Stem Visuals FAQ

What are stems?

Stems are a breakdown of a musical track into components corresponding to instruments or groups of instruments. Recent advances in AI have made it possible to unmix a master recording back into stems using musical source separation software such as Spleeter or Demucs. In Transitions DJ, we break the track into 5 stems for vocals, bass, instrumentals, kick drum, and snare/hi-hat. Other common stem arrangements are 2-stem (vocals and instrumentals) and 4-stem (vocals, bass, drums, and instrumentals).

What is Stem Visuals?

Stem Visuals is an AI-generated visualization invented for displaying stems in Transitions DJ (patent-pending). Our goal was to create a more compact and musically interpretable visualization over waveforms which are the standard way or presenting music in DJ apps. After processing the original track through musical source separation software to generate stems, we then post-process the stems with more AI to extract musical notes and beats.

What do the colors and lines in Stem Visuals represent?

Each color corresponds to one stem in Stem Visuals:

Vocals - green
Bass - red
Instruments - orange
Snare/hi-hats - blue
Kick drum - purple

Drum beats are indicated by markers along the top (snare/hi-hat) and bottom (kick drum) of the visualization. The height of drum marker represents its intensity.

For pitched stems (bass, vocals, and instrumentals) the relative line positions represent different frequencies or notes. The brightness of the lines represent volume. This representation makes it possible to see the melodic progression of each stem part.

Can I remix stems with Transitions DJ?

You cannot remix stems in Transitions DJ at this time. However, we will be looking into adding remix functionality in a future release.

Are stems available for all songs?

In our initial release, we only provide stems for a selection of SoundCloud tracks, including the songs from the Top Tracks playlists. We are continuously generating stems for new tracks which will be indicated when you see a message in the status bar "Generating stems ...". Stem generation is computationally expensive and we can only process a limited number of tracks with our resources. However, once a stem is generated for a SoundCloud track we save it and make it available for everyone. We are exploring offering a subscription to enable on-demand stem generation for all a user's tracks.

Can I get early access to on-demand stem generation?

We are looking for a limited number of beta testers for the on-demand stem generation feature. We will also be working on other improvements to Stem Visuals and asking users for feedback in exchange for early access. If interested, you can sign up by submitting the form below. You can also send us your thoughts and feedback by emailing us directly at contact@transitions.dj.