Audio Demixing & Instrument Splitting
Learn how to separate individual instruments from any recording — right here on our site. No downloads, no external tools, no technical know-how required.
1. What Is Audio Demixing?
When you listen to a song, you hear everything mixed together — the singer, the piano, the drums, the bass, and so on. A recording like this is called a mix, because all the instruments have been combined into a single audio file.
Audio demixing (also called stem separation or instrument splitting) is the process of taking that combined mix and pulling individual instruments back out of it. Think of it like un-mixing a smoothie back into its original ingredients.
This is made possible by artificial intelligence. AI models have been trained on millions of songs to recognize the unique sound characteristics of different instruments — the brightness of a piano, the thump of a kick drum, the texture of a human voice — and can separate them even when they're playing at the same time.
2. Why Does This Matter?
Our transcriber converts audio into sheet music, but it works best when it can hear one instrument clearly. When a recording has singing, drums, bass, and piano all playing together, the transcriber has to sort through all of that — and may produce extra notes, miss quiet passages, or confuse one instrument for another.
By splitting out just the piano (or just the vocals) before transcribing, you give the AI a much cleaner signal to work with. The result is dramatically more accurate sheet music — fewer wrong notes, better rhythm detection, and cleaner output overall.
Even if you are not transcribing, demixing is useful for practice (remove the piano from a track and play along), remixing (isolate a vocal for a new arrangement), or simply listening to how a specific instrument was played in a recording.
3. Our Instrument Splitter
Bots for Music includes a built-in Instrument Splitter available to all Pro subscribers. It runs entirely on our servers — you do not need to install anything, and it works on any device with a web browser.
The Instrument Splitter can extract piano, vocals, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar from any recording. You get two output files: the isolated instrument you selected, and everything else (the backing track).
Processing typically takes 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the length of your audio. Once finished, you can listen to the results directly in your browser and download them.
4. How to Use the Instrument Splitter
Step 1: Open the Instrument Splitter
Go to the Instrument Splitter page from the sidebar menu, or navigate to it from your dashboard.
Step 2: Choose what to extract
You will see two extraction modes: Remove Vocals and Extract Piano. Choose whichever matches what you need. "Remove Vocals" gives you the instrumental backing track. "Extract Piano" isolates just the piano part.
Step 3: Upload your audio
You can provide audio in three ways: upload a file from your device, record directly in your browser, or paste a YouTube link and we will extract the audio for you.
Step 4: Process and download
Click the extract button and wait for processing to complete. You will see a progress indicator. Once done, you can play back both the extracted instrument and the backing track, and download either or both.
5. Smart Transcribe: The One-Click Method
If your goal is to get sheet music from a recording that has multiple instruments, you do not need to use the Instrument Splitter separately. The transcribe page has a Smart Transcribe option that does everything in one step.
Smart Transcribe automatically extracts the piano from your recording and then transcribes it — all with a single button press. It is the fastest way to go from a full song to piano sheet music.
6. Understanding the Two Modes
Remove Vocals
This mode separates the singing voice from everything else. The output is an instrumental track — the full backing without the singer. This is ideal when you have a song with piano and vocals and you want to isolate the piano part, or when you want a karaoke-style backing track to practice with.
Extract Piano
This mode isolates just the piano from the recording, leaving out all other instruments and vocals. This is the best option when a song has many instruments (drums, bass, guitar, piano, vocals) and you only want the piano part for transcription or practice.
Which should I use?
- Piano + vocals only: Use "Remove Vocals" — the instrumental output will be mostly piano.
- Full band with piano: Use "Extract Piano" — it will pull out just the piano and leave the drums, bass, guitar, and vocals behind.
- Want to transcribe: Use Smart Transcribe on the transcribe page — it handles everything automatically.
7. Supported Audio Formats
The Instrument Splitter accepts MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, and AAC files. Output files are delivered in high-quality WAV format, which preserves the most audio detail. You can also upload audio extracted from YouTube links directly.
8. Tips for Best Results
- Higher quality input = better output. If you have access to a high-quality version of the recording (WAV or FLAC rather than a low-bitrate MP3), use that for the best separation results.
- Shorter clips work faster. If you only need a specific section of a song, trim the audio before uploading. The splitter processes the entire file.
- Some songs separate better than others. Recordings where instruments are clearly distinct in the mix will produce cleaner results than heavily layered or distorted mixes.
- Try both modes. If "Extract Piano" sounds a bit thin, try "Remove Vocals" instead — sometimes the instrumental track gives a fuller, more natural piano sound.
- Listen before transcribing. Play back the extracted track to make sure it sounds clean. If it has noticeable artifacts or missing notes, the transcription quality may suffer too.
9. Demix Quota
Pro subscribers receive 5 instrument splits per month. Your remaining quota is shown on the Instrument Splitter page. The quota resets at the beginning of each billing cycle.
Smart Transcribe also uses one split from your quota when it automatically extracts piano before transcribing.
Need more splits? View our plans for details on quotas and upgrades.
10. Your Rights
Scores and MIDI files you generate with Bots for Music are yours to use as you wish — print them, share them, perform from them, or publish them.
However, you are responsible for having the necessary rights to the underlying source material. Demixing does not grant you new rights to copyrighted recordings.
See our Terms of Service for full details.