A finished stereo song
The client supplied ordinary full mixes—not multitrack sessions. Vocals, guitars, bass, keys, drums, and every other element were already combined inside each WAV file.
Audio production pipeline · Drum transcription
From finished song to editable drum MIDI.
For a developer of musician-focused apps, I designed and built a local AI-assisted system that takes a supplied full-mix WAV, isolates the drums, detects kick, snare, and closed-hi-hat events, and delivers everything needed for DAW review—without uploading the music or operating Ableton.
What goes in
INComplete song mixWAV
What comes out
01Isolated drum performanceWAV
02Editable kick, snare & hi-hat parts in MIDI format.MID
03DAW import instructionsREADME
The input is a normal finished song containing vocals, instruments, and drums. The system separates the drum performance from that mix, converts it into an editable MIDI first pass, and keeps every delivered file aligned from the beginning of the song.
No source upload · Batch runs unattended
The brief
Turn complete song mixes into drum parts a producer could edit in any DAW.
An editable drum first pass
Each song needed a drum-only audio stem, MIDI notes for kick, snare, and closed hi-hat, the untouched original mix, and simple instructions for importing the files together at time zero.
The starting point
I designed and developed an initial Ableton Live workflow using AI-assisted computer control.
Five operations in one DAW session
The prototype imported a full song, separated its stems, selected the drum stem, converted that audio to MIDI, and reorganized the same project for review.
Screen selections could silently change the result
Because the full mix, generated stems, MIDI, and organizational changes lived together, the wrong audio could be selected, a stem could end early, or an old selection could carry into the next action. It also required repeated computer takeover and carried a 20–30 minute planning estimate per straightforward song.
The rebuild
I replaced the supervised Ableton process with a local, unattended six-stage batch system.
One finished song goes inOne DAW-ready review folder comes out
01PreserveCopy the supplied full mix without changing its bytes
02AnalyzeEstimate tempo and where beat one falls in the recording
03Isolate drumsUse a pinned local Demucs model to separate drums from vocals and instruments
04Generate MIDIDetect kick, snare, and closed-hi-hat events from the drum-only audio
05Build deliveryPlace the original mix, drum stem, MIDI, and instructions in one folder
06Check filesIndependently verify identity, full duration, timing, and repeatability
Measured pilot
Ten supplied songs became ten complete DAW-review packages in one local batch.
10songs processed and packaged
22:40total batch wall-clock time
2:08average automated processing time per song
~12×faster than the 25-minute midpoint of the earlier Ableton plan
The metered core stages averaged 2:08 per song versus the earlier Ableton-assisted planning range of 20–30 minutes. Processing ran on existing local hardware, the songs were never uploaded, and there was no per-track software charge.
What the milestone proved
The ten-song pilot validated a reliable, repeatable pipeline designed for production at scale. The MIDI remained an editable first pass—not a finished human transcription.
The delivery files were traceable, complete, and repeatable
A separate validator checked the actual audio and MIDI rather than trusting a success label written by the processing stage.
- The original full mix was preserved unchanged
- The drum-only WAV covered the complete song without added delay
- Fresh reruns produced byte-identical MIDI
- Every MIDI event stayed inside the song duration
- Original audio, drum stem, and MIDI all began at time zero
A person still had to judge the detected drum performance
Technical QA could not determine whether every kick, snare, or hi-hat label was musically correct, or whether the MIDI captured the drummer’s feel well enough to save editing time.
- Kick, snare, and hi-hat accuracy
- Beat-one and groove interpretation
- Fills, cymbals, layered hits, and changing subdivisions
- Whether the first pass actually reduced editing time
- Final correction and musical approval
Design principle
Automate the repetitive parts, expose uncertainty, and keep the decisions that require ears in human hands.
“Another excellent project with Ambrus. He is extremely detailed-oriented and knows his stuff when it comes to all things music production. Our project was more operations-focused this time and he did a great job. Will definitely work with him again.”
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