Spleeter (if you click the link, scroll down past list of files for details) is an free, open source program that's capable of extracting up to five different types of tracks from a song:

• bass
• drums
• piano
• vocal
• other

This isn't an version of the "invert the tracks to isolate the center" or "EQ to isolate the part" trick. It's able to isolate parts because it's a trained neural network. And it doesn't require a fancy GPU to work.

Sure, the output is smeared with artifacts and sounds like a low-quality MP3.

But if you'd love to get your hands on the stems of your favorite tracks to understand what makes them tick, this is probably as close as you're going to get. And for that purpose, it's amazing. (And it's why I've posted it here, and not in the "Off Topic" section).

The downside is that installing Spleeter requires the ability to enter instructions at the command prompt. You can find the instructions here.

It's important to read the instructions! For example, you need to make sure you've installed Python 3.6.2, not just any old version of Python. I found this video more helpful than the official instructions.

If you're not sure it's worth the effort to install, there are a couple of websites like ezstems where you can try it out for free.

Thanks ! pretty darn good.
I have tried other things but nowhere as good as that.
Might try and integrate it into Reaper, using
reaper.ExecProcess( cmdline, timeoutmsec )

Thanks again, I made a script for Reaper and video
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=605399

Watch Video

Thanks for the heads up - I've used software like this but never really gotten the results I was looking for. Maybe I'll give this a shot given the positive feedback on it.

I'm a lot less clever - I put together this simple .bat file:

spleeter separate -i %1 -p spleeter:5stems -o splits

It calls spleeter with the instruction to split the file into 5 stems. The output files are placed into is a folder with same name as the file, in a subfolder called stems.

I can just drag-and-drop the audio file onto the batch file. It's able to process a bunch of different file formats - .wav, .mp3, .wma and even .flac.

It's all your fault as you put me on to Lua

It's just using the Lua os.execute function, then inserts the media

OK, I’m not sure if I understand all this but here’s what I’m picking up.

This application generates an accurate, but imperfect version of the riffs you’re looking for, right?

If that’s what happens, then how do you go to the next step, I E to bring that riff in a quality state into your project? You’re not going to want all the artifacts to make their way into your project.

Again I apologize if I’m misinterpreting what’s being said.

Michael

Michael, if I'm reading the information correctly, you would not use Spleeter in the way you describe. The quality is not yet adequate. I found this sentence about the purpose of the utility that speaks to how the developers think it will be used:

Purpose: We release Spleeter with pre-trained state-of-the-art models in order to help the Music Information Retrieval (MIR) community leverage the power of source separation in various MIR tasks, such as
vocal lyrics analysis from audio (audio/lyrics alignment, lyrics transcription...), music transcription (chord transcription, drums transcription, bass transcription, chord estimation, beat tracking), singer identification,
any type of multi-label classification (mood/genre...) or vocal melody extraction.

If you use 2 stems setting in ezstems you will get 2 tracks one vocals and one instruments, so you get the karaoke and the acapella.

I think this is basically the same algorithm in use by Spectralayers from Steinberg. But I think they've taken it a few steps further. I got version 6 and 7 free with the purchase of Samplitude a few months ago, and in version 7 of Spectralayers they've added this bit of AI, but you can then take the 5 stems even further and add layers to each stem, they are tonal, noise and transient. So you can adjust these to taste, taking unwanted noise out of the equation and adjusting transient levels. This is a godsend for remixing a live track, say, in an overly reverberating hall. Then you can bring these 5 stems into your DAW of course and mix them to your desire.

Biab 2021
File > Import > Import Stems from Audio File...
point it to your Python scripts folder if you have Spleeter.

The topic of Spleeter has come up in another thread with a link back to this thread.
Some points:

. Someone has created a Spleeter GUI for Windows that removes the complexities of install all of the programs required to make Spleeter work. I don't think there's a Mac version but can't say that with certainty. Manually downloading the separate files and manually commanding Spleeter will work on Mac's. There's just no all in one containing all of the necessary files at this time.

. There have been several updates to the program since this discussion and Spleeter is much improved, the download version accepts uncompressed audio files and has a bandwidth of 16k that provides much higher quality material.

. Intel Pentium & Celeron CPU's cannot run Spleeter

. I believe it still needs a manual install of vc_redist.x64 from Microsoft also. It did on my system.

.Not recommended CPU's
Intel Celeron CPU
Windows 32bit
Windows 7
Windows XP
Computers purchased prior to ~2011

Some notes regarding Spleeter and BIAB:

. The higher bandwidth capability as well as the ability to use uncompressed audio files has improved the quality of Spleeter since earlier versions and is also higher quality than what was available for free on line when I last used Spleeter on line. The site I used was restricted to 11k bandwidth and MP3 files. Also, it was common to have to have my song upload in que for hours before getting my results.

. Most of the comparisons, reviews and demonstrations I've found on YouTube have used commercial pop/rock song releases. It's not uncommon for these genre songs to have more than a hundred tracks, special effects and other production techniques applied in heavy doses. Many of the artifacts remaining in Spleeter files are a result of these heavy production and high track count.

. Spleeter works acceptably with BIAB songs. I think the lower track count and less production benefits the Spleeter program very good.

. Editing and merging Spleeter files works really good with BIAB. I do editing exclusively with the BIAB Audio Editor. Editing and changes occur in real time and I get immediate feedback and instant auditions of edits, changes and renders. Cutting/pasting, crossfades, fade ins and fade outs, gain staging, balancing audio levels and syncing tracks with BIAB tracks is seamless, quick and completely intuitive and all of these tasks can be done from the Audio Editor Window. BIAB has multiple undo levels so anytime that anything doesn't work, it can be undone instantaneously.

. BIAB offers adding harmonies and fixing 'sour notes' without having to leave the Audio Editor Window and provides instant feedback and undo if necessary.

. From the Audio Editor Window, RealTracks can be selected and generated on the Audio Channel and the 16 Utility Tracks and merged with existing audio residing on the track.

. Tracks can be converted from stereo to mono and mono to stereo in the Audio Editor Window.

. The Audio Chord Wizard and analyze and populate audio files including Spleeter files in the Audio Editor Window.

. The Audio Editor has the tools along with the BIAB suite of fx's to clean up isolated Spleeter Tracks. It easily silences artifacts and can apply EQ to correct anomalies and artifacts without the need to export to a DAW.

Ace work Pipeline.