Uploading and Analyzing Your Stems

Upload raw stems, let Pliris analyze them into key, tempo, sections, lyrics, and chords, then name and audition each track.

Stems are the heart of it. Upload the individual tracks of your song and Pliris™ turns them into a fully analyzed, ready-to-rehearse arrangement — key, tempo, time signature, lyrics, chords, and song sections, pulled straight from the audio.

Here's how to do it right the first time.

Before you upload

Two things to know going in:

  • Stem uploads work on every plan, including Free. Free accounts are capped at 15 songs across the account and 10 GB of storage — plenty to learn the workflow — but there's no paywall on uploading stems.
  • Use raw, individual stems. Drums, bass, lead vocal, BGVs, guitars, synths — one file per part. Don't pre-group or pre-mix them. Pliris handles the grouping for you, and it does a better job when it can see each part on its own.

Upload your stems

  1. Open the song and its arrangement. (Adding a song automatically creates its first arrangement — see Your First Five Minutes with Pliris.)
  2. Find the Drop Files zone, or click Upload to browse.
  3. Drag in all your stems at once.
  4. Before you confirm, look for the "Analyze on Upload" toggle and make sure it's on.

That toggle is the whole point. Leave it enabled.

What "Analyze on Upload" does

When Analyze on Upload is on, Pliris reads your stems and extracts, automatically:

  • Tempo, beats, and time signature
  • Song sections — intro, verse, chorus, bridge, and so on
  • Stems, grouped and routed

On a paid plan, auto-analyze also extracts key, chords, and lyrics (time-synced to the audio).

No tapping tempo. No marking sections one by one. And manual mode is always available on any plan — type your own BPM, add sections imported from Ableton, and upload your own stems without spending a credit.

Pro tip: Auto-analyze uses one credit per song. Free accounts get 3 credits a month; paid accounts get 35. One credit covers the whole pass in one go.

Name your stems

Before analysis finishes routing everything, name each stem so Pliris knows what it's looking at and sends it to the right group.

  1. Click into a stem.
  2. Not sure what it is? Press Shift + Space to preview it.
  3. Type the real name — Guitar, Lead Vocal, BGVs, Synths, Percussion, Drums, whatever it actually is.
  4. Press Tab to jump to the next stem name and keep moving.

Pro tip: Tab is the fastest way through this step. Name, Tab, name, Tab — you'll clear a full song in under a minute.

Once your stems are named, close the window. Analysis kicks off on its own.

Play with it while it analyzes

Don't just watch the progress bar. Poke around the arrangement page:

  • Press Space to play the whole song with everything balanced.
  • Try Focus mode. Click the headphone icon on any stem — drums, say — and that stem jumps to full volume while everything else drops to about 30%. It's the fastest way to hear one part in context without losing the rest of the mix.
  • Mute and solo. Standard tools. Mute the BGVs and lead together, or solo just the vocals to hear them naked.
  • Jump around. Once sections come in, press 1–9 to jump straight to a section, or click a section marker on the waveform.
  • Scrub. Click or drag the waveform to move to any spot.

When analysis finishes

Your tempo, time signature, and sections populate at the top of the arrangement. From there:

  • On a paid plan, open the Lyrics tab to see the auto-extracted, time-synced lyrics (click any line to fix a word), and Chords to see the extracted chord data. Key is filled in too.
  • Add or record MIDI cues right on the page — press C to drop a cue quickly. See Programming MIDI Cues.

Auto-analyze gives you a strong starting point, not a locked-in result. Sections, lyrics, and cues are all yours to fine-tune.

Simple vs Pro view

The arrangement page has two layouts. Simple mode gives you a clean waveform with sections, lyrics, cues, and stems in collapsible panels below. Pro mode is a DAW-style view with section lanes on the waveform and inline, draggable MIDI cue markers. Toggle between them with the view switch at the top of the page — use whichever fits what you're doing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I upload stems on the free plan?

Yes. Stem uploads work on every Pliris plan, including Free — free accounts are capped at 15 songs across the account and 10 GB of storage, but there's no paywall on uploading stems.

How many credits does analyzing a song use?

Auto-analyze uses one credit per song, and that single credit covers the whole pass in one go. Free accounts get 3 credits a month; paid accounts get 35.

Should I upload pre-mixed or grouped stems?

No — use raw, individual stems with one file per part (drums, bass, lead vocal, BGVs, guitars, synths). Pliris handles the grouping for you and does a better job when it can see each part on its own.

What does Pliris extract from my stems automatically?

With Analyze on Upload enabled, Pliris extracts tempo, beats, time signature, and song sections, and groups and routes your stems. On a paid plan, auto-analyze also extracts key, chords, and time-synced lyrics.

Can I set tempo and sections without spending a credit?

Yes. Manual mode is available on any plan — type your own BPM, add sections imported from Ableton, and upload your own stems without spending a credit.

Where to go next

Stuck anywhere, click the support bubble in the bottom-right of any page, or email support@fromstudiotostage.com. You'll hear back within 24 hours.