Man.. You always keep us amazed.... Really wonderful Thought Process !!!! Urge you to do a video on PROPER MIX BUS COMPRESSION & HOW TO HEAR "THE GLUE"..... Thanks Heaps ! 😊
I immediately pulled up REAPER to see if there is a stem splitter in the stock plugins, then I realized that I'm not mastering anything that I wasn't already mixing. Lol !!! Cool video (even for a REAPER guy). Thanks, Rhys.
That's a neat solution actually. I will say though, for all those that have their mixes... just have your multitracks saved in an external storage or something..
honestly mate i love this channel and have picked up so many tricks to add to the arsenal, but the mention of logics stem splitter almost scared me off. Cheers Rhys for challenging my assumptions and proving me wrong yet again. Great example of making shit work by any means necessary!
Thanks mate! I use the stem splitter for loads of applications: someone send me a demo they want me to produce for example, I can just pull the vocal out of it and use it as a guide track etc. loads of cool ways to use this stuff!
i used to talk with high pitched ssssssss, until i started this journey of homestudio back in 2011, then i learnt how to lower the pitch of my ssssss by calling the street cats doing a sweep like a wah wah effect, and eventually incorporated this to my talking then singing. it is about a lower positioning of the tongue so the air is not pushed towards the ceiling of mouth but towards the upper teeth. my SECRET vocal technique nobody is talking about is the compensation for the loudness perception pitch dependent, by recording so that the lower the pitch is, the closer to the capsule, and after that the compressor to undo half of the mistakes. it makes more impact in the even homogeneous sound that a compressor just cannot tame the standing "fluorescent" high pitches.
Gooday Legends! :) Keep 'em Coming ...Always learning something from you. OMG!, I never would have thought it out this far be close to but OH WOW! that really does work. I do "COVERS" for myself ( so I can always go back to the Pre_Master ) Thank You, George Amodei :)
I kinda felt this was coming up, a couple months ago I had to rebalance a track for mastering and stem splitting was a game changer. Next time, you might also have some luck by using a very narrow Q in wideband mode on TDR Arbiter. If the esses are out of balance, Arbiter will suck it out easily without affecting the rest of the track. Either way, stem splitting is really powerful and I hope we start to see more plugins doing it in real time like Acon Remix and Ozone.
Isotope RX and Steinberg Spectral layers both can do this non-destructively aswell. Nick from Panorama Mixing and Mastering does some cool stuff with stem spltting in mastering someimes too, using the same idea.
Not quite what I was expecting. My thoughts were split the stems out, then use the vocal stem to trigger a dynamic eq or deesser on the mix. I tried a stem splitter recently on a mix where the cymbals were clashing with the vocals during the recording meaning the engineer couldn't push the vocals hard enough. I added the vocal track back to the full mix and got the vocals to sit better, but the split tracks were pretty horrible so I didn't try playing them all together, maybe that would have worked. I'm surprised at the result you got here.
I had a thought: instead of using Stem Splitter to separate the tracks and then putting them back together after de-essing, why not separate out the vocal and use it to trigger the de-essing? So essentially, the de-esser would be on the full, unseparated file, but it would be sidechained to duck the S's of the isolated vocals. But we'd never hear the isolated vocals because they'd be muted and would just be a trigger. Obviously, you'd need a de-esser with a sidechain option.
The reason I'm suggesting this is because it would prevent any artifacts you might get from splitting the stems and later putting them back together. I know in your example, you weren't really having any artifacts, but I've definitely had mixes where splitting up the stems resulted in much more weirdness when they were put back together. I think part of it depends on how layered your song is and how much separation there is between instruments to begin with.
@@rome8180 sounds like a good shout to use the stem splitter as a sidechain. i guess the only reason not to do that is splitting the stems would reduce the impact the de-esser has on the other elements of the mix. sounds like it might be a bit of a case by case basis, where this would work better when logic struggles to cleanly split the stems. I’m gonna give this a go too, so cheers man!
Yeah that’s a cool idea for sure. If you’re hearing issues with the stem splitter using the vocal as a trigger could maybe work. I guess you would have to isolate the ess sounds first and then make the sidechain only hear that. Cool thought.
@@tedb_1723 but isn't that the point? You WANT the de-esser to have no impact on the other elements of the mix. You want it only responding to vocal S's.
@@rome8180 of course yeah, so while it may only respond to the vocal esses, it will still be attenuating the same top end across the whole stereo file. used subtly, that’s generally ok and maybe ties the vocal in nicely, but used more aggressively and you’ll probably notice your top end dipping on every other instrument too
Curious, did you try inverting the phase and comparing the original to the stem split mix (before the deessing)? I’d be curious if they null or get close. Great video regardless though!
Totally! Good for a situation like this. Im just curious how close it gets though, I’m going to test this later. Both with RX in Pro Tools, and the stem splitter in Logic.
It will still effect the whole sound of the mix though, if it’s heavier than usual de-essing it will still cause the track to lose those frequencies at that moment when it compresses. It’s still a cool option for subtle de-essing and really targeting the sibilance - but the stem split option allows you to get heavy handed with it without making everything sound like it gets sucked down.
Weiss stuff looks cool. The main thing is, if you have to do heavy de-essing it doesn’t matter the plugin, it will affect the whole track if it’s a stereo file.
😂😂😂 this is ridiculous.. the ai didn’t do anything except split the track into stems. It didn’t mix it, it didn’t fix it, it just helped create a solution to a problem. This isn’t Suno…
I’m sure there is, but if the de-easing issue is a big problem / if you can’t actually hear a problem and it makes a big improvement, it’s worth giving it a try.
My stupid brain is now spinning on changing out the dynamic compression for expansion, bandpassing the 'de-essed- bit then flipping the track polarity and blending it back in with the original master. I can't think why I'd want to do this but hey, it's a variation!
Legends, If you enjoy the content on this channel consider picking up one of my sample packs or a mixing course here: spinlightstudio.com/shop/
Gooday legends is my favorite intro ever
Waiting for someone to compile every one of my intro‘s into a Gday legends compilation 🤣
@ That one might hit me in the feels a little for some reason haha
Man.. You always keep us amazed.... Really wonderful Thought Process !!!!
Urge you to do a video on PROPER MIX BUS COMPRESSION & HOW TO HEAR "THE GLUE".....
Thanks Heaps ! 😊
Thanks mate! Sounds like a plan! Everybody loves the glue 🙌🏻
Awesome knowledge Rhys! Clarity is pretty outstanding, given it’s a stereo mix.
Thanks mate! It’s getting pretty wild out here with what we can achieve these days!
I immediately pulled up REAPER to see if there is a stem splitter in the stock plugins, then I realized that I'm not mastering anything that I wasn't already mixing. Lol !!!
Cool video (even for a REAPER guy). Thanks, Rhys.
Thanks mate! Yeah loads of daws have a stem splitter now so it’s relevant to most people doing music production and not just logic users :)
You can use UVR5 with the Demucs v4 algorythm...
It will do the same thing, just not as a stock plugin/function
That's a neat solution actually. I will say though, for all those that have their mixes... just have your multitracks saved in an external storage or something..
So much better to fix it in the mix and not mastering 😂
Isotope's Ozone 11 and RX also split the stems. Great technique!
honestly mate i love this channel and have picked up so many tricks to add to the arsenal, but the mention of logics stem splitter almost scared me off. Cheers Rhys for challenging my assumptions and proving me wrong yet again. Great example of making shit work by any means necessary!
Thanks mate! I use the stem splitter for loads of applications: someone send me a demo they want me to produce for example, I can just pull the vocal out of it and use it as a guide track etc. loads of cool ways to use this stuff!
@@spinlightstudios i’ve just upgraded to silicon so looks like i’m about to go down the AI stem-splitting rabbit hole. thanks again man!
i used to talk with high pitched ssssssss, until i started this journey of homestudio back in 2011, then i learnt how to lower the pitch of my ssssss by calling the street cats doing a sweep like a wah wah effect, and eventually incorporated this to my talking then singing. it is about a lower positioning of the tongue so the air is not pushed towards the ceiling of mouth but towards the upper teeth. my SECRET vocal technique nobody is talking about is the compensation for the loudness perception pitch dependent, by recording so that the lower the pitch is, the closer to the capsule, and after that the compressor to undo half of the mistakes. it makes more impact in the even homogeneous sound that a compressor just cannot tame the standing "fluorescent" high pitches.
Pull it up in RX and find the SSes!
Gooday Legends! :) Keep 'em Coming ...Always learning something from you. OMG!, I never would have thought it out this far be close to but OH WOW! that really does work. I do "COVERS" for myself ( so I can always go back to the Pre_Master ) Thank You, George Amodei :)
Cheers George!
@ I wish you were at NAMM 2025 & I ran into you … just to talk for awhile. ☺️🙏👍
I kinda felt this was coming up, a couple months ago I had to rebalance a track for mastering and stem splitting was a game changer. Next time, you might also have some luck by using a very narrow Q in wideband mode on TDR Arbiter. If the esses are out of balance, Arbiter will suck it out easily without affecting the rest of the track. Either way, stem splitting is really powerful and I hope we start to see more plugins doing it in real time like Acon Remix and Ozone.
Isotope RX and Steinberg Spectral layers both can do this non-destructively aswell.
Nick from Panorama Mixing and Mastering does some cool stuff with stem spltting in mastering someimes too, using the same idea.
Not quite what I was expecting. My thoughts were split the stems out, then use the vocal stem to trigger a dynamic eq or deesser on the mix. I tried a stem splitter recently on a mix where the cymbals were clashing with the vocals during the recording meaning the engineer couldn't push the vocals hard enough. I added the vocal track back to the full mix and got the vocals to sit better, but the split tracks were pretty horrible so I didn't try playing them all together, maybe that would have worked. I'm surprised at the result you got here.
There is probably potential for it to be hit and miss depending on the content being split! But good little trick to try if in need!
I had a thought: instead of using Stem Splitter to separate the tracks and then putting them back together after de-essing, why not separate out the vocal and use it to trigger the de-essing? So essentially, the de-esser would be on the full, unseparated file, but it would be sidechained to duck the S's of the isolated vocals. But we'd never hear the isolated vocals because they'd be muted and would just be a trigger. Obviously, you'd need a de-esser with a sidechain option.
The reason I'm suggesting this is because it would prevent any artifacts you might get from splitting the stems and later putting them back together. I know in your example, you weren't really having any artifacts, but I've definitely had mixes where splitting up the stems resulted in much more weirdness when they were put back together. I think part of it depends on how layered your song is and how much separation there is between instruments to begin with.
@@rome8180 sounds like a good shout to use the stem splitter as a sidechain. i guess the only reason not to do that is splitting the stems would reduce the impact the de-esser has on the other elements of the mix. sounds like it might be a bit of a case by case basis, where this would work better when logic struggles to cleanly split the stems. I’m gonna give this a go too, so cheers man!
Yeah that’s a cool idea for sure. If you’re hearing issues with the stem splitter using the vocal as a trigger could maybe work. I guess you would have to isolate the ess sounds first and then make the sidechain only hear that. Cool thought.
@@tedb_1723 but isn't that the point? You WANT the de-esser to have no impact on the other elements of the mix. You want it only responding to vocal S's.
@@rome8180 of course yeah, so while it may only respond to the vocal esses, it will still be attenuating the same top end across the whole stereo file. used subtly, that’s generally ok and maybe ties the vocal in nicely, but used more aggressively and you’ll probably notice your top end dipping on every other instrument too
Curious, did you try inverting the phase and comparing the original to the stem split mix (before the deessing)? I’d be curious if they null or get close.
Great video regardless though!
You know what I didn’t! Surely it would be perfect / and this is like a if you’re desperate kinda situation and gotta do what you gotta do!
Totally! Good for a situation like this. Im just curious how close it gets though, I’m going to test this later. Both with RX in Pro Tools, and the stem splitter in Logic.
If the Logic thing works with Demucs (always drums vocals bass and other) it will null perfectly
There is nothing, nothing better than DeBess
use it as a side-chain
It will still effect the whole sound of the mix though, if it’s heavier than usual de-essing it will still cause the track to lose those frequencies at that moment when it compresses. It’s still a cool option for subtle de-essing and really targeting the sibilance - but the stem split option allows you to get heavy handed with it without making everything sound like it gets sucked down.
❤❤
Band selective compression with weiss comp. I wish I could justify buying the Weiss bundle from Softube.
Weiss stuff looks cool. The main thing is, if you have to do heavy de-essing it doesn’t matter the plugin, it will affect the whole track if it’s a stereo file.
@@spinlightstudios For sure. The stem splitting is a great tool if you don't have access to the mix.
REJECT A.I in music.
😂😂😂 this is ridiculous.. the ai didn’t do anything except split the track into stems. It didn’t mix it, it didn’t fix it, it just helped create a solution to a problem. This isn’t Suno…
@ not you or what your doing specifically, should have said “generative” A.I.
If you flip the phase of the separated stack there is a discrepancy
I’m sure there is, but if the de-easing issue is a big problem / if you can’t actually hear a problem and it makes a big improvement, it’s worth giving it a try.
My stupid brain is now spinning on changing out the dynamic compression for expansion, bandpassing the 'de-essed- bit then flipping the track polarity and blending it back in with the original master.
I can't think why I'd want to do this but hey, it's a variation!
@@jimsreynolds nice! Phase cancel the sibilance, let me know how it goes