What Are Audio Stems?

A stem is one part of a song, such as just the vocals or just the drums, saved as its own audio file.

The short version

When a song is recorded, it usually starts as dozens of separate tracks: a kick drum microphone, a bass guitar, several vocal takes, synth layers, and more. Those tracks get blended together into one stereo file, which is the song you hear on streaming services. A stem sits between those two extremes. Instead of dozens of individual tracks or one finished mix, you get a handful of groups: all the drums together, all the vocals together, all the bass together, and so on.

Stems, multitracks, and the master

• Multitrack: every individual recorded track, often 24 to 100 or more. Producers and engineers work with these.
• Stems: the multitrack grouped into a few submixes, typically 4 to 8. Each group keeps its own balance, effects, and processing.
• Master: the final blend of everything, as released.

A useful way to remember it: if you add all the stems back together at their original levels, you get the full song again.

Common stem groups

There is no single standard, but most separations use some version of these:

• Vocals: lead and backing vocals.
• Drums: kick, snare, hi-hats, cymbals, and percussion.
• Bass: bass guitar or synth bass.
• Guitar and keys or synth: melodic and harmonic instruments, sometimes split further.
• Other: everything that does not fit the groups above, such as strings, effects, and ambient sounds.

What people use stems for

• DJing and live sets: layering the vocal from one track over the instrumental of another, or dropping the drums out of a song for a breakdown.
• Remixes and mashups: building something new from existing parts.
• Practice: muting the bass or guitar to play along with the rest of the band.
• Karaoke and covers: removing the lead vocal.
• Study: soloing one instrument to hear exactly what it is playing.
• Sampling: grabbing a clean drum break or vocal phrase without the rest of the mix underneath it.

Where stems come from

Some artists and labels release official stems, especially for remix contests. Producers export stems from their own projects all the time. For everything else, AI separation tools can estimate the stems from a finished song. You can read how that works in our guide to how AI stem separation works.

A note on rights

Separating a song does not change who owns it. Use stems from music you own or have permission to use, and check the licensing before you release or perform anything built from someone else's recording.

Try it

Stemline101 splits a track into six stems (vocals, drums, bass, guitar, synth, and other) and lets you mix stems from different songs on one board. Open the mixer.