Is StemRoller Free and Open-Source? How to Get Help
Updated
Yes. StemRoller is described on its own site as "totally free and open-source," and it is built on Facebook's Demucs AI/machine learning research project. There is no pricing page, no payment platform, and no paid tier mentioned anywhere in the site content — the only money-related element is an optional donation link. If you run into a problem, the site points you to its Discord community for help.
What "free and open-source" means here
Two separate claims are bundled together, and they matter differently:
- Free: The site states StemRoller is "totally free." No subscription, license fee, or paid unlock is mentioned. The only ask is a voluntary donation ("Donations are always appreciated"), which is framed as appreciation, not a requirement.
- Open-source: The project is built on Demucs, Meta/Facebook's open-source music source-separation model. StemRoller also credits its NPM dependencies, Heroicons, Mukta, and cx-Freeze — the kind of attribution list you'd expect from a project that publishes its own source and third-party components.
The practical takeaway: you can use the app without paying, and because it's open-source, the separation technology behind it (Demucs) is publicly documented and inspectable rather than a black box.
What it actually does
Per the site, StemRoller takes a song title you type into the search bar, finds the song online, and splits it into four stems:
| Stem | Contents |
|---|---|
| Vocals | Isolated vocal track |
| Drums | Isolated drum track |
| Bass | Isolated bass track |
| Everything else | All remaining instruments combined |
It also automatically produces an instrumental — all non-vocal stems mixed into a single track — which is what you'd use for karaoke. The site describes this as a one-click process.
How to get help
The site's stated support channel is Discord: "Ran into an issue or had a question? We're available on Discord and would be happy to help!" That's the only support route mentioned in the page content — there's no listed email, ticket system, or documentation portal in the material available.
If you're troubleshooting, it helps to bring specifics to that channel: which song you tried, what step failed, and what output (if any) you got. The site doesn't publish a formal FAQ or error-code list, so community members are effectively the knowledge base.
Quick answers
Do I need to pay to remove vocals or make karaoke tracks? No. The site presents the full stem-splitting and instrumental-generation workflow as free, with donations optional.
Is there a paid "pro" version? Nothing on the site indicates one. No pricing signals, links, or payment platforms appear in the page content.
Where do I report a bug? Discord, per the site's own support note.
Can I see the source code? The site identifies StemRoller as open-source and credits its dependencies and the underlying Demucs project, so the codebase and its AI foundation are publicly available rather than proprietary.