How-to guide
Drum separation with Demucs vs DrumSplit
Demucs from Meta is the state of the art in open-source stem separation. In its default 4-stem mode it produces a combined drum track — but like Spleeter, never individual kit pieces. DrumSplit is purpose-built for that deeper separation.
Demucs Hybrid Transformer (htdemucs) produces excellent combined drum stems — often the cleanest available from any open-source tool. But kick, snare, hi-hats, toms and cymbals still come mixed together. DrumSplit takes that last step.
Step-by-step
- Demucs approach. Install Python, PyTorch, download ~650 MB of model weights. Run from command line. Get vocals, drums, bass, other. The drum stem has all kit pieces combined.
- DrumSplit approach. Open drumsplit.io, upload, wait 2-3 minutes. Get kick, snare, hi-hats, toms, cymbals and a drumless track — 6 stems.
- Quality comparison. Demucs produces the cleanest combined drum stem. DrumSplit produces the only per-kit-piece separation available without manual editing.
- Pipeline approach. The best results come from running Demucs first (combined drum stem), then DrumSplit Direct mode on that stem for kit-piece separation.
- Convenience vs control. DrumSplit is one click. Demucs requires environment management but gives you more control over parameters.
Tips for better results
- Power users: run Demucs locally for the drums-vs-music split, then send the drum stem through DrumSplit's Direct mode for per-kit-piece results.
- Demucs requires a decent GPU for real-time processing. DrumSplit runs on cloud GPUs regardless of your hardware.
- DrumSplit costs $0.99 per split. Demucs is free but requires your own hardware and setup time.
Try DrumSplit
Upload a song and get 5 individual drum stems plus a drumless music track. From $0.99 per split. No subscription. Credits never expire.
Try DrumSplit