stems? or not?

[SoClose]

is it a pointless task to bounce stems of my project if im the one who is mixing it ITB in the first place? other than summing or any other external fun..

also, are there any mastering programs that have multitrack capabilities for mastering with stems? and is this possibly another daunting task IF the mastering is being done by myself?

thanks

how do stems master bounce mix?

 

[Vinny]

Nope,
And...
Yes.

 

[SoClose]

ok, so what advantages are there too mixing with stems vs. aux/bus mixing within the original project? besides freeing up ram used by plugins... are there really any?

and...
what are some of those multitrack mastering programs? any ones to suggest?

 

[Noumenon]

Just use your regular sequencer.

 

[SoClose]

wow, so helpful lol....

 

[-Noodles-]

I use a different session just so my mind is focussed on mastering.
I'm not in that session to make level changes per se, I'm there to finish it to a higher standard.

 

[TheDriller]

You may want to bounce out the stems anyway for archiving purposes.
It's best practice to not assume that all your plugins will still be around in a few years time when you may want to come back to the session.

 

[Max Morton]

Sometimes when you're already tired of what you're mixing and you're working on an album with around 10 tracks, using stems may help you to automate everything even better. Instead of opening a project to make the final vox note a bit louder or more compressed you'll just work with a stem. Or you'll find a clipping place that would demand processing stems to make it sound clear.

However, it's always better for self-discipline just to do everything in your mixing project with your mastersection being clipped and limited so that you know how your mix behaves smashed.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Stem are usefull for common change request after mixing stage (vocal up...etc), but are just painless to print imo.

Main problem for me are:

-If you print pre compression, changing balance of one track will affect your bus comp (and you have to recall your comp btw).
-If you print post compression it's event worst since you don't feed the comp with the same levels. So your stem are far from your mix.

Question of choices and taste...

 

[SoClose]

ah finally some valid points. thank you. would love to hear more peoples thoughts on this whole stem thing tho.

if anyone is curious. in logic. if you want to bounces stems of your aux tracks
simply insert a bar of silence at the beginning of your project on those auxes
then bounce all tracks and the aux tracks will bounce along with everything else.

 

[exoslime]

making stems would be too complicated for me in my process workflow, making stems seems to be very good, when you give your work to somebody else for remixing/stem mastering, and where you totally rely and trust on his point of view.

i dont make stems, i have one project file for tracking and mixing, where i dont have any mastering plugins or bus compressors loaded.
then i will output a stereo .wav file of the complete mix and use a new session for mastering only

when i started recording, i used to have all the mastering plugins already loaded in the mixing project file.. but what happend is, that when i disabled the mastering plugins, my mixes totally collapsed.
Now, without mastering plugins in the mixing projects, i try to get the mixes gets really solid, and then in mastering stage.. i only make them loader and perhaps really slightly EQ adjusments to the whole stereo mix.

then i output a stereo wav file again, burn it onto a cd, and listen to it on different enviroments, i make some notes about the mix/sound, etc.. and go back to my mix project and fix/review those issues and the game starts again.

 

[egan.]

You may want to bounce out the stems anyway for archiving purposes.
It's best practice to not assume that all your plugins will still be around in a few years time when you may want to come back to the session.

Yep.

 

[SoClose]

Yep.

smart thinking.

 

[SoClose]

bouncing for archiving i mean heheh.