What are stems? Stems are simply elements of a final mix that have been isolated as their own stereo mix. These stems can then be combined in parallel, using the same starting point, to create a similar version of the main stereo mix but with slight changes as needed. Stems are elements of the final mix broken out into various subgroups. Dialog, music, sound effects, background sounds and such are all submixed into surround or stereo tracks for ease of final film audio mixing. This allows for control over the sound without having to monitor hundreds, or thousands, of tracks.
Key Takeaways:
- When considering how you want to divide and organise your mix, do not balancing too many stems against too few by seperating the principle instrument groups off key parts of the track.
- Remember to stay within the confines of the stem and decide whether to pack the reverb into the same Track Stack or keep the reverbs and delays running free from the folder
- We want is a means of exporting the mix in one pass, but rather than creating a single stereo file we need the mix rendered as a series of files
“For the application of effects, you need to remember to stay within the confines of the stem. So, rather than having a single reverb for the whole mix routed to the stereo outputs, you’ll need an individual reverb instance for each stem, itself routed to the corresponding stem bus.”
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