Stems Checklist

Time to prepare your mix stems!

Properly Exported Stems Are Time-Saving Money-Saving Awesome!

• Tempo (bpm) clearly marked on folder or files

• Stem name (instrument or instrument group) on each file

• Stems do not need to run the entire length of the song (like if the cowbell is only in the intro)

• BUT … all stems need to start from the same point (on the grid please, if there is one)

• Export all stems at source session sample rate and bit depth, .WAV

• “Stereo Interleaved” for stereo sources (not multi-mono please)

• BONUS POINTS for exporting mono sources as mono stems (i.e. if the bass is panned dead center and has no stereo FX on it, please export it as a mono stem if you can. Same with vocals, etc.)

• DRUMS: whenever possible, please supply separate “kick”, “snare”, and “kit” stems rather than putting all drums into one stereo stem

• Please also separate stems when there are multiple types of drums and/or bass, ie “synth bass”, “808” bass, “acoustic bass”, or “kick 1”, “kick 2” etc when there are layers of kicks and snares etc which might be helpful to have separately.

FX vs No FX ... 🤔

If you've already spent a lot of time on your mix and already have some great reverbs and delays going on ...

• Please export two sets of stems, in separate folders labeled WET (w/ baked in FX) and DRY (w/ Delays and Reverb FX muted)

** If there are very specific special fx and harmonic fx like distortion, or things you could never imagine NOT being part of the sound, those fx can stay baked in as part of the "DRY" sound