# Stems on a version
Source: https://docs.aden.space/docs/help/make-music/version-stems

Layer audio over a track version, upload the parts you bounced or record straight over the track, place each one on the timeline and play them all together.
{/* Generated by `bun docs:publish` from docs/features/version-stems.md: edit the spec, not this file. */}

## What it is [#what-it-is]

A stem is audio that plays on top of a track version: a part you bounced out of
your DAW, a reference loop, or a vocal you sang straight over the track in the
browser. Each stem sits at its own position on the version's timeline, and the
whole thing plays back as one layered mix.

Stems are not deliverables. They only ever play alongside the version they
belong to, and they are never part of a download or a distribution bundle.

## Using it [#using-it]

**Add stems.** Open the version's Stems tab. With no stems yet, the tab shows
one empty lane shaped like the lanes to come: a mic button where a stem keeps
its transport, *Upload stems* beside it, and a placeholder waveform. Recording
and uploading therefore happen in the row the stem will live in. *Add stem → Upload files* brings in existing bounces:
pick as many as you like, or drop a whole stem folder onto the mixer. Each one
lands at the start of the track, ready to be dragged into place. While a file is
uploading its lane has an ✗: press it and the upload stops, with nothing saved.

**Record over the version.** *Record over the track* opens a recording lane
right in the mixer and starts rolling: one click, the song plays and the mic is
live. The lane sits on the same timeline as everything else, its transport
button on the left like every other lane, so you can see where in the song you
are. Stop, and the take stays a draft: play it back against the track, drag it
along the timeline, rename it, and only then *Save take*. *Discard* throws it
away instantly, because nothing has been uploaded yet. Wear headphones, or the
track bleeds back into the microphone.

A take starts where the playhead is, so click the point in the track lane you
want to sing over before you press record.

**Place it.** A stem's "…" menu starts it at the playhead or back at the
beginning, and the selection bar moves everything picked to the playhead at
once. Drag a stem's block along its lane to move it, or focus it and use
the arrow keys (hold shift for five-second jumps). One playhead runs across every
lane, so you can see what lines up with what. Click anywhere in a lane. On the
empty part or on the stem itself, to move the playhead there.

**From a comment.** Any voice memo or audio file left on a version's comment
has an *Add as stem* button. It lands at that comment's own timestamp, so a
note left at 1:20 plays back at 1:20. The comment keeps its audio.

**From your samples.** *Add stem → From your samples* searches the libraries
your desktop app has synced and drops the one you pick at the playhead. The
sample stays in the library; the stem is its own copy.

**Hear it while it uploads.** An uploaded stem plays from the moment you pick it,
off the file on your own machine, and keeps playing without a gap when the saved
version takes over.

**Mix it.** The top lane is the song itself, with the same mute, solo and level
controls as every stem, so you can drop the instrumental and listen to your
vocal alone, or solo one part against the track. Mute sits directly on the fader
it silences; solo sits with the name. Each stem also has a left/right control,
marked L…R. Hover a fader to see its exact value. Click a stem's name to rename
it, and the "…" menu to download it, share it or delete it. Deleting removes the
audio for everyone; downloading works on an unsaved take too.

**Work on several at once.** Hover a lane and its source icon turns into a
checkbox. Select as many stems as you like and a bar floats up from the bottom
of the screen to move, download, share or delete the lot. It floats rather than
sitting in the card, so picking a stem never pushes the lanes around. *Download
all* sits next to *Add stem* once a version has more than one stem. Sharing
hands the audio files to the system share sheet where the browser supports it,
and copies a link to the version where it doesn't.

**On your phone.** The version's Stems tab in the mobile app plays every stem
against the song and records a new one over it: press play, hit *Record an idea*
where you want it to sit, and the take uploads as a stem at that exact point.
Move a stem with the arrows either side of its row, a second at a time, or
drop it at the playhead with the pin. Mute and delete are there too; level and
pan stay on the web.