Isolate drums from a song
Free, up to 6 minutes, powered by Demucs. Then transcribe the stem to MIDI with CedarGrooveNET.
Drop a song here, or
WAV, FLAC, AIFF or MP3 · up to 6 minutes · 100 MB
What you get
One WAV file, 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo: the isolated drum track. If you want the vocals, bass and other stems, or a drumless or bassless backing track as well, the stem splitter is the same tool in All stems mode. Separation takes about as long as the song is; the page counts down while it runs.
From drums to MIDI
Once the stem is ready, Transcribe these drums sends it straight to the CedarGrooveNET converter and lands you in the grid with the pattern already loaded. The transcriber takes the whole stem, up to 6 minutes like the splitter, and lets you pick the 16 bars to transcribe on its waveform. The transcriber reads the BPM out of the song's filename, so put it there before you upload if you know it (Break_BPM174.wav); otherwise it measures the tempo from the audio. Expect kick, snare and toms to come back reliably while hi-hat, ride and crash are where you will make corrections.
Questions
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Answers searches like: isolate drums from a song, separate drums from a song, extract drum track from song, drum stem separation, demucs drums, drum stem to midi.
Can CedarGrooveNET separate the drums for me?
Yes. The tool at the top of this page runs Demucs on our server and hands back the isolated drum stem. It accepts songs up to six minutes long, and the file is deleted automatically about an hour after the job finishes. If you also want the the vocals, bass and other stems, or a drumless or bassless backing track, use the stem splitter.
How long can the song be?
Up to six minutes. WAV, AIFF and FLAC files that are too long are refused in your browser before anything is uploaded; MP3 length is checked on the server.
What do I get back?
One WAV file, 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo: the isolated drum track. For the vocals, bass, other and a drumless backing track, use the stem splitter.
Do you keep my file?
Your file and the separated stems are stored on our server while the job runs and for one hour afterwards, then deleted automatically. Transcription on its own still keeps your audio in memory and never writes it to disk.
Will this work on a live recording with room mics?
Partly. The separator will give you a drums stem from a live recording, but room mics and audience noise leave bleed and reverb tails in it, and reverb tails smear the onsets the transcriber depends on. Close-miked studio drums separate cleanly; a phone recording of a room usually does not produce a usable transcription. If you have the individual drum microphone tracks, skip separation entirely and transcribe a rough mix of those instead.
What if my song is 5 minutes long?
Separation and transcription both accept songs up to six minutes. The transcriber analyses the first 16 bars, so for the best result trim the drum stem to the two to four bars you want before pressing Transcribe selection. The trim tool is on the stem row.
Does the stem need to be at the original tempo?
Yes, leave the tempo alone. CedarGrooveNET reads the BPM out of the filename — both Break_BPM174.wav and 90bpm.wav are recognised, and any value from 30 to 300 is accepted. If the filename has no number, the transcriber measures the tempo from the audio and tells you what it found; put the BPM in the song's filename before you upload if you already know it, and leave the tempo alone. Time-stretching the stem to a rounder tempo only adds artefacts.