globet Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 (edited) Why not just do the production and mixing together? If while mixing you discover you need to fix something in the production you can do it right here, right away. What are the benefits of exporting all the tracks into audio stems like this? Edited January 3 by globet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution sunbrother Posted January 3 Solution Share Posted January 3 There are times when the added overhead (CPU, compatibility, organizational, and mental) of keeping everything available for editing is not worth the one or two production edits that one may do. Not to mention lots can still be done when it is audio. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Keep in mind that not everyone does that. This technique, "printing to audio", allows you to set the audio signal in stone. Whereas a synth could play differently with every playback (the oscillators could be sync'ed differently, a pseudo-random LFO may move the filters differently), once you've printed it to audio, you get the exact same audio signal every time, which makes it easier to mix. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globet Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 59 minutes ago, David Nahmani said: Keep in mind that not everyone does that. This technique, "printing to audio", allows you to set the audio signal in stone. Whereas a synth could play differently with every playback (the oscillators could be sync'ed differently, a pseudo-random LFO may move the filters differently), once you've printed it to audio, you get the exact same audio signal every time, which makes it easier to mix. Which method of mixing do you prefer or do you decide depending on the project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherking Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 no need to do that unless... there's a need to do that. for example, i'm recording an EP with a band in a studio with a different DAW, so i'll mix from the audio files. but anything i record in logic (mostly midi & vocals, some guitar) i mix right from the source files, in logic. if there's no absolute benefit, it's just... extra work. and being able to, for example, change a synth sound, or change a note during mixing is so good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzfilth Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) If you're a star at composition, arrangement, recording, production, editing, mixing and mastering, and, to make this worthwile, have a great collection of microphones, a very good recording room with great acoustics and great vibe, an acoustically balanced control room with great monitors, and a great suite of synths and fx, then yes, nothing stops you from mixing as you produce. However, in the real world, this is a highly unlikely combination. There are folks who specialize in recording, others specialize in mixing, others specialize in mastering, etc. This is why great mixers request bounced tracks from great recordists, tracks that have been worked on by others who are great editors and arrangers, advised by great producers. Edited January 4 by fuzzfilth 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zipfunk Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 3 hours ago, fuzzfilth said: If you're a star at composition, arrangement, recording, production, editing, mixing and mastering, and, to make this worthwile, have a great collection of microphones, a very good recording room with great acoustics and great vibe, an acoustically balanced control room with great monitors, and a great suite of synths and fx, then yes, nothing stops you from mixing as you produce. However, in the real world, this is a highly unlikely combination. There are folks who specialize in recording, others specialize in mixing, others specialize in mastering, etc. This is why great mixers request bounced tracks from great recordists, tracks that have been worked on by others who are great editors and arrangers, advised by great producers. 100 % If I’m mixing for a smaller job I just mix straight from the arrange window. No bouncing to wav. on bigger projects I export stems and send them to a mix house where they know far more than I. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiago Rocha Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I can add 2 reasons I do this on all my projects (but this is because I'm working on my music only, I don't work with other people's music). 1 - It forces you to commit to something. Having the option to always come back to the source and change things, can be, in some cases, what makes people take 1 year to finish a track, for example. I tend to bounce to audio when I'm 90% sure that's what I want and that, right there, forces me to take a specific path with my future decisions, which is (for my workflow, at least), an awesome thing. Bounce, move on. Sure, I always keep the older versions, just in case, but they are separate projects, properly identified, so in case I mess up, I can fix it, but I can say that I rarely do that. If I go back to those projects 5% of the time, that's already a stretch. 2 - You have a visual cue of what's happening, which can help you sometimes. It makes it easier and faster to see what's happening with your tracks. You can see if a track is too dynamic, even if you don't necessarily hear it. You can see unnecessary peaks that happen once or twice, but take headroom. You can see a lot by just looking at the audio files, which can be a time saver sometimes. And of course, as mentioned, you have a final version of the instrument such as a synth that could be slightly different every time you play it while using a soft instrument track, and you don't overload your CPU with soft instruments. At the end of the day, try it yourself and see what you feel about it. Maybe you will be able to find your own workflow of using only bounced tracks, only the original sources, or a combination of both. Use what's best for you. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elik Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Another great reason is to future-proof access to your songs. So, if you need to re-open it in a few years, you don't have to worry about whether you still have all your software instruments installed, or if they are compatible with the latest OS, etc. With everything printed, you are working with audio only, and compatibility is no longer an issue. You can reopen it regardless of what OS you are using, what plug-ins have been updated or not; or heck, even which DAW you are using! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globet Posted January 6 Author Share Posted January 6 (edited) Thank you guys for all the valid inputs. I will now try to highlight some issues with audio stems if you are doing the production and having someone else doing the mixing. Audio stems provide very little information on what you did in the production. Meaning if you make fader adjustments to the tracks in production, if you make a some EQ moves, if you add reverb / delay in production, bouncing them into audio stem for mixing might result in the mixing engineer repeating what you did? Is it valid to assume that when you are exporting to audio stems for separate mixing, it means zero mixing in the production? No fader adjusting, no EQ, no compression / reverb / delays? Edited January 6 by globet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubsak Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 There are some benefits to keeping tasks separated. So it often makes sense to have a Logic project that's everything from the session, warts and all, another project that's edits (silence removed, timing edits, etc) where each track gets exported out as a single file of the same length, and a final mix project where you actually start doing all the mix work from the exported edit files (not necessarily stems, just edited files) that can be easily imported into any DAW if the mixing is being handled by another person or just to sort of "safety" your edits. I think it's personal/collaborator preference but this is the sort of process I got taught in school so it's what I (often/mostly/sometimes) do. It helps me keep track of/archive things and it's why I have a Shortcut action that just builds a folder structure for me so I can (attempt to) adhere to that sort of principle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.