LALAL.AI's local stem splitter shows where your audio should stay: on your machine

LALAL.AI, best known as a browser-based stem separation service, launched its first plugin on 3 Feb 2026. The first version was modest. MusicRadar reported that it split audio into only two stems, vocals and instrumental, with six-instrument splitting promised. It also noted that the model ran locally on what LALAL.AI called "virtually any hardware", at lower quality than the company's cloud model, Andromeda.

The plugin has grown since then. But the part worth paying attention to isn't the stem count. It's where your audio goes.

What did LALAL.AI ship, and when?

• 3 February: the first plugin, VST3, for premium subscribers, working in DAWs such as Ableton Live and FL Studio, per MusicTech.
• 29 April: LALAL.AI said the plugin now splits seven stems: vocals, instrumental, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, piano and electric guitar, all processed locally. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, with AU in beta. The same update added local processing to the desktop app (version 2.14.1, macOS and Windows), with no uploads and no minute credits used. Both features are for Pro subscribers only. MusicTech gave the price as £15.99 a month or £144 a year.
• 21 May: LALAL.AI published a dedicated explainer on Lyra, the local model behind the plugin since February. It says Lyra does not upload audio to its servers, does not need a stable internet connection, and does not deduct processing minutes.

The numbers depend on who is counting. MusicTech described six stem types, while LALAL.AI's own posts say seven, because they count "instrumental" as a stem. It's a small gap, but a reminder that launch numbers come from the vendor.

Why does "audio never leaves the machine" matter?

LALAL.AI makes the case itself. It points out that studios routinely handle demos, pre-release albums and client sessions, where uploading audio to a third-party server carries legal and contractual risk. It says local processing removes that risk by design, and its Lyra post calls on-machine files "often a hard requirement" for NDA-covered material. That is a vendor selling its product, but the reasoning holds up.

Compare it with the cloud route. LALAL.AI's privacy policy (last updated 30 July 2026) lists a history of processed files, "including physical files", among the data it collects. It says personal data is kept "only for the period necessary" and gives no fixed deletion schedule. It says data is routinely erased once that purpose or a statutory retention period ends, and users can also request erasure. To be fair, the same policy states plainly that the company does not use user files for AI training, which is the kind of plain answer every tool should give. But "the period necessary" is not a number of days. With local processing, the question doesn't arise for the audio at all.

Two caveats. First, local doesn't mean fully offline. Activation and occasional subscription checks still go online, so the promise covers your audio, not all network traffic. Second, the licence terms aren't consistent. The April FAQ says the plugin is node-locked to a single machine, while the May post says it can be activated on up to three workstations. If you work across a studio machine and a laptop, check which applies before you pay.

What do you give up?

LALAL.AI is unusually direct about this. It says Lyra trades fidelity for speed. In its Lyra post it says the gap is noticeable on dense or complex material and when the result has to be at its best: final mixes, pre-release mastering, anything heading to a release. For those jobs it recommends the cloud models, which also offer more stem types, including synth, strings and wind.

We haven't tested Lyra against the cloud models, and we found no independent comparison. Treat the quality claims in both directions as LALAL.AI's own.

Is a standalone splitter still worth paying for?

Your DAW may already do this. Ableton includes stem separation in Live Suite from version 12.3. It gives four stems (vocals, bass, drums and other), runs locally, offers High Speed and High Quality modes, and uses algorithms from Music AI, the company behind Moises. For an Ableton Suite owner, a separate subscription has to earn its place with extra stems (guitars and piano split out) or by working across DAWs.

The evidence from artists is thin. An r/ableton thread is titled as a review of Live 12's stem separation, with "mind blown" in the title. That hints that built-in tools are landing with users. The other thread we were pointed to is LALAL.AI promoting its updated VST on its own subreddit, so it's vendor material. Reddit blocked our access, so we couldn't read the replies to either thread, and we draw nothing from them beyond their titles.

What we think

Local processing should be the default for anything unreleased, and LALAL.AI deserves credit for saying so plainly and naming its trade-offs. Three things follow from that.

The weak spot falls exactly where the risk is highest. By LALAL.AI's own guidance, local is for sketching and iterating, and cloud is for final mixes and pre-release mastering. That is when a track is closest to release and most sensitive. If confidentiality is the selling point, the gap that matters is quality at the final stage, not stem count.

Privacy is being sold as a premium feature. Local processing needs Pro, so it's the free and lower-tier users who keep uploading. In our view, those are likely to include the independent artists with the least say over where their demos end up. We'd rather see local processing offered more widely, even if it's slower.

The business model shifts. This is our analysis, not anything LALAL.AI has said. When the split runs on your computer, the vendor no longer meters minutes of server time, so the pricing moves to subscriptions and licence checks. That suits people who iterate a lot. It also means a cheaper or bundled local tool, like Ableton's, competes on equal terms. Standalone splitters will have to win on quality and stem range, not on being the only option.

Whatever tool you use, ask three questions before you drop a client's session into it. Where does the audio go? How long is it kept, in days rather than "as necessary"? Is it used for training? If a vendor can't answer all three in writing, keep that file on your own machine.