![]() Go through tracks with automation and make sure everything looks good. In most DAWs, copying and pasting audio clips will also copy and paste automation, and that can lead to some bizarre and unwanted automation curves. Do your best to clean that sort of noise up so your mixer doesn’t have to spend their time (and your money) doing it.Īutomation curves have a tendency to do weird things when we’re not looking. It’s also easy to forget about unwanted noise on tracks - the sound of a car passing by, lip smacks, amp buzz. Make sure you’ve used smooth crossfades where clips are joined, with no pops or other artifacts. You may even want to include a little silence at the beginning and end. h4>5. Double-check that those points don’t cut off any audio. An easy way to make sure your stems will line up correctly is to set markers for the beginning and end of the song and to use those when you bounce stems. It’s important that all your stems are the same length, or at a minimum start in the same place. Please don’t send your mixer a folder full of files with names like “Audio1.02.” 4. Most DAWs’ protocol for exporting stems will use the track name somewhere in the name of the bounced file. Abandoned ideas, empty or muted tracks - just delete them! 3. If there are unused tracks in your session, it’s usually easiest to get rid of them before you start stemming. It’s always a good idea to have a backup option in case something goes wrong. Version Upīefore you start making changes to your session to make it stem-ready, save a “pre-mix” version. Here are ten common issues you can expect to deal with before you start bouncing stems: 1. Finalize Your Sessionīy the time I finish production on a song and am preparing to mix, there’s usually a bit of a mess to clean up in the session. ![]() Do you know what sucks more than spending an hour watching your DAW slowly render files? Spending a second hour watching your DAW slowly rendering files because you screwed up the first time. dry stems - before you start preparing files for them. Make sure you understand what they need from you, too - file formats, sample rate, and bit depth, number of stems, wet vs. How attached to your rough mix are you? What’s working, and what isn’t? What are the final deliverables for the project? Do you need instrumental or acapella mixes? These are all questions your mixer needs to know the answers to before they start working on your track. Everyone has different ways of working, and it’s never safe to assume somebody understands your expectations - or vice versa - without actually talking about them. Communication is Keyīefore you even begin exporting stems, it’s crucial to communicate clearly with your mix engineer. Here’s what you need to know before you get your next song ready to mix. ![]() Making stems can be tedious and boring, but it’s nothing to be scared of. Yes, you may end up having to do some menu diving to get it right, and you might end up having to sit there while your DAW renders track after track. Baking in your production choices by making stems makes that sort of scenario much less likely. Nobody likes getting a mix back that sounds like a totally different song - and no mix engineer likes spending six hours mixing something that their client totally hates. The most obvious reason for preparing stems is that your mix engineer may not be using the same software you do, so simply sharing the sessions with them won’t work.īeyond that, though, sending stems helps your mix engineer build off of the choices you made, rather than second-guessing them or starting from scratch. ![]() Printing stems can be kind of a chore, but handling it yourself is a relatively easy way to make the mixing process much smoother. Can’t you just send them your Ableton session?įor those who are unfamiliar, the term “stem” refers to an individual track or group of tracks that have been consolidated into a single file for the purpose of mixing. Stems? This is starting to sound like a pain-in-the-ass. You hired a mix engineer to help you finish your project. You finally finished it - your song, your EP, your full length - and you decided this time around not to skimp on mixing.
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