Working with stems pre-mixing

ijonty

Hey folks

Short version: Had my first sessions in a recording studio, need advice on preparing the stems (EDIT: Sounds like I'm using the term 'stem' wrong according to the replies here. I mean every individual track).

Full details:

I've recorded four tracks for my first EP, and the sessions were in a studio in France (I live in London). So because of the language barrier, I didn't really chat much to the engineer about the process.

I've now received the stems by WeTransfer and want to get them ready for mixing (in the UK). I want to make it as easy as possible for the producer, so wanted to know the key things to do (and not do).

1. Obviously I'm renaming them from the French, so first question is: Is there an industry standard of naming?

2. I want to get rid of some artefacts in them ahead of the mixing. For example, before the vocal of a song begins, you can hear me practising the first note. If I put all the stems into Reaper and cut these bits out, do I just re-export? I want to make sure I'm not degrading the audio by re-exporting.

3. What else should I be doing? I want to maximise my time in mixing, so if there's stuff I can be doing ahead of the sessions, that'd be great.

Cheers

J

spark240

Are we clear that the stems are generally a group of tracks per file...so a drums stem / guitar stem etc...or do you actually have each individual track file?

Danny1969

Normal practice in Protools is remove all noise from the regions by either using strip silence or manually cutting and then consolidating the region into one continuous region from start to end. 
All tracks need to be named ... like Kick, Snr, RT1 etc
If you have multiple takes in the playlist then add notes so the Mixer / producer knows that. Otherwise they have to click to find out and might not bother. 

Reaper is great and generally has the same functionality just might be called a little different. 

If unsure don't do anything to the audio other than cutting bits out.  

ijonty

spark240 said:

Are we clear that the stems are generally a group of tracks per file...so a drums stem / guitar stem etc...or do you actually have each individual track file?

So I have every individual drum mic as a separate stem – I think there are about 14-16 individual tracks for the drums.

Then I have between 2 and 3 takes of guitar, vox and bass. The guitar and bass seem to have two tracks per take - presumably the amp was mic'd twice, or two amps were mic'd to each guitar?

Nothing's been grouped so far.

ijonty

Danny1969 said:

Normal practice in Protools is remove all noise from the regions by either using strip silence or manually cutting and then consolidating the region into one continuous region from start to end. 

So once I've done that, do I just render the project again back out into the individual tracks and I won't be degrading the audio?

ijonty

spark240 said:

Are we clear that the stems are generally a group of tracks per file...so a drums stem / guitar stem etc...or do you actually have each individual track file?

Ah, sorry, now I get you. I've been wrongly thinking that a stem was the individual track, but, for example, it'd be all the guitars in one file?

Danny1969

ijonty said:

Danny1969 said:

Normal practice in Protools is remove all noise from the regions by either using strip silence or manually cutting and then consolidating the region into one continuous region from start to end. 

So once I've done that, do I just render the project again back out into the individual tracks and I won't be degrading the audio?

Consolidate then export the tracks to a folder .... then they can imported into any DAW. Most people will be happy with that but there are situations where where a mix engineer / producer would  want the whole session, especially if there's stuff in the playlist  / Takes which can be used to fix issues 

Stuckfast

If I was the mix engineer I wouldn't be worried about studio chat and so on, that's easy to deal with. But if there are multiple takes of different parts I'd want to be very clear which ones you were going to use. In fact I'd rather just not receive the unused ones, unless you were expecting me to comp the tracks myself -- in which case the mixing would take longer and be more expensive.

octatonic

ijonty said:

spark240 said:

Are we clear that the stems are generally a group of tracks per file...so a drums stem / guitar stem etc...or do you actually have each individual track file?

Ah, sorry, now I get you. I've been wrongly thinking that a stem was the individual track, but, for example, it'd be all the guitars in one file?

Stems are not individual files.
Stems will be all the drums mixed to a stereo pair, all the synths and a stereo pair, all the guitars as a stereo pair etc.

Personally, I do not like mixing from stems.
Give me the multitracks.

As Stuckfast says it is more important to get the correct files you want mixed.
I don't mind getting alternate takes but I ask that I get one Pro Tools session without them if possible, as well as one that has everything in playlists.
It is just faster to work that way.

There is another approach called Brauerising which is worth knowing about too, rather than grouping by instrument you group by frequency range. For instance, bass and bass drum are together.

This isn't a delivery format, but more an approach to mixing. Read about it here:

https://brauerizing.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/brauerizing-a-how-to-guide/

ijonty

Thanks everyone, really useful! Any other tips that I should consider doing ahead of sending everything to the mixing engineer?

Winny_Pooh

Leave the work to the mixer, what you would is is of no appreciable value. Just ensure that if there is an amp modelling plugin, essential reverb, "special effect" track that the original engineer also sends you a processed version alongside the raw track. A new mix enginner will not want to recreate the odd unusual processes track from scratch. 

ijonty

Winny_Pooh said:

 an amp modelling plugin, essential reverb, "special effect" track 

thanks, I'm not totally sure what you mean here, could you explain a bit more? Sorry if it's obvious, but this is all new to me

Grangousier

If there's anything that needs a plug-in on the channel to sound right - for example if the guitar was recorded clean and then something like Amplitude was used - then the plug-in should be applied before exporting to sound files. 

(And, I'd hope, supplied along with the clean, unprocessed , take.)

Grangousier

(You can't assume that the mixer has the same plug-ins, so if anything relies on the particular sound of a plug-in the track should have that applied to it before it's submitted to the mixer.)

PolarityMan

I think it's pretty normal for mixers to have their own requirements on file organisation. George Lever sent his round on URM tog et feedback a while back.

Having watched a bunch of mixes there doesnt seem to be a strict standard but they often include not only the instrument but also the mic used as well. 

andy_k

Have all tracks syncd to same length, ie consolidated in PT, or rendered to region in Reaper, name them according to preference, ie, kick in, kick out, GTR1, GTR 2, etc.
Use highest possible quality for bounces, at least match what has been supplied, and save as WAV ( obvious really)
Render any midi instrument track, or FX track as a matching audio file, but include the midi, in case the mixer / producer wants to get creative or re-arrange the track, and I would include a rough mix, from the same multitracks to give an idea of the balance I was looking for, making clear that this is just for reference.
You are paying for experience, and an amount of artistic input here, so it can only help to provide as much as is needed to get your desired outcome.
Save some time maybe, by editing out stuff, but be aware you may be editing IN something undesirable-ie clicks and pops, or just obvious changes to an audio track, strip silence has a threshold, and Reaper has fades to edits, but they can be removing ambience from a track that is noticeable, better to let the mixer deal with it his own way maybe.
STEMS, are usually grouped stereo mixes, and can be a useful step in the path to a finished mix, but as a mixer, I would always prefer the raw source file to work from, but that doesn't include alternate takes of every track unless I really want them.

ijonty

Thanks @andy_k really helpful. Might pop you a DM too shortly...