Distinguishing instruments in a music file?

Question

Given a music file, is it possible to split out each instrument that is being played? I.e. let's say I have someSong.mp3, and in that song there's vocals, guitar, bass and drums. I'd want to get 4 "tracks" - one for each distinct instrument. I'm guessing that it's almost impossible to do this, given that instruments can overlap, and it's notoriously difficult to distinguish overlapping voices let alone instruments. __However__ is there is a library, or an algorithm, or SOME way of doing this, I'd be curious to hear how.

Answer 1

You would not want this, you would want separate tracks to preserve the clarity of the instruments.