---
title: "Review Mixes with Stems (and Let Concerto Split Them for You) | Concerto"
description: "Mix feedback gets better when everyone can hear the parts. How stems, the in-browser mixer, and automatic stem separation work in Concerto."
url: "https://concerto.studio/blog/review-mixes-with-stems"
---

ProductJuly 8, 20264 min read

# Review Mixes with Stems (and Let Concerto Split Them for You)

Mix feedback gets sharper when everyone can hear the parts, not just the bounce.

Most mix feedback happens against a stereo bounce. Someone says “the bass is fighting the kick,” and now you get to figure out which of the two they think should move, in which section, and whether they'd even notice the difference if you changed it. The feedback isn't wrong; it's just trapped at the wrong altitude. The listener heard something inside the mix but can only point at the outside of it.

## Stems put the parts on the table

In Concerto, any version of a song can carry its stems: the separated tracks behind the bounce. Upload vocals, drums, bass, guitars, whatever grouping makes sense, and label each one. The stems show up as stacked waveforms directly under the main track, aligned to the same playhead.

Open the mixer and every stem gets mute, solo, and level controls, right in the browser. Now “the bass is fighting the kick” can become: solo those two stems, loop the chorus, and leave a time-synced comment at the exact bar where they collide. The person mixing doesn't have to guess what you meant; they can recreate exactly what you heard.

## No stems? Check a box

Bouncing stems out of a DAW is exactly the kind of chore that keeps people from doing this. So Concerto can do it for you: when you upload a version (or edit one you've already uploaded), tick **Auto-split into stems** and Concerto separates vocals, drums, bass, and the rest from the finished track. It runs in the background (a full song takes a few minutes) and the stems appear under the waveform when they're done.

An honest caveat: auto-separated stems are generated by a source-separation model, not pulled from your session. They're great for listening, reviewing, and practicing against. They are not your DAW's clean bounces, and you shouldn't expect release-ready isolation out of them. When you need perfect stems, upload your own. The feature supports both for exactly this reason.

## Listeners don't pay for any of this

Uploading stems and auto-splitting are part of the Ensemble plan ($8/month per workspace), and stem files don't count against your storage quota. But playback is free for everyone: collaborators and clients on free accounts get the full stacked-waveform, mute/solo/level experience on anything you share with them.

That split matters to us. The person paying is the one organizing the work; the people giving feedback should never hit a paywall on their way to telling you what they hear.

If you mostly want stem separation for practicing (playing along with a track minus your instrument), we also built [Shed](https://shed.concerto.studio), a free standalone practice app that does exactly that.

## Hear Inside Your Next Mix

Start free, share a song, and see what your collaborators find when they can solo the parts.

[Get Started Free](https://concerto.studio/signup) [Stems & Mixer Feature](https://concerto.studio/features/stems-and-mixer)

[Previous Time-Synced Comments: Feedback That Points to the Right Moment Workflow • 4 min read](https://concerto.studio/blog/time-synced-comments-future-music-feedback)

[← Back to all articles](https://concerto.studio/blog)