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Stems are audio files of

groups of musically related sounds. A typical

set of “stems” for a pop song could be made up of: drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, strings, backing vocals, lead vocals and effects. In

the case of the guitar stem, for example, all of the different guitar parts for the song would be mixed together into just one “stem.” In many ways it is a midway point between having every single track available and having

only the final stereo master version.