Installation

Installation

STEMSTAGE is a desktop app for Windows 10/11 and Linux (x86-64), and it's one click: the app ships with its own Node.js, and the setup installs the controller bridge and (if you want it) the AI splitter for you. Every release is on the Releases page.

Windows

1. Download STEMSTAGE_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe and run it. It installs for your user, so no admin rights are needed.

2. The setup wizard then:

   • installs Python and the DualSense controller bridge (about 60 MB, under a minute), and
   • asks whether to install the AI splitter too (Demucs stems, Whisper lyrics, note transcription). It's a 3–5 GB download, from a few minutes up to half an hour. With an NVIDIA GPU it gets the CUDA build.

   Progress shows in the wizard's details list.

3. Start STEMSTAGE from the Start menu. It updates itself when a new release comes out (Settings → Updates).

Said no to the AI splitter, or setup was offline? Settings → AI splitter → Install AI splitter installs it in the background while you play. Anything else missing is installed by the app on its next start.

Linux

Package	For	Install
STEMSTAGE_x.y.z_amd64.AppImage	any distro	chmod +x STEMSTAGE_*.AppImage && ./STEMSTAGE_*.AppImage, updates itself
STEMSTAGE_x.y.z_amd64.deb	Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS	sudo apt install ./STEMSTAGE_*.deb
STEMSTAGE-x.y.z-1.x86_64.rpm	Fedora, openSUSE	sudo dnf install ./STEMSTAGE-*.rpm

Linux has no setup wizard, so the first start installs the controller bridge and the AI splitter in the background (3–5 GB), while the game is already playable with the built-in splitter. Progress is logged to ~/.local/share/stemstage/logs/setup.log. The splash screen and Settings → AI splitter show when it's ready.

Linux: DualSense permissions

pydualsense talks to the controller over hidraw. Install hidapi and give your user access (once):

sudo apt install libhidapi-hidraw0          # Fedora: sudo dnf install hidapi
echo 'KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ce6|0df2", MODE="0660", TAG+="uaccess"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/70-stemstage-dualsense.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

What gets installed where

	Windows	Linux
The app (with Node.js and uv)	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\STEMSTAGE	AppImage file / /usr/bin
Python + controller bridge + AI splitter	%LOCALAPPDATA%\stemstage\venv	~/.local/share/stemstage/venv
Songs (a folder of WAV stems + song.json each)	Documents\STEMSTAGE\songs	~/Documents/STEMSTAGE/songs
Profiles, scores, replays	Documents\STEMSTAGE\data	~/Documents/STEMSTAGE/data
Logs (incl. setup.log)	%LOCALAPPDATA%\stemstage\logs	~/.local/share/stemstage/logs

Uninstalling removes the app and keeps your songs, profiles and the Python environment. Delete the stemstage folder above to free the AI splitter's space.

Playing in a browser instead (developers)

From a source checkout: npm install, npm run dev, and open http://127.0.0.1:5173. Node.js 20+ is needed for this, plus npm run ai:setup (Windows) or bash server/setup-ai.sh (Linux) for the Python parts. See Development Setup.

Next: Getting Started