Glossary

Audio source separation, in plain English

Stems, acapellas, instrumentals, minus one, lossless WAV — the words behind vocal removal and stem splitting, each defined in a sentence or two, with a link to the tool that makes it.

24 termsplain Englishlinked to tools

Source separation: Source separation is the AI technique of splitting a finished, mixed recording back into the individual sounds that make it up — for example vocals, drums, bass and other instruments — as separate audio tracks.
Stem: A stem is one isolated part of a song saved as its own audio file — such as just the vocals, just the drums, or just the bass — separated out from the full mix so you can use it on its own.
Stem splitter: A stem splitter is a tool that uses AI source separation to break a song into multiple stems at once — typically vocals, drums, bass and instrumental — each exported as a separate track.
Vocal remover: A vocal remover takes a song and removes the singing, leaving the instrumental behind. Modern vocal removers use AI separation rather than old EQ tricks, so the result is far cleaner.
Instrumental: An instrumental is the version of a song with the lead vocals removed, leaving only the music. It is what you get when a vocal remover strips the singing out of a track.
Acapella: An acapella is the isolated vocal track of a song with the music removed, leaving only the voice. Producers use acapellas for remixes, mashups and sampling.
Karaoke track: A karaoke track is a song with the lead vocals removed so you can sing over the music. It is the same idea as an instrumental, prepared specifically for singing along.
Minus one: A minus one is a backing track with one part removed — usually the lead vocal or a solo instrument — so a singer or player can perform that missing part live over the rest.
Backing track: A backing track is the accompaniment of a song minus the part you want to perform yourself. Remove the vocals for a singer, or remove an instrument to practice your own.
Drumless track: A drumless track is a song with the drums removed, leaving the other instruments and vocals. Drummers use drumless tracks to practice by playing along to everything except the original drums.
Drum remover: A drum remover separates the drums from a song. You can keep the drums on their own as a stem, or remove them to get a drumless version of the track.
Isolate (a part): To isolate a part means to keep only one element of a song — the vocals, drums or bass — and discard the rest, producing a clean solo stem of that single instrument or voice.
Mix (the full mix): A mix is the finished song — every instrument and vocal balanced together into one stereo file. Source separation works backwards from this final mix to recover the individual parts.
DAW: A DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is software for recording, editing and mixing audio — such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro or FL Studio. Stems are designed to be imported straight into a DAW.
Lossless WAV: WAV is an uncompressed, lossless audio format that keeps full quality with no data thrown away. Trackpeel exports stems as lossless WAV so they stay studio-grade in your DAW.
MP3 (lossy): MP3 is a compressed, lossy audio format: it shrinks file size by discarding some detail. It is convenient for sharing, but WAV is preferred when you need full quality for mixing.
Sample rate: Sample rate is how many times per second audio is measured, in kilohertz — commonly 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. A higher sample rate captures more detail; stems keep the model’s native rate.
Artifact: An artifact is an unwanted sound introduced when audio is processed — a faint warble, swirl or echo left behind after separation. Cleaner source recordings generally produce fewer artifacts.
Mashup: A mashup is a new track made by combining parts of different songs — often one song’s acapella over another’s instrumental. Stem separation is what makes the individual parts available to blend.
Remix: A remix reworks an existing song into a new version, often by isolating its stems and rebuilding the arrangement. A stem splitter gives a remixer the vocals, drums and bass to work with.
BPM (tempo): BPM, or beats per minute, is the tempo of a song — how many beats fall in one minute. A higher BPM feels faster. DJs match BPMs to beat-mix tracks, and producers set one before recording.
Key: A song's key is the home note and scale its melody and chords are built around, such as A Minor or C Major. Every major key shares a relative minor with the same notes — C Major and A Minor, for example.
Camelot wheel: The Camelot wheel is a DJ notation that renames each musical key as a number from 1 to 12 plus a letter — A for minor, B for major. It turns key theory into simple, compatible mixing moves around the wheel.
Harmonic mixing: Harmonic mixing is the practice of blending tracks in compatible keys so transitions sound smooth instead of clashing. Using Camelot codes, you mix between the same key, an adjacent number, or its relative major or minor.

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