Production
What are stems, and why your engineer keeps asking for them
Updated 7 October 2026 · 5 min read
“Send me the stems.” If you have ever recorded in a studio, someone has said that to you, and you probably nodded. Here is what they are, and what happens when you do not have them.
A beat is not one sound
An instrumental is built from separate tracks — the drums, the bass, the melody, the pads. When the producer exports an MP3, all of it is flattened into a single file. You can play it, you cannot take it apart.
Stems are those separate tracks, exported individually. Drums on their own, bass on its own, melody on its own.
What that changes, concretely
- The mix. Your voice sits in the same frequency range as the melody. With stems, the engineer can lower the melody a little where your voice lands. With an MP3, they can only lower everything.
- The arrangement. Want the verse to run with drums only, then bring the melody back on the hook? That takes stems.
- Mastering. A WAV is uncompressed; an MP3, even at 320 kbps, has already lost some detail in encoding. Engineers prefer to master from the WAV.
When an MP3 is genuinely enough
For a demo, a freestyle, a first draft you want to hear back — an MP3 is fine, and paying for stems you will not use makes no sense. Stems matter the day a real engineer touches the track.
Here, stems come with the Premium licence (49 CHF) and with every Exclusive. Basic ships the MP3.
Questions we get asked
What is the difference between stems and multitracks?
Multitracks are every single channel, sometimes dozens. Stems are grouped: drums, bass, melody, effects. For mixing a vocal over an instrumental, stems are what you need.
Can an engineer work from an MP3?
Yes, but with far less room. They can only act on the whole instrumental at once, and an MP3 has already lost some detail in encoding.
Do I need stems for a demo?
No. For a demo or a freestyle an MP3 is enough. Stems matter when a real engineer mixes the track for release.
Which licence includes stems?
Premium (49 CHF) and every Exclusive. Basic ships the MP3 at 320 kbps.
If you are not sure yet, take the Basic: if the track outgrows it, you move up by paying the difference, and your track never has to come down.
