, not speech, so a record with a full sung vocal reads low — which means sorting your library by this column to find vocal tracks returns almost nothing and tells you nothing true about what you own.
Where spoken word genuinely matters to a DJ is different and more specific: a track with a long spoken intro is a mixing problem, because a voice with no beat under it gives you nothing to phrase against and cannot be blended into cleanly.
Frequently asked
Does speechiness find vocal tracks?+
No, and that is by design — it separates talking from music, and singing counts as music. A record with a full sung vocal reads low.
How should I find vocal records instead?+
The version name in the metadata does most of it — extended, dub, instrumental and acapella are all stated. Tag the rest yourself once and you never have to look again.
What is it actually useful for?+
Spotting records with long spoken intros, which are the ones you want to cue past rather than try to mix into.
Related terms
Acapella
An acapella is a vocal with no instrumental behind it, released so DJs and producers can lay it over another record. It is the raw material for a mashup, and it is rarely sold alongside the tracks it came from.
Instrumental
An instrumental is a version of a track with the vocal taken out, or a record that never had one. DJs use them to lay an acapella over the top, or to stop a vocal-heavy stretch of a set crowding itself.
Vocal chop
A vocal chop is a voice cut into short fragments and replayed as a melodic or rhythmic part. It reads as a hook rather than as a lyric, and it is one of the most recognisable sounds in modern dance music.
Acousticness
Acousticness describes how much of a record was played rather than programmed — a piano, a guitar, strings, a voice in a room. In a club catalog it is rare, and the rare ones are unusually useful.
Explore: Mashup finder · Acapella · Instrumental · All DJ terms