Making Mashups

Install stems#

You can use Stem Separation during you free trial of DJ.studio and when you have bought the Stems extension.
⁠You need to install the Stems extension at Settings > Extensions > Stem Separation. ⁠Read more about installation.

Stem separation in transitions#

To use Stem Separation in Transitions:

1. Open the Studio View of your mix project.
2. Head to the Transition Tab by selecting it from the bottom buttons.
3. Pick the Stems transition category from the list. (Equalizer/Effects/Stems/My Presets).
4. Wait a few seconds for DJ.Studio to analyze the tracks and split stems.

   

5. 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)
• ⁠All - Lets you toggle on/off all the stems

6. 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.

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.

1. Highlight any section of the track by holding Shift and clicking on the desired portion.

2. 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.
   ⁠Copy Vocals (HQ)
   ⁠⁠Copy Instrumental (HQ)⁠
   ⁠⁠Copy Drum + bass

3. This will create an audio sample on the Sample Lane based on your chosen element.
⁠4. Move the Stems sample to another location or even to another track. As the stems are beatgridded, they will always follow the tempo om the track that you connect the sample too.

3 Bonus Tips #

1️⃣Mute Stems#

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:

1. Select a piece of a track while pressing the Shift key.

2. Choose which stem you want to copy. For example, the vocals (HQ).

3. The audio will be split and you will see the stem appear in a ample lane.

4. Drag the sample to the right location in another track.

5. Click the MS button in the sample to mute the vocal in the original track.

   

2️⃣ Add automations 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.

3️⃣ How to change the tracks by using Stem blocks#

Stem blocks: You can mark a block in a track and edit the stems in that block.

2 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 contemporary 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.

Edit the 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. 

Watch the video to learn all about the tempo options you have.