Great Vid, clear explanation …. But: If the stems have to combine to match the Mix Buss and no dynamics processing can be applied to the Mix Buss, surely the combined stems master track never sounds as good as it could because there is no ‘glue’ compression or Limiting applied. Is that correct?
Yes that is correct. But if the music editor is using stems, it is probably to remove elements for a more stripped down version or to use specific elements of a stem as a transition, effect, or standalone. For example, only your drum stem might be used for a scene where they just want drums. Very rarely is a music editor going to bring all 8 of your stems into a project to sync to picture. At that point, they would rather move on and find a different full mix track that fits the scene. So its more important that your stems sound great on their own!
Great Vid, clear explanation …. But: If the stems have to combine to match the Mix Buss and no dynamics processing can be applied to the Mix Buss, surely the combined stems master track never sounds as good as it could because there is no ‘glue’ compression or Limiting applied. Is that correct?
Yes that is correct. But if the music editor is using stems, it is probably to remove elements for a more stripped down version or to use specific elements of a stem as a transition, effect, or standalone. For example, only your drum stem might be used for a scene where they just want drums. Very rarely is a music editor going to bring all 8 of your stems into a project to sync to picture. At that point, they would rather move on and find a different full mix track that fits the scene. So its more important that your stems sound great on their own!