Stems vs. Multitracks – Setting the Record Straight

There are lots of words that have
established meanings in the music-making community — some terms that go back
decades. As newcomers enter the fray, frequently there is confusion about what
those terms mean. Here’s one example that has been discussed quite frequently,
so I thought I’d set the record straight.

This has been a troublesome issue for years to me as a mixer, and it only seems to be getting worse. It was recently highlighted by one of our industry’s luminaries, legendary mixer Bob Clearmountain, who posted on Instagram trying to clarify.

“Hi guys. I wanna
talk about something that’s been kinda bugging me lately. I hear a lot of
people referring to original multitrack files as ‘stems.’ I hear that all the
time. ‘Well, we’re going to send you the stems to mix.’ Well, I usually don’t
mix from stems. Stems are actually subgroups of tracks, like you might have a
stereo stem of a drum set or a stereo stem of all the guitars or all the
keyboards. Original multitracks with everything separate, with all the drums on
separate channels, those are not called stems. And a lot of people call them
that these days, and it’s just wrong...”

I want to hop on that bandwagon, too, because this has been a source of confusion for clients for many years.

What’s the
difference between stems and multitracks? It’s simple.

Stems

Stems are stereo
submixes of components within a mix. This started years ago (even before
the dawn of the DAW age), when we would print the finished MASTER mix for
duplication (like on physical media such as vinyl, cassette, or CD — I know,
I’m old). Then we’d print an INSTRUMENTAL mix (INST — instruments only with no
vocals), a TV TRACK (full mix minus the lead vocal for use on TV shows when the
artist is performing without a band, hence the name), and a VOX ONLY mix (lead vocal
plus background vocals with no instruments). If you combined the INST mix with
the VOX ONLY mix, then you could re-create the master, but the balance
between the two (instruments and vocals) could be adjusted in mastering if
necessary.

Once the labels discovered they could adjust volumes without going
back for a remix, they began requesting INST only, BGVs only, and LEAD VOC only
so they could balance those components in post. All these stereo submixes would
have all the processing and reverb from the original mix but with
certain elements missing (what is called “Mix Minus”). Then someone realized
you could do the same with certain other instruments, as well, and have control
after the fact.

Fast-forward to
the early 21st century, and things got really crazy. For orchestral remixes, I
might routinely print as many as 17 “stem” mixes (stereo submixes) of
components, breaking it all the way down to the elements such as I list below.
This allowed the labels to go back and make adjustments after the fact without engaging
(or paying) the original mix engineer. Plus, they could use the stems to make
gaming, performance, or practice tracks to sell — another revenue stream.
(Nothing wrong with additional revenue streams, right?)

Here’s what stem
mixes might look like for a single song.

DRUMSBASSGTRSKEYSPIANOPERC LOOPSLEAD VOCBGVSSTRINGSWOODWINDSBRASSHORNSORCH_PERCHARP

Multitracks

When the
original recording is done, individual tracks are designated for individual
instruments. These may (or may not) include processing (EQ, compression,
effects) on the individual parts, depending on the tracking engineer’s
preference or skill level. When delivering multitracks for an overdub or mix
session, the track listing will typically look like the following:

Audio 1Audio 2Audio 3Audio 4...

Just kidding.
Nobody would ever do that, right? They should look like this:

KickSnare_OverSnare_UnderHiHatTom1Tom2Tom3Overhead_LOverhead_RDrumRoom_LDrumRoom_RPiano_LoPiano_HiKeys_LKeys_RBass_DirBass_AmpAcGtrAcGtr_DoubleElecGtr_1ElecGtr_2Lead VocalBGV 1BGV 2BGV 3...BGV 125

and so on.

When you deliver the multitracks to a mix
engineer, you want to make sure he has the original files to work with. You do not
want to send a mixer just the stems with all the processing, balances, and
compression already applied because then you are tying their hands and not
allowing them the flexibility to do their job.

NOTE: Before You Send Multitracks

Sending multitracks to the mix engineer does not mean you can skip all the decision making. Don’t send them 15 tracks of the lead vocal and expect them to put together a “comp” of the lead vocal. That’s the producer’s or artist’s job. And don’t send 36 tracks of electric guitar and think, “They can just sort this all out.” I’ve seen it happen too many times where all the time that should have been spent mixing was instead spent sifting through tracks. Let the mix engineer do their job, which is mixing, and you provide them with what they need because the more time they spend figuring out what all is on the tracks, the less time they have to actually create a great-sounding mix.

Check out Bob Clearmountain’s Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bob Clearmountain (@clearmountain)

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