DubStemMix is a dub desk that is ready the moment it opens: stems on the faders, echo and spring on the knobs, the dub moves on the buttons of the Akai MIDImix. Free. Ableton Live is a complete DAW that many producers turn into their own dub set.
Facts about Ableton Live come from ableton.com (Live 12.4), checked in October 2026.
Why DubStemMix for a dub version
- Ready in a minute: drop the stems, press Space. The sends, the tape echo, the plate or spring reverb and the phaser are already wired.
- Dub moves built in: throw, drop, hold, crash, pull-up, panic: one key or one button each.
- The MIDImix to the last knob: four knob pages, two effect strips, the LEDs, nothing to map: The board.
- Free, separation included: split any song into stems without buying an edition: Stems and splitting.
At a glance
| DubStemMix | Ableton Live | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | a dub console for one tune’s stems | a complete DAW |
| Stem separation | built in: drums, bass, instruments, vocals | built in, Suite: vocals, drums, bass, others |
| Tape echo | built in | Echo (Suite); Delay in every edition |
| Spring reverb | built in, with CRASH | spring impulse responses in Hybrid Reverb (Suite) |
| Phaser | Bi-Phase-style phaser or tape flanger | Phaser-Flanger |
| Dub gestures | ready | built with your own mappings or Max for Live |
| Akai MIDImix | every control has its job | control surface for faders, mute and solo; MIDI mapping for the rest |
| Platforms | macOS 15+, Apple Silicon | macOS and Windows |
| Price | free, open source (MIT) | Intro €79, Standard €279, Suite €599; 30-day trial |
What Ableton Live does well
Everything in one place: record, produce, arrange and perform, with instruments, clips, open routing, Max for Live and stem separation (Suite), on macOS and Windows.
Which one for you
- Pick DubStemMix to play dub versions of your stems tonight, on a MIDImix, without building the set first, for free.
- Pick Ableton Live to produce music, with any routing and any effect, more than six tracks, or on Windows.
Export the stems of your Live productions and dub them in DubStemMix. Your Audio Unit plugins work on its buses and inserts: see Audio Unit plugins.
Try DubStemMix
Free, one line in the Terminal, on an Apple Silicon Mac:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yoanbernabeu/DubStemMix/main/install.sh | shThen follow your first dub, step by step: ten moves, from the stems to your recorded version.