Stems don't sound like my stereo mix

[wilx]

I'm exporting stems for a film score, and the stems, played together, don't sound the same as my stereo mix.

 

The original project has a fair few sends/aux effects - guitars routed to a bus, strings being sent at various levels to a reverb bus etc, with bus send level automation on some effects busses.

 

I'm bouncing the tracks by soloing a selection of similar tracks - three or four audio fx tracks, all the short string articulations etc, and bouncing with normalize turned off for the whole of the film reel.

 

I end up with around ten tracks which fit together timing-wise, but the mix is notably different. A synth may be louder than the stereo mix, many drums are quieter than they should be etc.

I might be able to recreate the mix (assuming it's just volume stuff that's changed), but I'd rather troubleshoot the problem first.

There is no limiter/compressor on the master out.

 

All I want is to export my stems, play them all together and hear exactly the same thing as my stereo bounce.

 

Any suggestions?

[wilx]

to update, it may be caused by Logic's inability to read pre-region cc data when offline bouncing. Some cutoff/volume/reverb parameters for various tracks are controlled and automated using CC values. Sometimes these values get 'stuck' when there isn't a little gap before the first note in a MIDI region with an automation/hyper-draw handle there to 'remind' logic where the CC value is at.

 

I'm going to flick through and see if that fixes stuff...