DJ.Studio features a powerful Stem Separation tool that allows you to isolate and separate different elements of a track, such as drums, bass, melody, and vocals.
This gives you complete control over the volume and automation of each layer independently. Whether you're crafting smooth transitions, creating acapellas, or producing mashups and remixes, this tool is an essential part of your creative workflow.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to effectively use the Stem Separation tool, helping you unlock its full potential for your DJ sets and mashups, by showing you the various ways it can be used.
How To Activate Stem Separation
Activating Stem Separation features is easy, and only takes a few steps.
Open DJ.Studio.
Open the Settings menu.
Go to the Extensions Tab
You will now see the Stem Separation extension, click download, then install and activate. (I already have it activated in this screenshot.)
After the extension is installed, you will need to restart DJ.Studio, or use the Reload function from the top menu.
Stem separation is now activated.
How to Use Stem Separation
This section shows you the functions offered by DJ.Studio's Stem Separation technology and provides a step-by-step guide on how to make the most of it in your projects.
Stem Transition Editor
Let's start by looking at the Stem Transition Editor.
One function of the Stem Separation extension is the transition window. It gives you precise control over the transition of the stem layers between songs, enabling some unique transitions.
To use Stem Separation Transitions:
Open the Studio View of your mix project.
Head to the Transition Tab by selecting it from the bottom buttons.
Pick the Stems transition category from the list. (Equalizer/Effects/Stems/My Presets).
Wait a few seconds for DJ.Studio to analyze the tracks and split stems.
You will now see 4 colored sub-lanes on each track, in the transition window. There are also 5 buttons on each track for toggling various layers.
Drums - Contains the drums and percussion. (Green)
Bass - Isolates the bassline. (Yellow)
Melody - Captures the melodic and harmonic layers, like synths, guitars, keyboards, and other instruments. (Red)
Vocals - Contains a pure isolation of any vocal elements in the track. (Blue)
There are stem transition presets in the tab:
None - Stems are not used for the transition
Crossfade - All stems are crossfaded, with a slightly longer fade for drum stems.
Swap - The stems of track 1 stop in the middle and the stems of track 2 start in the middle
Full - Stems are used, but no fades are applied in the transition
Click and drag the points on automation lines to change the volume and length of each stem's transition.
Convert Track to Acapella and Instrumental
With DJ.Studio, you can easily split a full track into an acapella or instrumental version, allowing for even more creative flexibility in your mixes.
Click on the track you want to edit in the timeline.
Right-click the track header.
From the menu, select one of the following options to isolate the desired elements:
Once you've selected to split the track into acapella or instrumental, wait for the process to finish.
Afterward, the separated samples will appear in your sample library. From here, you can easily export these files to your machine for use in other projects or remixing sessions.
Create Acapellas with Vocal Isolation
DJ.Studio’s Stem Separation technology also allows you to isolate vocals from any part of a track to create a new acapella sample. This is perfect for mashups, remixes, or using vocal slices creatively within your mix.
Highlight any section of the track by holding Shift and clicking on the desired portion.
Right-click the highlighted section and select Copy Vocals.
This action will generate a new audio sample in the Sample Lane containing the isolated vocal elements.
You can then copy, move this sample anywhere on the timeline, and apply automated effects to enhance your mix.
Create Samples from Any Audio Layer with the Stem Separator
The Stem Separator allows you to create samples from any audio type, making it a fun and creative tool for crafting unique remixes, mashups, or isolated samples from specific track layers.
Highlight any section of the track by holding Shift and clicking on the desired portion.
Right-click the track and choose one of the following options:
Copy Drums – Isolates the drums and percussion in the selected section.
Copy Bass – Isolates the bassline.
Copy Melody – Isolates melodic and harmonic elements, such as synths, keys, guitars, and other instruments.
This will create an audio sample on the Sample Lane based on your chosen element.
You can then edit this in full detail with the sample lane editor.
3 Bonus Tips
During mashups, you sometimes want to swap the vocal with another vocal or a drum with another drum. DJ.Studio has an amazing button for this, called MS - Mute Stems. This feature will automatically mute the related stem from the original track. It works like this:
Select a piece of a track while pressing the Shift key.
Choose which stem you want to copy. For example, the vocals (HQ).
The audio will be split and you will see the stem appear in a ample lane.
Drag the sample to the right location in another track.
Click the MS button in the sample to mute the vocal in the original track.
Adding Automation to Individual Stems
If you are in a transition and want to apply advanced stem effects to a specific stem, you can copy the individual stem to the sample lane, add the automations in the sample and mute the stem during the transition.
Changing Tracks with Stem Blocks
Stem blocks: You can mark a block in a track and edit the stems in that block.
Example Mashups
Here are two short examples that show how I mashed up two tracks:
Discover the magic of merging classic and modern music in this mashup of ABBA's "Gimme Gimme" and a contemaporary Melodic Techno track Milkshake.
See how the party can go through the roof with Dolly Parton and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike
In this webinar you can also see some cool mashups of 6 totally different tracks, showing you how you can redrum tracks and how to do wordplay.
Editing Tracks
Sometimes you want to extend a pause, get rid of a phrase or repeat a part of a track in your mix. In this video, our in-house DJ Midtown Jack shows you all the ways how you can edit your tracks:
You can also get creative with tracks by playing around with the tempo. Every song has a different tempo. You can enforce a specific BPM for your entire mix or smoothen BPM changes during transitions. You can even speed up or slow down specific parts of your tracks.
FAQs
Q: I’m struggling to make a mashup. When I load two songs, a transition is automatically added at the end. I can’t edit anything in front of the transition track on the bottom deck, and when I try to move it, it gets greyed out. How do I have both tracks in the DAW but delete the transition window? I want full control over both decks.
A: The decks control the tempo, which is why the tracks are lined up this way. If you want to have the second track overlaid on top of the first without the transition window interfering, you have two options:
Drag the transition window over a larger portion of Track 1 and Track 2. This will give you more room to work with.
Block-select the part of Track 2 that you want to overlay on Track 1, right-click it, and choose "Copy to Sample Lane". This will allow you to move that section freely over the sample lanes below Deck 1.
Alternatively, if you'd prefer to keep Track 2 in Deck 2 but still use parts of it, you can copy and paste sections of Track 2 as samples or stems. Then, you can move those around under Track 1, keeping Track 1 as the leading track.
Once you’ve finished your mashup, you can simply delete Track 2.
Q: Why can't I use vinyl mode transitions when using stems?
Due to the algorithm, we don't support stems in vinyl mode, so we always re-pitch.
Q: What is a normal stem generation speed?
A: The speed of stem generation depends on the type of machine you have and if you have CPU or GPU enable at Settings > Extensions > Core AI > GPU hardware accelaration.
| CPU | GPU |
Mac | 0,5-2 speed | If Silicon ( M1/M2/M3) : |
Windows | 0,5-2 speed | NVDIA GPU 6-80 speed |