Music source separation

Music source separation (MSS), also known as stem separation, demixing, audio source separation or unmixing, is a technique of separating one audio track into multiple audio tracks by targeting mixed material using music information retrieval (MIR). MSS is a branch of signal separation which was established in the mid-1990s as a technology to reconstruct one or more source signals from mixtures of them. The process is generally utilized by music professionals to separate existing recordings for the purposes of enhancing the balance of the mix, remixing, or remastering. There are additional use cases where no multitrack or session files are available for the sound recording, making it necessary to rely on tools that provide stem separation from a single audio file.

Initial audio source separation for commercial purposes resulted in a file that was non-destructively separated, so that the resulting files could be reconstructed and sound exactly like the original without introducing issues when all tracks were performed simultaneously.

There are a wide variety of applications of the technology outside of music including teaching, forensics, speech separation, live sound cancelation, audio restoration, and VR/AR.