How to Get Stems From Any Song: Free and Paid Ways Compared (2026)

October 16, 20266 min read

A stem is one part of a song on its own: vocals, drums, bass, or everything else. Stems are what you need to remix a song, build a mashup, sample one instrument or practise over a track without the vocal. Official stems are rare, so most people split the finished song. This guide covers the ways to do that, with the honest limits of each.

Use stems for your own sessions and practice. If you release or sell something made from them, you need permission from the rights holders.

How stem splitting works

Stem separation tools use a trained model to estimate each part from the mixed audio. It is an estimate. The result is often good and sometimes shows what are called artifacts: a faint copy of the snare in the vocal, a watery sound on cymbals, or a bass that loses its low end. Dense mixes and heavily processed vocals are the hardest.

The options

Your DAW

Several DAWs now include stem separation: Logic Pro has a Stem Splitter, FL Studio has stem separation, and recent versions of Ableton Live include it too. Check which version you need, since this changes between releases. The advantage is that it is inside the program you already use and there is nothing to export. The limit is that you get what that DAW offers, with its own choice of stems.

DJ software

Serato DJ and several other DJ programs can separate a track into stems live. This is aimed at performing, so check that you can also export the result if you want to use it in a project.

Free open-source tools

Demucs and Ultimate Vocal Remover are free and well known. Quality can be very good. Setup is the cost: you install software, choose a model and wait while your computer works. If you are comfortable with that, it is a strong free route.

Online services

Services such as LALAL.ai split a file you upload and charge by the minute or by plan. They are quick and need no install. Check the current pricing on their sites, and remember that you are uploading audio to someone else''s server.

A plugin or app

Premix splits stems as part of a larger job. You type a song or import a file, and it reads the key and BPM, saves a 24-bit WAV and a 320 kbps MP3, splits the stems and puts everything in your project on the grid. On an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14 or newer the split runs on your computer and is free after a one-time install of its own engine. On Windows and Intel Macs, it splits through LALAL.ai instead. It is $39 one-time for Mac and Windows with a 14-day money-back guarantee. If you only want a vocal stem and nothing else, one of the options above may be simpler.

What to listen for

Bleed. Solo the vocal. Can you hear the hi-hat or the snare?
Smearing. Solo the drums. Do the transients keep their punch, or do they sound soft?
Low end. Solo the bass. Does it still have its weight?
Reverb tails. Vocal reverb often ends up in the "other" stem. That can be useful or annoying.
Phase. Play the stems together against the original. If the sum sounds thinner, flip polarity on one and compare.

A simple way to choose

You want	Try
Stems inside your DAW with no extra tools	Your DAW''s built-in splitter, if it has one
The best free result and you do not mind setup	Demucs or Ultimate Vocal Remover
A quick one-off with no install	An online service
The song, its key and BPM, and the stems in your project	Premix
A live DJ set	Your DJ software

After the split

Stems are only half of a remix. They still need the song''s tempo and key matched to your project. Our guide to making a bootleg remix in Ableton covers that part, and the Camelot wheel helps you choose a key that keeps the vocal natural.

Watch Premix do the whole thing in 3 minutes: https://youtu.be/ad3z2sjoR-4