Split a song into stems
and take every part into your editor.

Split the song and download the stems

1. Pick your song. Open the stem splitter and select Choose a song, or drop the file onto the page.
2. Listen to the four stems. They open in a four-track mixer: Vocals, Drums, Bass and Other, each with its own waveform under one playhead. Without a plan, you’ll hear the first minute.
3. Try a mix. Press M to mute a stem, S to hear it on its own, and drag its slider to set the level. Click or drag on any waveform to jump around the song. Reset mix puts every stem back to full volume with nothing muted or soloed.
4. Download what you need. A Day Pass or Pro splits the whole song. Then use the download arrow on any lane for that stem as a WAV, Download your mix for the balance you’ve set, or All four stems (ZIP) for vocals.wav, drums.wav, bass.wav and other.wav at your song’s original sample rate and length.
5. Keep the set together. Put all four files in one folder named after the song and the version you used, so your next session starts with the complete set.

Keep the stems lined up

All four files start at the same moment and run the same length. In your audio or video editor, put each one on its own track and line them all up at the same start point. Don’t trim the silence off the front of a single stem. If the drums start at zero and the vocals come in at 0:12, that gap is what keeps them in time.

Play them together once before you change anything, just to hear that they add back up to the song. Then build your arrangement. If you cut a section out, cut it from all four tracks at the same spot, or the parts will fall out of step.

What’s in each stem

You get four stems, not one per instrument. Other holds the rest of the band, so guitars, keys and strings share one file rather than getting a stem each. Name your editor tracks Vocals, Drums, Bass and Other to match the files.

Before you build a whole edit around one stem, check it in a few places: a vocal entrance, a drum fill and a long instrumental stretch. That tells you which parts stand up on their own and where you’d rather keep the full mix.

Sending the stems to someone else

Send the whole folder with the original song’s filename and any notes on the arrangement. If you’re passing on a session that’s already under way, tell them where the timeline starts. And keep an untouched copy of the four stems before you export anything edited, so you both have the same starting point when revisions come back.

Related guides

• Pull out just the vocals
• Make a backing track for singing