ReMuse ReMuse:KIT

Too much bleed on your close mics? Channel went down during your tracking session? This clever drum unmixing app could save the day...

ReMuse:KIT is a handy standalone application from ReMuse that appears to use machine learning to identify and then separate out individual drums from bleed, or even from a full drum kit recording — the idea being that you can extract and then either manipulate the individual kit pieces, or use them as triggers alongside an original stereo recording. It is compatible with Mac and Windows machines, and is available both to rent and to buy. You’ll need an online connection for authorisation, which uses a serial number, but having done that once you’ll always be able to work offline.

Overview

Operation really couldn’t be simpler. First, you must import the drum file, and you can do this using a button and file browser, or simply by dragging the file from your OS’s file browser onto ReMuse:KIT’s GUI.

Next, using a drop‑down menu, you tell the app what is in the recording — for example, it might be an ‘image mic’ of the whole kit (a drum mix, a room mic or overheads, for example), or it might be a close mic used on the kick, snare or toms and the file includes some bleed that you wish to eliminate or attenuate. Neatly, if a drum is named in the file, it will default to what’s probably the right answer, which is a nice touch.

Finally, you decide if you’d like the app to perform a full or partial extraction: there’s a wet/dry slider on the right for this. Then just hit Go. ReMuse:KIT will do its thing, which it does admirably quickly, leaving you with a new file. By default, this will be placed in the same folder as the first file imported into the session (I noticed that if I then imported a second file from a different location, the result would appear in he same folder as the first). Happily, there’s also a settings cog on the app, and this allows you to define the folder where your results will be written.

In The Real World

So, operation is simple — but just how good are the results? I tested ReMuse:KIT on my M1 MacBook Pro, trying it out with several files of different types. And I started with the hardest: a full stereo drum loop, which I defined as an ‘image mic’. Once ReMuse:KIT had done its thing, I imported the results into a Reaper DAW project alongside the original file and my first impressions were decent. It’s important, though, to say that the extraction for this particular source wasn’t perfect: there was a little ‘echo’ after the kick, for example, and the cymbals in particular sounded somewhat gated. Also, when playing all the extracted parts together, while they didn’t sound terrible they certainly didn’t null with the original. It might have been nice, I thought, to have an ‘everything else’ file... and on checking this point with ReMuse, I was told that this is already planned and will be coming in an update that may well be available by the time that you read this review.

Importantly, the results were very useful in practice. For instance, I was able to play the original track, and then have separate kick and snare tracks beneath it in Reaper, giving me the ability to gate, EQ and saturate the new standalone kick part (effectively parallel processing the kick) to create a very different composite sound. Similarly, I was able to use the snare track, with a little gating, to trigger a very believable reverb only on the snare, again changing the overall vibe of the loop. Alongside the original drum loop, this all sounded gratifyingly ‘natural’.

Next up, I tried to use ReMuse:KIT to tackle some significant unwanted bleed on individual kit mics, where the bleed was causing problematic phase cancellation with other mics used on other kit pieces, and this is where ReMuse:KIT really comes into its own. Dragging a raw snare mic track onto the GUI, ReMuse:KIT recognised that this was a snare part, and pre‑selected that option. Hitting Go (with the processing 100% wet) I was soon presented with two files: one the dry, de‑bled snare, and the other containing the bleed. Bringing these into Reaper, I could see and hear instantly that the results would be far more useful.

I was left with a beautifully dry snare track that I could process as I wished, to reinforce the overheads and room mic.

Focusing on the de‑bled snare, the separation was impressive, though there were still ghost elements from the kick. Thankfully, these were now low enough that I could use Reaper’s Dynamic Split (equivalent to Pro Tools’ Strip Silence) to eliminate these unwanted elements — this didn’t cause any unwanted change in tonality of the kick in either the kick mic or the overheads. I was left with a beautifully dry snare track that I could process as I wished to reinforce the overheads and room mic, and a separate track whose fader I could ride to remove or set the desired level of bleed. Often, I find that stripping all the bleed out of a snare track can cause havoc with the sound of the overheads, so it’s great to have individual control like this. What’s more, I then tried processing the same snare file but instructing ReMuse:KIT that I wanted to extract only the kick. It did this very successfully. So if, say, a kick drum mic went down on a recording session or gig, the chances are that you’d be able to extract a very usable kick trigger from another mic. I had similar joy separating kick drums and toms from bleed on their own mics, and that allowed me to get very surgical with a kick sound. I could boost some of the beater’s attack, where doing that previously would have brought up all sorts of cymbal and snare detritus.

ReMuse:KIT works best on close mics, but it can extract individual drums from full kit recordings and loops too. The extraction in this scenario may not be perfect — but it’s good enough that you can finish the job using more traditional editing tools, such as Reaper’s Dynamic Split (pictured).

I should point out that if you do want to attempt the sort of gating or Strip Silence‑style processing I’ve described above, you could come a cropper with more dynamic parts containing quiet hits. For example, if there are low‑level ghost notes on the snare that you want to preserve, it will be harder to filter out any low‑level remnants of the kick spill.

Extractor Fan?

ReMuse:KIT has so much potential, and I’m told further developments are on the way, including a new phase‑alignment feature. Already, though, it could save your bacon if you have too much spill on a kick or snare mic and need more control over the sound, whether that be through processing or triggering samples to replace/reinforce the sound. Or if, as I said above, there’s a problem on one of the main kit‑piece mics and there’s no chance to re‑record. I wouldn’t advocate that you allow your miking to get sloppy and get into the habit of relying on ReMuse:KIT, because it isn’t perfect. But it is impressive, and in those situations where you have to work with what you’ve got, it could be a very handy problem solver.