Genre guide

Drum separation for metal

Metal is genuinely challenging for AI drum separation. Double kicks blend with bass guitar, blast beats create a wall of transients, and heavily distorted guitars overlap with cymbal frequencies. DrumSplit produces the best results available, though expect more bleed than cleaner genres.

What makes this genre distinct

Metal drumming is extreme — double bass at 200+ BPM, blast beats, rapid tom fills, and constant cymbal work. Mixes are dense, with distorted guitars and bass filling every available frequency. The drums need to cut through this wall of sound.

How well DrumSplit handles it

The hardest genre on our list. Double kicks can blur with the bass guitar in the isolation. Blast beats create dense transient walls that challenge separation. Clean-sung melodic metal (symphonic, power metal) separates better than extreme metal (death, black, grindcore). For all metal subgenres, the isolated kick and snare stems are still more useful for study than trying to hear them in the full mix.

What to expect from the output

Kick drums: usable for study and practice reference, some bass guitar bleed on extreme metal. Snare: good isolation on most metal. Hi-hats and cymbals: clean on melodic metal, some guitar bleed on extreme metal. Drumless track: guitars, bass and vocals preserved, some residual cymbal wash.

What people use the stems for

• Drumless backing tracks for metal drummer practice (double kick, blast beats)
• Studying kick patterns from legendary metal drummers
• Transcription of complex metal drum parts
• Rehearsal tracks for metal cover and tribute bands
• Analysing production techniques in professionally mixed metal