What the piano stem is, and what it is not
A piano extractor takes a finished stereo mix and estimates which parts of the signal belong to piano. TuneSplit uses Demucs htdemucs_6s, a neural network trained to split music into six groups: vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano and other. The piano stem is audio, not sheet music or MIDI, and it is one file: there is no left-hand and right-hand split.
In that six-source model, guitar and piano are the weakest outputs. Vocals, drums and bass are the strong ones. Piano is useful when it is a clear acoustic or electric piano in an uncluttered mix, and often rough when it competes with strings, pads or guitar. We would rather say so than promise a clean stem every time.
Where do the keys end up
| Sound in the song | Usually lands in | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Acoustic piano, ballad or pop | Piano | Best case: a clear part in a sparse mix |
| Electric piano or Rhodes | Piano or Other | May be shared between the two |
| Organ | Other | The model has no organ source |
| Synth pads and strings | Other | Not piano, but can leak into the Piano file |
| Piano doubled with guitar | Piano and Guitar | Expect some swapping between the two |
| Piano buried under a loud band | Piano, with leakage | Drums and guitars bleed into the stem |
Always listen to the Other stem as well. Electric pianos, organs and synths often live there rather than in Piano.
Isolate piano to learn a part
Piano parts are dense, so hearing them without drums and vocals helps a lot. A practical routine:
- Split the song with the 6-stem option and download the Piano stem.
- Listen once with your hands off the keys, to hear the shape of the part.
- Find the key with the song key finder and the tempo with the BPM finder.
- Slow the stem to 70 to 80 percent with the tempo changer, which keeps the pitch.
- Learn one hand at a time against the loop, then both hands.
- Check against the full mix, because bleed or missing notes in the stem are easy to mistake for your own mistakes.
The stem will not give you notation. Treat it as a very clear listening aid.
Remove piano and play it yourself
Remove piano from a song is a different job from isolating it. There is no single remove-piano button: you get stems, and you build the mix.
| What you want | How to get it | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Piano only | Download the Piano stem | One MP3 with the piano |
| Song without piano | Download Vocals, Drums, Bass, Guitar and Other, and play them together | A play-along backing track |
| Song without piano and vocals | Download Drums, Bass, Guitar and Other | Band-only backing for pianist and singer |
| Rhythm section only | Download Bass and Drums | A bass-and-drums loop |
Import the stems into a free editor such as Audacity or GarageBand, line them up at the start, and leave the piano out. Stems from the same split stay aligned. The sum is only approximately the original, and if some piano landed in Other you may still hear a faint ghost of it. Check by ear.
Quality: what to expect
- Stronger: a clear piano with a sparse arrangement, such as a ballad, a solo-and-vocal track or a jazz trio.
- Weaker: dense mixes with strings, pads or several guitars in the same register.
- Sustain pedal and reverb smear the tail, and the stem can sound watery.
- Electric pianos, organs and synths may land in Other.
- A low-bitrate MP3 gives the model less to work with. Use WAV or FLAC if you have it.
- Live recordings add room sound that blurs instruments together.
The 4-stem and 2-stem options use the stronger four-source model. Choose 6 stems when piano or guitar is specifically what you want.
Pair it with the tempo, pitch and key tools
- Tempo changer: play the stem between 50 and 150 percent of its speed in your browser, without changing its pitch.
- Pitch and speed changer: shift the stem by up to 12 semitones, useful if a song sits too high or low for your voice.
- BPM finder and song key finder: read tempo, key and Camelot code before you learn or transpose.
- Guitar extractor: the same 6-stem split, focused on guitar.
Stems download as MP3. For heavy editing, bring them into your DAW.
Piano extractor facts at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Price, free tier | 1 full split a day, no credits needed |
| Download format | MP3, one file per stem |
| Sign-up | Not needed for free files |
| File deletion | Uploads and results deleted within 24 hours |
| Model | Demucs htdemucs_6s, 6 stems: vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano, other |
| Limits | Up to 10 minutes per free file; MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG or MP4 in |
| After the free files | 30 credits per started 5 minutes |
Your upload, your rights
Only upload recordings you own or are licensed to use: your own songs, sessions you produced, public domain recordings, tracks from collaborators who agree. Extracting a piano part does not transfer ownership of it, and publishing someone else's part without permission can infringe their rights. Learning a part for private practice is different from releasing a sample.
Free songs are for personal use. Your upload sits in private storage, is used only to make your result, is never used for training, and is deleted within 24 hours. Rights holders can use the DMCA contact on the Terms page.
Frequently asked questions
How do I isolate piano from a song?
Upload the song to the tool above with the 6-stem option selected. After a minute or so you get six players: vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano and other. Play the Piano one, check it against the full mix, and press Download to save it as an MP3.
Can I remove piano from a song?
Not in one click. TuneSplit returns stems, so you download vocals, drums, bass, guitar and other and layer them in a free editor, leaving the piano out. That gives a play-along backing track. Some piano may remain in Other, so check by ear.
Is the piano extractor free?
Within limits. You get 1 free full split a day, up to 10 minutes each, with MP3 downloads and no sign-up. After that, each started 5 minutes costs 30 credits.
How good is the piano stem?
Usable, not perfect. The six-source Demucs model is clearly weaker on piano and guitar than on vocals, drums and bass. A clear piano in a sparse mix works best. Dense arrangements show more bleed.
Does it handle organ, synth and electric piano?
Not reliably. The model has a piano source only. Organs, synths and many electric pianos usually end up in Other, so listen to both stems.
Does it split left hand from right hand?
No. All piano goes into one Piano stem.
Will I get MIDI or sheet music?
No. You get audio. Slow it down, loop it and learn by ear, or use a separate transcription tool.
What formats can I upload and download?
You can upload MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG and MP4 files. For an MP4 video, the audio track is processed. Every stem downloads as an MP3.
Is it safe to upload my song?
Files go to private storage, are used only to make your result and are deleted within 24 hours. They are never used for training. Upload only audio you own or have rights to.
How is this different from the 4-stem splitter?
The 4-stem option has no piano file: piano is inside Other. The 6-stem option adds Piano and Guitar as separate files, with the trade-off that those two stems are less clean than the main four.