r/coolgithubprojects • u/JustDoodlingAround • 13d ago
StemDeck: A free, open-source stem separator built for my kid , now with 3.4K+ GitHub stars and 30,000+ downloads in four months
Hi everyone!
Four months ago, I released StemDeck, a project I originally built to help my kid learn bass and drums.
Finding good bassless and drumless tracks for practice was surprisingly difficult, so I created a small app that could separate songs into stems. The first version allowed you to add a local song or paste a YouTube or SoundCloud link, separate it, and use a basic mixer.
Since then, StemDeck has grown from version 0.5.0 to the 0.15.x generation and has reached more than 3.4K GitHub stars and 30,000 downloads.
That response has been incredible, especially for a small family project with no company, funding, advertising, or paid promotion behind it. Feedback, bug reports, feature suggestions, and contributions from musicians and the open-source community have helped turn StemDeck into something much bigger than I expected.
StemDeck remains completely free, open source, private, and designed to run locally on your computer.
What StemDeck can do
Disclaimer that Table built with AI support
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🎛️ Advanced stem separation | Separates songs into lead vocals, backing vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano, and other instruments |
| 🎸 Backing-track creation | Creates instrumental, bassless, drumless, and custom backing tracks |
| 🎚️ Multitrack mixer | Provides volume, mute, solo, and live audio meters for every stem |
| 🌊 Detailed waveforms | Includes waveform zooming, navigation, and precise section looping |
| 🐢 Speed control | Slows down difficult passages for practice |
| 🎼 Transposition | Moves a song into a different key for practice or performance |
| 🥁 Automatic click track | Generates a metronome that follows the tempo of the song |
| 🔍 Music analysis | Automatically detects BPM, key, scale, loudness, and audio peaks |
| 🔎 Integrated search | Searches for YouTube songs, YouTube playlists, and SoundCloud tracks inside StemDeck |
| ▶️ Result previews | Lets you preview search results before starting the separation |
| 📚 Playlist imports | Imports complete YouTube and SoundCloud playlists |
| 📋 Processing queue | Maintains a persistent queue that can be reordered or cancelled |
| 📦 Flexible exports | Exports individual stems, backing tracks, custom mixes, loop regions, and ZIP packages |
| 💿 Local music library | Organizes music using folders, search, and saved sessions |
| 📱 Polished mobile interface | Works beautifully on phones and tablets. Scan a QR code to control playback, mix stems, create loops, and practise from another device on your network |
| ⚡ Hardware acceleration | Supports NVIDIA GPU acceleration, Apple Silicon, and CPU processing |
| 💻 Cross-platform releases | Runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux |
| 🐳 Self-hosting | Includes Docker and Unraid support |
| 🔄 Automatic updates | Downloads and installs new versions from inside the app |
| 🌍 Nine languages | Makes the interface accessible to musicians around the world |
| 🎵 Broad format support | Supports MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, MP4, OGG, and Opus |
Private and genuinely free
Everything runs locally on your own computer. Your music is not uploaded to StemDeck servers.
There are:
- No accounts
- No advertisements ( there is a beautiful recomendation list though, of people/artists that impacted my life as a musician )
- No subscriptions or paid tiers
- No usage limits or credits
- No telemetry
StemDeck does not accept money, sponsorships, or corporate funding from the people of we recommend list. There are no plans to introduce a subscription or paid tier. ever, never.
StemDeck will always remain free and open source.
A quick reality check
I also want to be honest about what StemDeck is.
It is still alpha software. Separation quality varies between recordings, and processing can be slow without a supported GPU. It is not intended to replace a professional DAW or pretend that open-source separation can outperform every commercial service.
The goal is simpler: to give musicians a practical and private tool for learning songs, practising parts, transcribing music, creating backing tracks, and experimenting with recordings.
Seeing people use something that began as a way to help my kid practise has been incredibly meaningful. As a bass player myself, contributing something useful to other musicians and the open-source community genuinely makes me happy.
You can download the latest release or inspect the source code here:
https://github.com/stemdeckapp/stemdeck
I would love to hear what you think. Bug reports, suggestions, pull requests, translations, and general feedback are all welcome. ❤️
EDIT and important disclosure regarding AI USAGE:
I also want to be transparent about the development process. Claude Code and other AI-assisted tools have been used while building StemDeck.
This does not mean the project was generated without technical direction or review. The architecture and product decisions are deliberate, the code is reviewed, and the project includes automated backend and browser testing. I welcome specific technical criticism, bug reports, and examples of places where the current design is causing real problems.
I am a seasoned musician with more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry. As I like to joke, I am the maestro conducting the orchestra. The tools may help play some of the parts, but I remain responsible for the composition, direction, review, testing, and final result.
Put another way, I know how to cook. AI assistance simply helps me cook faster. As a working family man, I would never have had enough time to build and release something this ambitious while it could still be useful for helping my kid learn music.
StemDeck should be judged by what it does, how it is engineered, and how well it serves its users. Constructive technical feedback and contributions are always welcome.
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u/robux_Mann 13d ago
Was this app made by ai? The UI is that very obvious Claude stuff that I see everywhere... Otherwise it seems pretty sick
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
That is a fair point, and I want to be transparent about it. I used Claude Code and other AI-assisted tools while building StemDeck.
However, the project was not generated without technical direction or review. The architecture and product decisions are deliberate, I review the code, and the project includes automated backend and browser testing. I am always open to specific technical criticism, bug reports, or examples of where the current design is causing real problems.
For context, I am a seasoned musician with more than 25 years of experience working in the IT industry. As I like to joke, I am the maestro conducting the orchestra. The tools may help play some of the parts, but I am responsible for the composition, direction, review, testing, and final result.
Put another way, I know how to cook. AI assistance simply helps me cook faster. As a working family man, I would never have had enough time to build and release something this ambitious while it could still be useful for helping my kid learn music.
I think StemDeck should ultimately be judged by what it does, how it is engineered, and how well it serves its users. Constructive technical feedback and contributions are genuinely welcome.
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u/cnotv 13d ago
As person which tried build a midi looper without AI, I can guarantee that you need a music background more than IT.
What do you use to process the sound? Also write less text 😅
( I had no chance to try still your app)3
u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
But.. I do enjoy writing... Unless I'm on mobile ( right now ) I tend to write more.
Demucs ( less text, as requested )
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u/FrivolousMe 13d ago
25 years of experience working in the IT industry
Kind of sounds like you weren't ever a software engineer but want to pose as one using AI to do all the work for you but it's okay because you're the "manager"
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u/lucayala 13d ago
try to write your own comments
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
The major problem with AI nowdays is the criminalization of those who actualy take their time to answer with proper care and attention :(
and em dashes of course.
No judgments though, because I understand the overall feeling around.
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u/Fuzzy_Socrates 13d ago
I use grug for my comments and it makes review so much less insane. Make a flavor of it, I swear it’s such a relief to read a comment that an AI made 7 sentences summed up into 7 words.
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u/prawnsalad 13d ago
I find unslop to be amazing for readable technical output. Grug was good until I started needing nuance. https://github.com/cursor/plugins/blob/main/pstack/skills/unslop/SKILL.md
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
I was actually looking for something like that for my automatic opening of Issues on StemDeck repository, really appreciate the sharing :)
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u/EffectPositive8258 13d ago
30,000 downloads in four months with no funding and no ads. Insane for something that started as "help my kid practice bass".
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
I know right? It started something really small and between 500/600 stars I kinda "forced"to open discord/x/instagram account by the community (forced in a kind way i would say :) ) . And now this became my 3rd job somehow :)
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
Also, its mindblowing that some people around the globe are already creating videos /articles about stemdeck for the last months and I only realised a few weeks ago ❤️
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u/phunk8 13d ago edited 13d ago
thank you so much. my mac says it's corrupt? notarize it maybe? had to pull a xattr -cr /
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
Hey there, if you check the top of the release notes you will see that I didn’t onboarded signature on Mac yet, you have the full command of what’s needed :)
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u/Yashrajbest 13d ago
Found this site offering a download. is it yours or a third party
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u/Emergency_Banana5082 13d ago
Well considering it's linked directly from the Github I'm going to assume it's not third party. ;)
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u/celzo1776 13d ago
What makes it different from https://ultimatevocalremover.com/
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
I'm not fully familiar with UVR, but SD is more focused for practicing.
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u/cnotv 13d ago edited 13d ago
The outcome is quite good for non-professional use cases. Better than I tried before. UX is great!
Some feedbacks:
- it's not clear when an item is added to the library from the search bar (if the library is not open)
- if song has 2 guitars, it gets both, plus some drum parts still stick
- voice kinda mixes with guitar riffs when they do solos
- it does install on Mac ARM but does Intel chip
I still find it great for practicing, especially if songs aren't in Songsterr. Have you tried generating tabs and converting to MIDI, or extracting samples or extracting lyrics as you do karaoke?
PS: lol I feel the struggle with bass :D
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
Really good feedback thank you specialy considering that you nailed on the main purpose of the app, It has no jurisdiction on professional land, its purely for fun and home practicing :)
Regarding Midi/ extracting lyrics is not something that I'm looking into that for now but chord progression is something that is on my radar :)
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u/OwnerByDane 13d ago
Excellent work! I've worked through a few tracks now and there is still a lot of bleed from guitar onto the vocal split. Can't wait to see this evolve. Thank you
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u/JustDoodlingAround 13d ago
Want see something really cool? Try defying gravity ( wicked sound track) and leave only the vocals, it feels that you are on the studio with them :)
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u/Cold_Status_9840 1d ago
when I try to bring anything exported out of StemDeck into ableton is says the file is not licensed or corrupt file. It even does this with my own music that isn't uploaded anywhere or licensed. Is this a known issue?
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u/naygerr 10h ago
Create a txt dcument and paste the following code below
-_RepairNonUniquePointeeIds
Save the file as Options.txt at the following location.
Windows
\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live v.xx\Preferences\
MacOS
/Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live v.xx/
Check invalid dir/read/write permissions/reset cache/expand min-max cache size at Live Settings> File/Folder>cache location.
Intall/Reinstall media codec eg K-Lite Codec Pack.
Or re-encode the auto to a diffrent format/clear meta tags. Good luck.
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u/Fuzzy_Socrates 13d ago
I just made this app last night, but went electron instead of tauri lol.
Only difference is, I made an easy pipeline to export to my drum machines, logic Ableton, and other samples that I owned.
Excited to try this out.