Introduction
Welcome to this quick tutorial on using SoundXtract to work with stems inside Premiere Pro.
What Stems Are
Stems are the isolated components of a track. For example, a song might be broken down into vocals, drums, and bass.
By separating audio into stems, you gain precise control over each part of the song. This makes it possible to lower the vocals, highlight the drums, or completely remove certain elements while editing a video.
This is especially powerful for video editors, because it allows you to reshape the soundtrack to fit visuals perfectly — whether that’s ducking the music under dialogue, removing distracting elements, or building audio-reactive edits that sync directly with specific instrumental sounds.
Adding Stem Tracks
Now let’s look at how to add stem tracks using SoundXtract in Premiere Pro. Like any other option in SoundXtract, first select a music clip from the timeline and click Start.
Click the Isolation tab, then click whichever stem type you’d like to use. The stem will appear in one of the four tracks below the music track. Click the stem again to remove it.
Click multiple stems and they will each stack in their own track below the music track. To play a specific stem in isolation, use the solo track button.
And that’s it. Once your stems are added, you can mix and tweak them directly in your project timeline, giving you endless flexibility when working with music.
