This guide walks you through exporting a full set of stems from your DAW so they're ready to upload to a Cloud Song. There are two parts: first you'll set your levels correctly, then you'll export and upload.
Before you start — don't touch these: The CLICK and GUIDE track levels are already preset and must stay at 0. It's typically advised to not adjust the volume of those tracks, or of any clip within them.
Step 1: Set your individual stem levels
Always set the levels of the individual instruments first, before touching the Original Song track:
Select all the individual stems. Do not include the CLICK, GUIDE, or ORIGINAL SONG tracks. To select them all at once, click the name of the track directly under the ORIGINAL SONG track, hold Shift, then click the last stem at the bottom.
Solo the selection. Click the solo button on one of the selected tracks. This solos all the individual instruments together.
Play the loudest section of the song and watch the volume meter on the Master track in your DAW.
If the Master meter peaks into the red, click the track volume of any selected stem and slowly bring the level down using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Adjusting one selected stem adjusts all of them together. Keep lowering until the Master is no longer peaking.
Aim just below the peak. Bring the level down only to just below peaking — going lower leaves the stems too quiet to use. Even 1 dB lower can make a big difference in consistency. If the stems are too quiet to begin with, raise them so the loudest point maxes out just below 0 dB without peaking.
To preserve the original mix of the song, only ever adjust all stems simultaneously, never one stem on its own.
Step 2: Match the Original Song level to your stems
The ORIGINAL SONG track volume must match the level of the individual instrument tracks:
Play the same loud section you used to set the stem levels.
With all individual stems still selected and soloed, listen to that section then solo the ORIGINAL SONG track on its own.
Compare the two. If the ORIGINAL SONG sounds too loud or too quiet next to the individual stems, adjust its volume until its loudness is close to the stems played together. Usually, the ORIGINAL SONG track ends up at about the same level as the individual instruments (around -6 dB).
Quick reference: Use the Master output meter as your reference for setting the individual stem levels, and use the level of the individual stems as your reference for setting the ORIGINAL SONG track.
Step 3 (Ableton): Export all stems
Once the steps above are done, double-click the loop bracket — all stems from beat one to the end of the last measure are selected automatically. Double-check that no tracks were accidentally turned off or left soloed while setting levels.
Press Shift + Command + R to open the Export Audio/Video window. The most important settings are Sample Rate: 44100 Hz and Bit Depth: 16 bit.
Click Export and navigate to the folder where the Ableton session is saved.
Create a new folder named Stems and export the stems using an underscore ( _ ) as the name.
Select all the newly exported stems (click one, then press Command + A), right-click one, and choose Rename.
In the Find: box, enter an underscore followed by a single space ( "_ " ).
Leave the Replace with: box empty.
Press Rename — all stems will now have the correct names.
Zip the folder and upload it to multitracks.com.
Step 3 (Logic): Export all stems
Once the steps above are done, double-click the loop bracket — all stems from beat one to the end of the last measure are selected automatically. Double-check that no tracks were accidentally turned off or left soloed.
Press Command + E to open the Export Audio/Video window. As with Ableton, the most important settings are Sample Rate: 44100 Hz and Bit Depth: 16 bit.
Export to the folder you created.
Zip the folder and upload it to multitracks.com.