Do Most Mastering houses prefer to do Stem-mastering these days?

[Paul[_13_]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8


Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
looks like a good idea for more flexibility....

[geoff]

On 30/05/2014 10:40 a.m., Paul wrote:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8
>
>
> Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
> looks like a good idea for more flexibility....

Who gets to choose the balance between the mastered stems ?

Even more flexibility - get the mastering facility to do the rest of the
mix too !

geoff

[Trevor]

"geoff" > wrote in message
...
> On 30/05/2014 10:40 a.m., Paul wrote:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8
>> Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
>> looks like a good idea for more flexibility....
>
> Who gets to choose the balance between the mastered stems ?
>
> Even more flexibility - get the mastering facility to do the rest of the
> mix too !

That's not "more flexibility", that's just delegation.

Trevor.

[Scott Dorsey]

In article >, Paul > wrote:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8
>
> Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
>looks like a good idea for more flexibility....

Right, but do you want more flexibility in mastering? I'd rather have things
mixed properly before going into the mastering room in the first place.

The reasons why people bring stems in is because they are going to be getting
aggressive processing done in mastering that will affect balances, which I
think is almost always a bad thing, or otherwise they are mixing in a situation
where they don't trust their monitoring, and that's an even worse thing.

But it's a good technique in those situations.

Certainly if you're doing aggressive processing in the mastering room, it
is a good idea to provide "vocal up" and "vocal down" mixes as well as the
reference mixes.

But I think the key is to make decisions as soon as possible in the recording
process, making good ones, and stick with them. Make decisions in arrangement
rather than in tracking, make decisions in tracking rather than putting them
off to mixing, and make decisions in the mixing room so you don't have to make
them in mastering. The sooner you make decisions, the less money it will cost
and the better the results will be.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[hank alrich]

Scott Dorsey > wrote:

> In article >, Paul > wrote:
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8
> >
> > Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
> >looks like a good idea for more flexibility....
>
> Right, but do you want more flexibility in mastering? I'd rather have
> things mixed properly before going into the mastering room in the first
> place.
>
> The reasons why people bring stems in is because they are going to be
> getting aggressive processing done in mastering that will affect balances,
> which I think is almost always a bad thing, or otherwise they are mixing
> in a situation where they don't trust their monitoring, and that's an even
> worse thing.
>
> But it's a good technique in those situations.
>
> Certainly if you're doing aggressive processing in the mastering room, it
> is a good idea to provide "vocal up" and "vocal down" mixes as well as the
> reference mixes.
>
> But I think the key is to make decisions as soon as possible in the
> recording process, making good ones, and stick with them. Make decisions
> in arrangement rather than in tracking, make decisions in tracking rather
> than putting them off to mixing, and make decisions in the mixing room so
> you don't have to make them in mastering. The sooner you make decisions,
> the less money it will cost and the better the results will be. --scott

Use the techinique in the mixing stage, where it works fine if
appropriate for the material.

--
shut up and play your guitar * HankAlrich.Com
HankandShaidriMusic.Com
YouTube.Com/WalkinayMusic

[geoff]

On 31/05/2014 1:22 a.m., Scott Dorsey wrote:
> In article >, Paul > wrote:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8
>>
>> Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
>> looks like a good idea for more flexibility....
>
> Right, but do you want more flexibility in mastering? I'd rather have things
> mixed properly before going into the mastering room in the first place.
>
> The reasons why people bring stems in is because they are going to be getting
> aggressive processing done in mastering ....


Exactly. In which case why not do the aggressive **** in mixing ?!!!

geoff

[Paul[_13_]]

On 5/30/2014 6:22 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> In article >, Paul > wrote:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1_WJHIwQ8
>>
>> Unless the mixing engineer is a control freak, it
>> looks like a good idea for more flexibility....
>
> Right, but do you want more flexibility in mastering? I'd rather have things
> mixed properly before going into the mastering room in the first place.
>
> The reasons why people bring stems in is because they are going to be getting
> aggressive processing done in mastering that will affect balances, which I
> think is almost always a bad thing, or otherwise they are mixing in a situation
> where they don't trust their monitoring, and that's an even worse thing.
>
> But it's a good technique in those situations.
>
> Certainly if you're doing aggressive processing in the mastering room, it
> is a good idea to provide "vocal up" and "vocal down" mixes as well as the
> reference mixes.
>
> But I think the key is to make decisions as soon as possible in the recording
> process, making good ones, and stick with them. Make decisions in arrangement
> rather than in tracking, make decisions in tracking rather than putting them
> off to mixing, and make decisions in the mixing room so you don't have to make
> them in mastering. The sooner you make decisions, the less money it will cost
> and the better the results will be.
> --scott
>

Yeah, Roger at SAE Mastering prefers a complete stereo mix file,
which seems to be saying, "Please mix it right before it gets to me
so I don't have to re-mix it!"

I recently sent some tracks to a collaborator (as in my other
thread), and I was impressed by what another pair of talented ears can
do. I over-emphasized the sax (because he was paying me!), and this
guy brought it back down even with the rest of the band, so that it
was more balanced. He also multi-band compressed it more, with more
peak limiting, so that the midrange of the bass came out more. It
actually sounded a bit over-compressed, and a bit unnatural, but for
the overall mix, it was a good decision. Overall loudness was higher,
a la the loudness wars, but it wasn't too bad.

I'm thinking I should do more mixing with someone else in the room,
and not necessarily someone who does recording, but just another
musician would be good enough.

Nothing like a second pair of ears....