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But I'm seeing on facebook, forums and reddit that "stems" is starting to be used to refer to individual tracks in a project. Don't get me wrong, it's not making my blood boil and I'm happy for language to change, but I think it's because "stems" has a specific and useful meaning just now.
For example, if a mastering engineer prefers to receive stems, I know not to use them.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
I haven't heard anyone calling individual tracks 'stems'.
It is a slap-worthy mistake to make.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Nope.
A stem mix would be something like this:
Take the individual track for some drums.
Kick
Snare
Hihats
Toms
Overheads
Room mic
All subbed into a group called 'Drums' and bounced in place.
In Logic you can mute and hide the original tracks and then just have the stem of the drums visible and audible in the arrange window but leaving the option to go back later and make changes)
You might do the same with half a dozen tracks of guitars, then the bass, vocals, electronic bits.
Then you take the stems maybe called Drums, Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Electronics and you have a very simple arrange page showing just 5 stereo tracks.
You can deliver that to a mastering engineer and they can make changes to the individual stereo tracks more easily than they can to a final stereo master.
I don't use stems myself- I learned to mix in commercial studios and it was never really used back then.
If I was mixing in a poorly treated room with prosumer gear then it would be advantageous to at least consider.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
I've stopped using the term as it is largely meaningless now.
A Macbook Pro and a cracked copy of Protools does not make one a producer.
Whenever I meet anyone who calls themselves a producer I ask them how many commercial releases they've had.
Usually the response is 'None'.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
I've just checked and your definition matches the description given in Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets book.
It's a bit confusing because the section on Stem Rendering in the Reaper (DAW) manual refers to stem rendering of a track in which the Fx are added in rendering to an individual track as an audio file (e.g. WAV). The original track remains but the Fx are muted to ease CPU load. This suggests stems could be individual audio (e.g. WAV) tracks with processing added.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
I like driving a car but I don't call myself a racing driver.
I do a few motorcycle track days but I don't call myself a motorcycle racer.
People with no track record or no released tracks are simply not producers.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Having said that........
I play guitar, therefore I am a guitarist. I am not however a professional guitarist. Similarly I am a pianist. So, if you produce music, are you a producer, even though you are not a professional producer?
Is this semantics or twattishness??? That is the question for me.....lol
The reason "Stems" annoys me is, and this might (read: Will be a terrible rant which) reflect(s) badly on me...
... the willy-nilly way people use the term is symptomatic of a whole culture of ignorance on the internet regarding audio production. We're now 20 years into the collapse of the industry as a professional and serious calling, and it's finally, over the last couple of years, got to the point where it's the blind leading the blind online. I'm not a pro, I know I'm not. But all this century, I've been able to go online and get nuggets of wisdom from people who actually made music professionally and have real, hard earned experience to pass on. Gearslutz, the Tape Op forums, ProRecordingWeb, TheWombForums, all fantastic resources where people who actually knew their shit passed on their knowledge. Not just the hows, but the whys. And the best bit was, you actually knew who they were - you could go and hear their discography and decide how much weight to attach to their wisdom. The greatest lesson I ever got about mixing was when I posted up a mix and got a very detailed critique complete with suggestions from a genuinely good Swedish producer who's work I liked. My mind was blown.
Now, Gearslutz is just about talking about the awesome expensive hardware you've bought and dick waving arguments. Tape Op and The Womb Forums have one new post every six months, and ProRecordingWeb closed and reopened as a shade of its former glory. Instead, if you want to learn about recording you can go to Reddit where anonymous tits all shout their received "internet wisdom" at you, you can go on Youtube and learn from a 20 year old the wrong 3 to 1 rule of miking, and a ridiculous misunderstanding of phase and polarity. Or if you want something more interactive, you can go on a facebook group where any interesting conversation immediately vanishes into the ether once you stop getting notifications about it. In all these places, there are great teachers who we'd do well to learn from, but it's increasingly hard to identify who they are.
It's the wild west.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al