Ableton/Live/UG/22 Stem Separation/02 Separating Audio Files and Clips/01 Separation Speed vs. Quality
- High Speed separates every stem in one pass. It can still take several minutes on older computers.
- High Quality gives cleaner results (a higher signal-to-distortion ratio) by running separate passes for Vocals, Drums and Bass, then deriving Others from what remains.
- Crop the clip first to save time: Crop Clip Sample to Time Selection in the Sample Editor, or Crop Clip in the Arrangement, both
Cmd+Shift+J (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+J (Windows). - In High Quality, choosing fewer stems saves time unless Others is included, since Others needs all three other passes. Unused stems from those passes are still saved in the Stems folder.
- Older Windows computers and Intel Macs separate on the CPU only, so they're slower than Apple silicon Macs, which also use the GPU.
- Some sounds land in an unexpected stem, such as hi-hat highs in Others or chorused synths in Vocals. Trying both modes can show which suits the material.