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Stem separation tools — whether classical source separation or modern AI-based models (Demucs, MDX, Spleeter, etc.) — never deliver fully isolated stems. What you get is the target signal plus residual leakage from other sources, codec-style artifacts, and spectral smearing introduced by the separation network itself. These issues become especially audible when you push the stems in a mix: EQ them aggressively, time-stretch them, or pitch-shift them, and the artifacts surface immediately.
intrect.io's de-artifact and de-leak are two VST3 plugins built specifically to clean up these stems.
— de-artifact
A dedicated neural network trained to identify and suppress separation artifacts in the source signal. Rather than relying on generic spectral processing, the model learns the residual signature left behind by stem separation algorithms and removes it while preserving the integrity of the target source. Works on drums, vocals, bass, and other instrument stems extracted from full mixes.
— de-leak
A Spectral Gate that controls the dynamics of the residual spectrum across three independent bands (low / mid / high). Each band lets you suppress leakage from other sources at the frequency range where it actually lives — for example, gating vocal bleed in the mid band of a drum stem without touching kick or cymbals. Because it operates on the residual spectrum rather than the full signal, it's far more surgical than a standard multiband expander.
— Use cases
* Cleaning up AI-separated stems for remixing, sampling, or DJ edits
* Recovering usable drum/vocal/bass stems from old recordings without multitrack
* Removing bleed from poorly tracked sessions
* Pre-processing stems before time-stretching or pitch-shifting
VST3 demo available now at https://www.intrect.io (https://www.intrect.io) Feedback welcome.