Stems?

[CaptainMoto]

For those who might be collaborating with others or just sharing files, I’ve found that many people refer to individual tracks as “stems”, which is an incorrect description.
This situation can cause confusion and between collaborators, clients, fellow mixers or mastering engineers.
This popped into my inbox this morning, thought I’d share it:

Stems and Multitracks: What’s the Difference?

New to audio production? Learn the difference between stems and multitracks, when to use multitracks or stems, and discover tips for creating stems yourself.

www.izotope.com

 

[sdbrit68]

Something I would hope it would answer but didin't. I have sent like drum stems to a friend to use, but not a group of different ones. If you load stems into a DAW, does it put them in order ?

Like if the drums come in first, then guitars then vocals, does loading stems place them where yu want, or everything at the front of the track ?

 

[CaptainMoto]

If I undersatnd your question:
We are talking two different things here.
- Example: A drum stem would be one track that contains all the drums ( not individual drum tracks)
Think of it this way....if you send all your drum tracks to a drum bus in the DAW, that's what you would send as a drum stem.

-If you are asking about sending individual tracks to a collaborator:
Perhaps this will be helpful. This uses an earlier version on S1 but it will still work with v6. Also, there may be a more efficient process in the later versions, that, I'm not aware of.

Presonus Studio One 3 - Export Stems & Share Session

For amazing deals on gear visit Sweetwater.com. They have the best service in the business. Period! I buy all my gear from them!http://bit.ly/2IUHKpbGet 5 FR...

www.youtube.com

 

[PapaRaptor]

For those who might be collaborating with others or just sharing files, I’ve found that many people refer to individual tracks as “stems”, which is an incorrect description.
This situation can cause confusion and between collaborators, clients, fellow mixers or mastering engineers.
This popped into my inbox this morning, thought I’d share it:

Stems and Multitracks: What’s the Difference?

New to audio production? Learn the difference between stems and multitracks, when to use multitracks or stems, and discover tips for creating stems yourself.

www.izotope.com

I just read that article maybe a half hour ago.
It's probably the best explanation of the difference I've seen so far.

Unfortunately, people (myself included) will undoubtedly continue to use the wrong term, kind of those who buy Scotties at the supermarket and still call them Kleenex.

 

[PapaRaptor]

If I undersatnd your question:
We are talking two different things here.
- Example: A drum stem would be one track that contains all the drums ( not individual drum tracks)
Think of it this way....if you send all your drum tracks to a drum bus in the DAW, that's what you would send as a drum stem.

-If you are asking about sending individual tracks to a collaberator:
Perhaps this will be helpful. This uses an earlier version on S1 but it will still work with v6. Aslo, there may be a more efficiant procees in the later versions, that, I'm not aware of.

Presonus Studio One 3 - Export Stems & Share Session

For amazing deals on gear visit Sweetwater.com. They have the best service in the business. Period! I buy all my gear from them!http://bit.ly/2IUHKpbGet 5 FR...

www.youtube.com

There are a couple of clarifications and updates that have happened since Version 3. Honestly, I'm not sure if they were even necessary in v3, but I verified these two items. These changes only apply to Studio One (as far as I know) and I know they were present in versions 4, 5, and 6.

1, The video says all your tracks need to start at the very beginning of the track (Bar 1 on the default time line). This isn't needed in current Studio One versions. If your track starts at some point further in the song, when you export stems, It will add blank space up to the point of your live track.

2. The video also says you need to bounce any tracks that are not continuous. It is not necessary to do this. When you export the stems, Studio One will automatically bounce the track. If you have long sections with nothing recorded, it will be filled with silence in those unrecorded sections.

Within Studio One, all of the stems you export will be exactly the same length and will either correspond to the Start and End flags of the song or the section enclosed between the Loop markers.

Edit: Studio One calls these outputs Stems, however they are actually multi-track.
The only way to get genuine stems in Studio One is to run each instrument group through its own bus and then export only the resulting busses.

 

[JPsuff]

Stems I can deal with but seeds pop and that's just annoying.

 

[CaptainMoto]

@PapaRaptor , @sdbrit68
I currently have no need to export or share stems so, I'm not up on the latest steps inside S1.
I only shared this as an FYI.
If you are collaborating with people who use the same terms, there is really no need to change your system , if it works.
This only becomes an issue when collaborators are using different terms that can confuse people and/or mess up a project.
This would likely happen if you sent your mix to a pro for mixing or mastering and if you where to invite a new collaborator in on a project who operates on a different system.

My current system for mix down is through a analog summing box.
I apply whatever needs to be done on each track.
The individual tracks are sent to effects tracks and busses ( example: rhythm guitars, lead guitars, lead vocals, backing vocals etc...) where effects are applied and levels set.
Those busses are then sent to four stereo outputs, instead of going to the main out ( Bass & Drums, Vocals, Guitars, Other Instruments).
Those four outputs go to the summing box, and then, the output of the summing box comes back into the DAW on a new track I call the mix track.

I can monitor the elements of the mix at several stages; Individual tracks, Busses, Outputs ( before summing) and finally at the Mix track (after summing).
When I'm satisfied, I don't usually export the mix.
I create a project for the song which sends that mix to the project page where I can finish the song by applying any final mastering and add all my meta data. and then create a digital release.
The project page can do a single or multiple tracks for an album.
That's what I send out to the streaming services.

FYI: To my ear, I don't detect much difference in sound between a standard mixdown and the analog summing. There is a slight difference that varies by song though. The summing box gives me a few other tools that are handy. Monitor switching, Mono monitoring & Digital input. ( I have an MP3 player hooked up so I can listen to other music through my monitors or use MP3 tracks as reference tracks. to compare my mixes.
I also can send that summed mix to other outboard gear for further analog processing.

 

[Elwood]

Seems kinda like sentences and paragraphs. While a sentence may be an entire paragraph, and a complete paragraph may be only one sentence. A paragraph may contain more than one sentence, while a sentence cannot be more than one paragraph.

I guess the sentence is the track and the paragraph is the stem.

I think therefore I am, I think.

and, Logic Pro works as Papa described in (1) and (2) above also. Thank goodness!

Interesting article Moto, thanks!

 

[CaptainMoto]

Here's a slightly newer version of the Stems vid:

Remember...this is just about terminology:
If you and your partner always refer to a hammer as a wrench….it has no consequences.
But if you need a plumber and he asks for a wrench and you give him a hammer, things won’t turn out very well.

PRESONUS STUDIO ONE | How To Export Stems

In this video, I show you how to export stem audio files in Studio OneMy Studio One specific training courses:https://www.homerecordingmadeeasy.com/presonus-...

www.youtube.com

 

[MikeS]

I just read that article maybe a half hour ago.
It's probably the best explanation of the difference I've seen so far.

Unfortunately, people (myself included) will undoubtedly continue to use the wrong term, kind of those who buy Scotties at the supermarket and still call them Kleenex.

So...
A...
1 Guitar Track
1 Vocal track

Together they are a mixdown or Stem?
Separately are they stems or ??? (Definitely NOT multitracks)

B...
If I have a single vocal that I have:
Split into multiple vocal tracks ( Left/right, +/- cents...)
If I somehow combine them (Mixdown? or some other method???) are they now a stem?

 

[PapaRaptor]

So...
A...
1 Guitar Track
1 Vocal track

Together they are a mixdown or Stem?
Separately are they stems or ??? (Definitely NOT multitracks)

B...
If I have a single vocal that I have:
Split into multiple vocal tracks ( Left/right, +/- cents...)
If I somehow combine them (Mixdown? or some other method???) are they now a stem?

A. If you export each one separately (like to send to someone else to mix/master), they are multitracks. But if you call them stems, I won't mind.
B. Yes, if you export them as a single track, it is a stem.

The method most commonly used to combine them is to route them to a bus. Once they are routed to a bus, you have control of the volume and panning of the entire group under one bus fader. You can also add effects to the entire group on the bus.

 

[CaptainMoto]

@MikeS
Answer: A
1 Guitar -mono
1 Vocal - mono
Mixed together = 1 stereo mix

Answer :B
Vocal track 1
Vocal track 2
If combined could be exported as a stereo Vocal Stem
Same would apply if you had a set of backing vocal tracks that you combined with the lead vocal to create a single Vocal Stem

Remember:
For all practical purposes the use of stems is only used when sharing filles for further mixing or mastering.
Lets say, you've grouped the vocal tracks as outlined above and you want somebody else to add a special reverb effect that is in there system, not yours.
You would send the Vocal stem to them, they would add the effect and send it back with the reverb on it.
Another example:
You have grouped all your guitars, vocals and drums into three stems.
You just can't seem to get the volume balanced the way you want it.
So, you send those three stems to somebody else to complete the mix.
That person will not be touching the original tracks.
Any effects you applied will be locked into the stem and they are adjusting all drums all guitars and all vocals in three stem tracks you sent them.


OOOPS!
I see Papa gave a similar answer while I was typing.

 

[PapaBear]

And here I thought stems were what you culled out with the seeds!

 

[JohnHurley]

I just do mp3 or wav files. I just do stereo in with extra channels added and catch stereo out into a digital recorder.

At some point need to figure out better way but stems i dunno sounds like tracks maybe?

 

[PapaRaptor]

I just do mp3 or wav files. I just do stereo in with extra channels added and catch stereo out into a digital recorder.

At some point need to figure out better way but stems i dunno sounds like tracks maybe?

If you start working with multi-track recording on collaborations, you will need to understand stems/multi-channel, how they work and why you want them.

For example, here is a screen snapshot of the beginning of one of the tunes I recorded for the challenge:

Not all recordings start at the very beginning. As long as I have the song contained within a project file for a DAW, it's not important. Mine is Studio One. But if I wanted to send this collection of recordings to @Elio, who uses Pro Tools, I would need to send stems (or multi-channels). Otherwise, the different recorded channels would all be different WAV files, starting at different points on the recording. It would be nearly impossible for someone else to find all the actual start points for each track and get everything perfectly aligned.

Outputting stems (multi-channels) will time fill all channels, so that no matter where they begin or end, they will all perfectly align so the mixing engineer only needs to import the files and start adding new recording or mixing towards a finished product. When loaded into another DAW, this same track will look like this.

All tracks begin at the same point and any loops are rendered as a full track.

The reason this must be done is because each different DAW uses a different and proprietary method of storing the metadata that glues all the tracks together. Creating and sharing Stems (multi-tracks) makes certain that all tracks will act pretty much the same, no matter what DAW they are imported into.

 

[BraylonJennings]

Do you render all the tracks first, capturing any effects, midi instruments, etc? I've never swapped stems, just whole songs for someone to add a part to, ala VJR.

 

[CaptainMoto]

Do you render all the tracks first, capturing any effects, midi instruments, etc? I've never swapped stems, just whole songs for someone to add a part to, ala VJR.

Stems are supposed to include all effects. The idea is to send a collaborator the finished song element , such as all drums, all vocals or all guitars.
Vjr is a complete track with all instruments.

 

[Elwood]

For example, here is a screen snapshot

what one fine helluva mess!!!

Here and I thought I was bad coming up with 6 tracks just to do a guitar and mic. You are waaaayyyyy ahead of me on this stuff for sure!!! Looks amazing!

 

[sdbrit68]

what one fine helluva mess!!!

Here and I thought I was bad coming up with 6 tracks just to do a guitar and mic. You are waaaayyyyy ahead of me on this stuff for sure!!! Looks amazing!

6 ?

I have 6 just for drums....................maybe I need to condense down

 

[CaptainMoto]

6 ?

I have 6 just for drums....................maybe I need to condense down

No!