When you sample an old record, you get a mixed-down stereo file. If the bass clashes with your 808 or the original drums fight yours, all you can do is EQ and hope. Stems remove that problem.
For the full sampling process, see how to sample soul music.
What stems are
Stems are the individual parts of a recording, exported separately and lined up so they play back together as the full track. A soul composition might come as:
- keys or piano
- bass
- guitar
- horns or strings
- vocals or ad-libs
- drums or percussion
Play them all and you hear the full sample. Mute one and it's gone cleanly, with no EQ tricks.
What stems let you do
Remove what's in your way
The most common use: mute the original bass so your own bassline or 808 has room, or drop the original drums so yours hit clean.
Rebalance
Want the horns louder and the keys softer? Just turn them up and down. No more trying to EQ a horn line out of a full mix.
Process parts differently
- Saturate the keys, leave the bass clean.
- Put reverb on the vocals only.
- Filter the strings for the intro while everything else plays normally.
Chop parts separately
Loop the keys but chop the horns into stabs. Chop the vocal into a hook while the rest plays as it was. This is where stems really open up flipping a sample.
A simple stems workflow
- Load all the stems into your DAW, lined up from the same start point.
- Group them so you can move and process them together when you want to.
- Listen solo to each part to find the moments worth keeping.
- Mute or cut what clashes with your drums and bass.
- Chop and process individual stems for your arrangement.
Stems from every Soul Sample Club release
Every Soul Sample Club release comes with full stems, so you can take a composition apart and keep only what you love.
