Hello everyone, I’m new to this forum. I play the tenor, soprano, and alto saxophones and am interested in this app, Spectralayer. Before purchasing it, I’d like to know if this is the best app for my needs: creating high-quality backing tracks that maintain the quality of the original WAV audio by extracting the saxophone and leaving the rest.
I’m curious to know if this is the best app for this purpose, or if I should look elsewhere. The musical genre I’m interested in is jazz and fusion, generally with a few instruments: bass, drums, piano, sometimes keyboards and strings, and pieces with just piano/guitar and saxophone. The same goes for the flute, another instrument I play.
After doing a search with AI, this program seems to be the best for separation and editing quality. Since I’d also need to purchase a high-performance PC to use Spectralayer, I’d like to have a clear idea before committing to the expense.
If anyone could kindly advise me, I’d be very grateful.
You should try it first. Create a Steinberg account and then you can get the trial version of SpectraLayers. If you cut only a small portion of the WAV file, you can test it on average computer.
If you only want to do stem extraction you might not need actually need Spectralayers Pro, and a new machine.
Cubase Pro does this, I use stem separation for practicing - though not for performance.
Separating reeds from the rhythm section (don’t know about flute) works, especially on professionally mastered commercial recordings. For example, it worked well on Herbie Hancock’s Driftin, Here’s a sample, Dexter Gordon’s sax fades out after a few seconds
If Spectralyers is better for you will depend on whether you want to fine-tune the result. Spectral Editing is a deep science and art so there is a moderately steep learning curve. Spectral editing is extremely amazing though, maybe you will love using it.
iZotope RX 12 has stem separation…
my 2 cents
RX12 is quite like Spectralayers with stem separation, but it cost an arm, while regarding spectral editing, Spectralayers is the number one.
so which of the two separates the stems better?
To really know for certain you would have to try the trial versions.
RX12 does not do saxophone specifically. It does bass, percussion/drums, vocals and others, that is 4 different stems.
I can’t understand why one would not simply download the free 60-day trial and find out.
There’s also a very good comparison site that @Robin_Lobel put together a few years back, it hasn’t been updated in a while but it will still give a good idea of the capabilities of SpectraLayers.
There are by far better tools for stem seperation than SL.
SL is primarily a spectral editor, not even a DAW - and for this, it is the best, second to none.
I wonder, why Steinberg (or SL) chases a ghost, which they can never catch. Good stem seperation requires very large modells, which continuosly improve. SL can not match them.
SL should stick to its roots and make them better (i. e. editing), fix the bugs (there are still too many of them) and become stable and safe to use.
Indeed.
For those wanting “music minus one” or Karaoke tracks, there is currently none better than MVSEP, and for backing track use, it can even be done for free.
For commercial use, or where there is a confidentiality requirement, this is of course not usable, however I can attest from personal experience that the “MVSEP Flute (flute, other)” model is superb. I have not tried sax.
You were right. I tried it and it extracted the sax perfectly. I uploaded an MP3 file and it works great. I can't imagine the result using a wave file and using the paid service.
You were right. I tried it and it extracted the sax perfectly. I uploaded an MP3 file and it works great. I can’t imagine the result using a wave file and using the paid service.
“it”? What do you mean by “it”? Is “MVSEP Flute” what worked for you? Sorry, I’m just trying to clarify.
MVSEP to separate the sax from the rest, I haven't tried with the flute yet.
MVSEP to separate the sax from the rest, I haven’t tried with the flute yet.
My independent test results:
Spectra Layer 13 Pro Bass
MVSEP Bass
I Report; you decide.
My Summary
To my ear, MVSEP wins hands down. The upper range is all there. SL left much in other layers like ‘guitar’ and ‘other’. This was just a single pass test of both platforms.
Although I have never attempted any interaction with MVSEP support, the customer service and incredible developer access of SpectraLayers keeps me squarely in their court. I’m sticking around to see what SL does next.
NB. MVSEP Security Incident
Not much chance of this happening while running SpectraLayers natively.
@PrecisionProductions if you’re going to quote me, please quote the entirety of what I said:
… and the discussion was about a specific case, not an argument for one over the other.
Great to hear that it worked for you! 