STEM CREATOR TOOL: FILE AUTHORING GUIDELINES WELCOME TO THE STEM CREATOR TOOL ‘Thank you for downloading the Stem Creator Tool! A number of Stem file authoring techniques and guidelines were tested during the development of the stem.mp4 format to provide a consistent, simple, and quality user experience. ‘These guidelines are here to encourage consistency between Stern files so that DJs and live performers find familiar track layouts, making Stems easier to use. Now let's get started making Stems. ‘STEM FILE CREATION PREPARING YOUR MUSIC FOR STEM ARRANGEMENT whi very song is unique, a consistent grouping of track parts works best for instant usability when Ding. First, think of the FOUR main parts of your track that you would like to have available individually as stems. Then, split your track up into four separate audio files by grouping and exporting the sounds from your DAW. While not every song can conform to one way of arranging stems, there are some guidelines that could be useful: > The fitst stem is for Drums. If the track has lots of other parts, this will likely be all percussion parts in one track. If the song has a more minimal structure, t is might be only the kick drum/low drums. > The second stem is for the Bass, normally acoustic or synthesized bass. » The third stem is for the Main instrumentation of th ick. This stem will be some kind of strong hook or melody. If not, this would be all of the musical elements outside of drums, bass, and vocals. > The fourth stem is for Vocals. If the song doesn’t have vocals, you can use this stem for any remaining musical parts like the accompaniment, harmonies, additional percussion, effects, etc. With this arrangement, you should always be able to isolate or remove the drums, the bass, and the vocals (if present). Their location within the track layout should be consistent from track to track.TIME-ALIGN ALL AUDIO FILES It's essential that your four stem tracks are time-aligned with the stereo master track before loading them into the Stem Creator Tool. Usually the export ranges of the stems and stereo master are the same in the DAW but if the tracks aren't aligned, this can be fixed quickly. Just load all five tracks (four stems and stereo master), zoom in to the waveforms and shift th 1cks into alignment, and then re-export the audio files. This time-alignment is crucial to ensure that cue points and beatgrids all align correctly with both the stereo and stem tracks. LABELLING STEMS Once all audio files have been loaded into the Stern Creator Tool, you can give each stem a label that clearly describes its contents, Just click on a stem's default label to edit it, Short, descriptive names for these labels are recommended, Here are some good examples to follow: Drums, Kick, HiHat, Snare, Toms, Clap, Tops, Loop, Bass, Bassline, SubBass, Reece, Synths, Pads, Chords, Drone, Comp, Guitar, Melody, Hook, Lead, Stabs, Hits, Acid, Donk, Noise, Atmos, Vocals, Voices, SFX, FX CHOOSING THE STEM COLOR You'll notice each stem is also assigned a color so each is easy to recognize. The color can be changed by clicking on the colored circles just to the right of the stem names, This will open up a color picker where you can choose from one of 16 different colors. The exact colors are up to you, though we do suggest using specific colors for certain instrument types as detailed in the Authoring Guidelines section later in this document. ENTERING TRACK METADATA ‘The top section of the Stem Creator Tool contains all the track metadata fields. Here you can enter track name, artist, album or release name, label, year, catalog number, BPM, cover art and other details. You can do this at any point in the process before exporting your final Stem fil, A button in the bottom-right corner of this area named ‘more options’ will expand the metadata section to show all available parameters. Clicking it again will return the metadata section to normal size. SETTING THE REAL-TIME DYNAMICS ‘The final step in preparing a Stem file is to set the real-time compressor and limiter using the Dynamics section at the bottom of the Stem Creator Tool. The Stem Creator Too! provides access to these controls along with an audio preview so you can adjust the compression and/or limiting until the sound of the stems — when played together — matches the original stereo master file.‘The switch on the left side of the Transport Bar allows you to select the audio source for preview: » When the switch is in the upper ‘Stem Mix’ position, you can hear the four stem files played through the compressor and limiter using the current settings. > When in the lower ‘Master file’ position, you will hear only the master file (without being processed by the compressor or limiter) ‘The ultimate goal is to match the sound and character of both Stems Mix and Master file signals so that you don’t hear any difference when toggling back and forth between the two. You'll need to listen t the Stem Mix and compare it to the Master file, then make adjustments as needed to the compressor and limiter. ‘The Dynamics section has two views: Basic and Expert. By default, you see the Basic View which provides quick access 1e most essential compressor controls. The behavior of the compressor is determined by the presets selected in the drop down menu just to the left of the compressor controls. These presets determine the attack, release, ratio, and hi-pass filter settings, meaning that you then only need to set the threshold and levels as desired. This is perfect for quick results There are four adjustable controls in Basic View: > Input: This is the level of the audio being fed into the compressor. > Dry/Wet: This is the balance between the dry (unprocessed) and wet (compressed) signals. Setting this to 100% wet means the audio is entirely processed through the compressor. Setting this control to a lower value allows some of the original uncompressed audio to be blended with the compressed audio. At 0%, the compressor is bypassed. » Output: This is the output level of the compressor which then feeds into the limiter. Turning this knob up will push the audio harder into the limiter while turning this knab down will reduce the level into the limiter (thus reducing the effect of the limiter). > Threshold: This control is a slider which is positioned just below the input meter on the right side of the tool. This, slider determines at which input level the compressor should start applying gain reduction. The lower the setting, the harder the compressor will work, To access all controls of the Dynamics section, click the ‘Expert’ button to enable the Expert View, The Stem Creator ‘Too! window will exoand to reveal the additional controls. Adjustable controls in Expert View are: > The same Input, Dry/Wet, Output, and Threshold controls as in Basic View » A secondary set of four knobs for the compressor: > Ratio: This knob sets the compression ratio for the compressor > HPF: Sets the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter for the compressor detector. Increasing this value causes the compressor to ignore audio at frequencies below the cutoff frequency. For example, by turning up the knob,heavy bass in a track will be ignored by the compressor. By turing this down to OHz, the fier is bypassed. > Attack: Ths isthe attack time of the compressor. > Release: This isthe release time of the compressor. > In the lower limiter section, you'll find the folowing controls > Release: This is the release time for the limiter. > Threshold: This sets the level at which point limiting should be applied. The lower this value, the harder the limiter will work, The Threshold also includes an a\ makeup gain so that the output level will increase as you turn down the Threshold > Output Ceiling: This slider sets the maximum output level of the limiter. > Bypass switches for both the compressor and limiter if you want to disable one or both, IMPORTANT: It is highly recommended that you always use the limiter when creating content for distribution and/or sale to other users. This ensures that the output level of the Stem mix never exceeds O¢BFS which therefore prevents any possible audio clipping during playback. Failure to use the limiter could result in clipping on some playback devices EXPORTING THE FILE Once you're happy with how the dynamics are set and all track metadata like the cover art, track info, etc. have been ‘added to the tool, you're ready to export. Simply click the ‘EXPORT’ button at the bottom-right comer and the tool will then begin to do its magic. It will convert the supplied audio files into a compressed format and then package them up into the final stem.mp4 file. Your Stem file is now complete and ready to be played! ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES EXAMPLE LAYOUTS Below are some examples of possible stem arrangements and color assignments based on various types of music and structures that could be encountered: Trance and Synth-heavy music Elements can be grouped cleanly into orchestration elements > Track 1 contains Drums (Colors: Reds) » Track 2 contains Basses (Colors: Pink/Purple spectrum) > Track 3 contains Harmonic Synths (Colors: Green spectrum) > Track 4 contains Melodic Synths (Colors: Biue Spectrum)Percussive Techno without notable song structure or melody Generally keep bass-heavy sounds to the left and bright sounds tothe right. > Track 1 contains Kicks & Toms (Colors: Reds) > Track 2 contains Sub-bass (Colors: Pink/Purple spectrum) > Track 3 contains Snares & Hi-hats (Colors: Green spectrum) > Track 4 contains Ambiences and additional percussion (Colors: Blue Spectrum) Vocal House/Disco/Pop Harmonies and Melodies must be grouped to allow soloed a cappella. > Track 1 contains Drums (Colors: Reds) > Track 2 contains Basses (Colors: Pink/Purple spectrum) > Track 3 contains Hermonies and Melocies (Colors: Green spectrum) > Track 4 contains Vocals (Colors: Orange Spectrum) ‘MinimalEsoterie music Unique sounds should be discretely spaced across tracks to allow effective soloing > Track 1 contains Drums and percussive elements (Colors: Reds) » Track 2 contains bass-heavy elements (Colors: Pink/Purple spectrum) » Track 3 contains sounds with sharp plucked attacks (Colors: Green spectrum) > Track 4 contains sounds with soft attacks like pads and ambience (Colors: Blue Spectrum) AUDIO QUALITY AND MASTERING When preparing the four stems in your DAW, they should be processed using the same mastering toolchain as the stereo retail master. You can do this by preparing the four stem parts before the mastering session, and then having the Mastering Engineer master the final mix as well as the four stems all in the same session, This will ensure that the four stem parts have the same mastering tweaks as the stereo retail master, such as EQ changes, harmonic exciting, additional reverb, etc. Within the Stem Creator Tool, the Stem Master Dynamics should be used replicate the final stage of compression and limiting applied to the stereo retail master. MASTERING STEMS WITH HARDWARE After running individual stem mixes through a hardware-based mastering chain, the stems must be re-imported into a DAW, re-aligned, and cropped to ensure sample-accurate playback. The initial version of the Stem Creator Tool will rot include tools for timing adjustments between stems.