What Are AUDIO STEMS in Music Production?

In the exciting world of music production, every detail matters to achieve a unique and professional sound. One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is audio stems. Once your production is complete, or during the process of creating a beat or arrangement, you can group channels and combine types of instruments. These audio track stems will later help you share your production with other producers, create a backup of your music production, or send stems or track groups for mastering or remixing your song.

In this entry from our online recording studio, you will discover what audio stems are and how to professionally create them in your music production to professionalize your workflow and maximize its potential.

What Are Audio Stems?

Audio stems are consolidated groups of instruments in individual audio files containing tracks grouped by sections of a song. These can include vocals, guitars, synthesizers, and drum tracks, among others. Unlike a conventional stereo mix, stems allow you to access and process each group of musical elements independently. This provides greater control over the sound and facilitates mixing, mastering, editing, and sound processing in music production.

It is important to note that the sum of the exported stems should sound exactly like the original mix, i.e., the L-R mix format. Do not confuse stems with multitrack export, which involves exporting each individual track of instruments or tracks separately. Audio stems offer an organized and flexible way of working with the different parts of a song, allowing for precise adjustments and optimizing the final result of the music production.

Difference Between Audio Stems and Multitracks

Stems and multitracks are ways to divide a song into individual elements for collaboration with others. However, they differ in the number of tracks into which a song is divided.

Multitracks break down a song into all its individual tracks, which include every instrument and vocal separately. This provides maximum control over each element, allowing detailed adjustments and mixes during collaboration.

On the other hand, stems are consolidated groups of tracks representing broader elements of a song. For instance, there may be stems for drums, keyboards, backing vocals, and guitars. While they offer a moderate level of control, they do not provide the same level of detail as multitracks.

Advantages of Using Audio Stems in Your Music Production

1. Ease of control and resources over the production: By accessing stems grouped by instruments, you can adjust volume, apply specific effects, and carry out processes like equalization or compression on each group of tracks without having to do so on each individual track. This is an excellent way to simplify the audio mixing process.
2. Remixes and alternative versions: Audio stems are ideal for creating remixes and alternative versions of your songs. You can easily and compatibly send your audio stems to a collaborator using any of the best DAWs or music production programs.
3. Stems: perfect for sending to session musicians: Grouping tracks by sections is always the best way to send sessions for a musician collaborator to record and send back tracks for your production. These stems are usually simpler than those created for a final production backup and are tailored to what the musician needs. For example, for a drum recording, you can send the bass separately, the vocals, and the complete music in three stems so they can mix them to their liking during the recording.
4. Improved mastering process: Providing stems allows the mastering engineer to manipulate the sound at a deeper level. That said, stem mastering should not be confused with mixing, where the engineer uses effects, automation, compression, equalization, etc., to shape each sound. The goal of stem mastering is not to mix a song but to master it, offering more flexibility when addressing issues in this final stage of music production.

What Are the Most Common Audio Stems?

Each production can vary, but in general, audio stems can be grouped into these sections of pre-mixed tracks (usually using the same volume, equalization, panorama, and effects as in the final mix). While there are various ways to create them (with reverb and delay effects included in each stem or separately), the goal is always for the playback to be identical, or as close as possible, to the final mix of the production.

List of Main Audio Stems

• Drums (Drums+loops or separately)
• Bass (Bass or pre-mix of all included)
• Percussion (Perc, loops, shakers, etc.)
• Guitars (Electric+acoustic or separately)
• Keyboards (Keyboards, synthesizers, pads, pianos)
• Main Vocals (With all effects, including doubled vocals)
• Backing Vocals (Backing vocals, harmonies, and ad libs)
• Others (If the song includes any effects or instruments that do not fit into the above categories)

How to Create Audio Stems Professionally

1. Remove any limiter from the main bus.
2. Leave some dynamic range: Some recommend a maximum peak of -3 dBFS, others -6 or -10 dBFS. The key is to ensure that if you are mixing at least in 24 bits (common today in digital audio workstations), you avoid reaching 0 dBFS (digital distortion) on the main bus.
3. Synchronize all stems: Before exporting stems, ensure that you select the entire song duration. In other words, all stems should start at the same point (bar 0), even if a group of instruments does not play at the beginning. Add silence at the start to ensure synchronization.
4. Include effect returns: Make sure each stem includes its related return effects.
5. Mute all tracks you do not want in a specific stem (do not use Solo). This ensures that, due to the “safe solo” setting, no unwanted tracks are sent to the return effects created during the mixing process.
6. The recommended formats are WAV and AIFF, as they are lossless.
7. Format: Interleaved (this means you will create a stereo file).
8. Recommended bit depth: 24 bits (or 32-bit/64-bit float).
9. Sampling rate: Use the same sampling rate as the mixing project (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz). Do not perform upsampling or downsampling.
10. Dithering: In some DAWs, you can apply dithering during export. Dithering is used when reducing bit depth. Since you don’t need to do this, do not apply any dithering. The mastering engineer will handle this.
11. Normalization: If your DAW provides this option or you use one of the free VSTs for it, do not apply any normalization, as you want to maintain your mix levels.
12. Properly name each stem.
13. Include the tempo or BPM of the song in the storage folder. This will facilitate the work of any producers collaborating on the project.

Audio Stems for Creating Remixes

Audio stems are fundamental tools for remixes, allowing any online music producer to select, manipulate, and edit elements from the original mix to their taste. With stems, you can keep the original vocals and create new basslines and drum tracks for unique remixed versions.

Some remixes may have minimal differences from the original version, indicating the use of many original stems. Additionally, audio stems allow for modifying the structure or parts of a song more smoothly than editing or cutting the final master.

Some audio stems for remixes can be found online, especially in producer contests. Music producers are provided with all the tracks of a production to create new versions and explore their creativity.

The storage and export of stems are crucial for analog mixes without “total recall.” To address this, stems are created after completing the mix. By exporting individual stems with faders or VCAs at 0, it’s possible to recover the mix and adjust specific elements, such as the main vocals, without needing to remix the entire song.

Stems also facilitate collaboration between music producers and sound engineers by allowing them to work independently on different parts of a song. In genres like hip-hop and trap, it’s common for what one music producer does to differ from another in the beat creation process. One producer might handle the drums, another the synthesizers, and yet another might oversee the vocal production entirely.

In summary, audio stems are essential for remixes, enabling remixers to work creatively with individual elements of an original song. They also streamline storage (backups), exporting, and collaboration between producers and sound engineers.