In this video, Tobin provides a crash course on using the new BB Stem Splitter feature included in Band-in-a-Box 2025® for Windows®. During this process he also uses the Audio Chord Wizard (ACW) and the new Equalize Tempo feature. See below for some optional Tips & Tricks!

Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Windows®: Using The BB Stem Splitter (Crash Course) youtu.be/3qJDoetj9XU

There are a number of reasons why the BB Stem Splitter is a useful tool for musicians, songwriters, educators, and students! Here are a few…

• Remixing or Sampling: For example, take an old recording and increase the volume of the vocals or turn down the drums.
• Song Separation: Easily split your favorite song.
• Skill Development: Practice and improve your musical abilities by separating certain elements of a track.
• Teaching Resource: A valuable tool for educators to create practice files for students.
• Singers: Vocalists can have fun and improve their skills by muting the original vocals to sing along with the instrument tracks or isolate and loop the vocals to practice singing like the original performance.
• …and more!

Here are some (Optional) “Tips & Tricks”:

1. Save your Song: Prior to using the BB Stem Splitter, remember to save your song.

2. Disabled Styles: You will know a style is disabled when you see an "X" at the beginning of the style name.

3. Using the BB Stem Splitter:
- The original WMA file was opened so we could listen to part of the track. Since this file was already opened, Tobin chose Use Existing Audio Track under File | Open Special | Open using Stem Splitter (Audio file to separate tracks).
- As the audio was already opened, this process is more of an "import" than an "open."
- If you do not have a file already opened, go to File | Open Special | Open using Stem Splitter (Audio file to separate tracks), then click the Choose button and select the file you want to open.

4. Stem Splitter Destination Track: In the Stem Splitter dialog, the "Destination track" is set to "Audio," which may be confusing when including only the stems and not the master. The "Audio" track is where the main mix is already located. By selecting this, you are effectively making Utility #1 the first track for the newly created files. Use the “Audio Track” for the master track, and this will put the stems on Utility 1,2,3,4,5. This is a good idea because the Audio Chord Wizard only works with audio on the Audio track.

5. Separating Instruments on the guitar/piano Track: Currently instruments that end up on the "guitar/piano" track can not be separated. Instruments like strings, organs, fiddles, etc. will end up mixed together on this track.

6. Latency with Bluetooth Keyboards: In one section of the video the bar lines are “tapped” in using the "L" key. If using a Bluetooth keyboard, you may experience latency issues which could cause the bar lines to appear late. If this is the case, instead you can just click on the correct places on the waveform and type "L" or mouse click on the “Add Bar Lines” button.

7. Audio Chord Wizard (ACW) and Tempo Changes (Equalizing Tempo Changes):
- It is important to make the first bar line in the song to be “bar 1.” In Band-in-a-Box, this will then become bar 1 and will occur after a two bar count-in. Audio will be automatically shifted in your song to ensure that bar 1 occurs after the 2-bar count-in. You can always redo this in the ACW to move bar 1 to a different point.
- Using the ACW step added tempo changes to every bar in the song, allowing Band-in-a-Box to match the song. In the Chordsheet window, tempo changes are typically indicated by a red line under the bar number. This was turned off as a personal preference. To turn this off, uncheck “Bar Settings indicators” under Options | Preferences | Display or right-click on a bar and choose “Display Options.” If you prefer to see the indicators but want a different color, personalize this in the “Display Options” by selecting “Bar Settings indicator” in the color picker dropdown area.
- The process of using the ACW and then equalizing tempo is also very useful even if you are not “stem splitting” into individual tracks. If you don’t plan to remove or remix audio from the master, it can be useful to equalize the tempo and add tracks from Band-in-a-Box.

8. Workflow Overview:
• Step 1: Open audio file
• Step 2: Save song
• Step 3: Split stems
• Step 4: Use the ACW to “tap” the bar lines
• Step 5: Use the ACW to get chords (with minor edits for form and chords)
• Step 6: Use the "equalize tempo" feature
Note: The workflow does not need to follow this specific order. A simpler workflow might be to do the stem splitting as the last step, after using the ACW and equalizing the tempo. Then you’re working with less tracks (less stress on the CPU), and the final audio is identical.

New Tracks Window Feature: You will notice a green line across the tracks in the Tracks window. This feature will be available shortly in the next build.