Stems and mixer

Stem controls choose which parts of a track you hear. Mixer controls shape the deck’s overall sound and level. Both remain independent of its section-end behavior, so you can loop a vocal section while another deck continues through a full instrumental.

Choose a stem combination#

Each prepared deck offers three presets:

Preset	Shortcut	What you hear
Full	Z	Every available part of the track.
Acap	X	Vocals only.
Inst	C	Everything except vocals.

The shortcuts apply to the focused deck. Selecting a preset again keeps that same combination selected.

Use Drm, Bass, Vox, and Other to toggle individual parts. For example, turn off Drm on a melodic track and use the drums from a second deck. Other contains the remaining instruments. Selecting Full restores all parts after a custom combination.

Stem availability follows the preparation of the track. Vocal and instrumental controls require stems; individual drums, bass, and other controls require the complete stem set. If a control is disabled, review the track’s preparation status rather than trying to compensate with EQ.

Turning every part off makes the deck silent while its transport can continue. If the playhead moves but you hear nothing, select Full, then check mute, the fader, and crossfader routing.

Open and balance the mixer#

Click Mixer in the bottom bar or press Shift+X to reveal the channel controls. Start with the deck’s Gain to balance its source level, then use the volume fader for the performance. Watch the output level as you combine several decks: parts that sound comfortable alone can add up quickly.

The channel controls have consistent positions: Gain, low/mid/high EQ, then Roll, Chop, Fade, and Filter. Drag or scroll a knob to adjust it; hold Shift for finer adjustment. Option-click or double-click resets a knob to its neutral value.

Use low EQ to make room when two bass parts overlap. The filter sweeps toward low-pass on one side and high-pass on the other; the center is neutral. Small moves are often enough when the stem selection has already removed the competing part.

M toggles mute for the focused deck. Shift+M toggles all-deck mute. Moving a deck’s volume fader with the pointer also unmutes that deck, so check its mute state when restoring a level.

Assign the crossfader#

Each deck has L and R routing buttons:

• Select L to place the deck on the left side of the crossfader.
• Select R to place it on the right side.
• Click the lit side again to return to Thru, where the crossfader does not affect that deck.

With neither side lit, the deck is in Thru. This lets you keep a drum deck playing while crossfading between two melodic decks. Moving the crossfader only changes decks assigned to its sides.

Add movement with effects#

Roll repeats a short slice while the underlying track continues. Its knob stays engaged until you turn it off; Loops and scratch explains the momentary keyboard version.

Chop combines a tempo-synced gate with a high-pass sweep and saturation. Increasing it produces deeper, shorter cuts. Fade narrows the frequency band and feeds a tempo-synced ping-pong delay. Its captured tail can continue after the deck stops or its fader comes down. Return the effect knobs to their neutral values when you want to clear that treatment.

The channel’s reset control restores Gain, EQ, Filter, Roll, Chop, and Fade. Option+V is a narrower keyboard reset for gain, EQ, and filter.

To audition a deck privately, configure Audio and headphones. When a combination works, capture a scene to recall its sections and mix together.