Mix Preparation Guidelines
ALL STEMS MUST BE PRINTED AT 96/48KHZ AND 24BIT DEPTH. THE DOLBY RENDERER IS ONLY COMPATIBLE WITH THESE SPECS.
IF YOUR FILES DO NOT MEET THIS SPEC, WE WILL APPLY SAMPLE RATE CONVERSION TO MEET THESE REQUIREMENTS.
Organization Before Upload:
Create a folder on your local storage that mimics the organization in the following images.
[Artist Name] - [Project or Album Name]
Please include your song tempos in a READ ME text file or input the tempo on the individual stem folder. The images below are an example.
Folder 01 - "MSTRS"
This folder will contain your stereo mastering files and unmastered stereo mixes.
These files help me understand what you've been hearing, what the label has been hearing, what has been approved, etc. They are only for reference.
Note: The mastered and unmastered stereo mixes can be supplied at any sample rate.
Folder 02 - "STEMS"
This folder will contain the stems of each song.
Printing Your Stems In 4 Easy Steps
01. General Housekeeping
Before printing your stems, all files must have proper crossfades, fade-ins, fade-outs, etc. Please solo individual tracks and check for clicks and pops.
02. Printing Your Stems
Print a stem for each "food group"—Drums, Bass, Bass Sub, Synths, Piano, Organ, Lead Vcl, BG Vcl, etc.
If you want me to be creative with panning in the Dolby Atmos mix, make a separate stem for those tracks!
For example, if you have five different synth layers in your production, print an individual stem for each: Synth 01, Synth 02, Synth 03, etc.
For vocals, print dry and affected versions. Label each version clearly ("DRY" AND "FX") -- LV DRY, LV FX.
This helps me spread the vocals around the Dolby Atmos sound stage, similar to the example above. Keeping the dry vocals up front and spreading the vocal effects throughout the rest of the room raises the bar for the immersive feel.
If you don't have these files, that's ok. Whatever your mix engineer has supplied we'll work, and we can guide you through this process.
You can follow the logic above for any "food group" or stem with reverbs and delays.
03. Naming Convention
Properly name all stems, and please keep it simple.
For example, GTR 01 is for main or rhythm guitars, and GTR 02 is for lead guitars, clean guitars, etc.
04. Consolidate
Consolidate all audio files. Ensure your print selection start and end points start on a downbeat and end on a downbeat. This will help me align your program material quickly and efficiently. It will also help me align the stereo mastering to your mix stems for efficient A/B during the Dolby Atmos mixing process.
If you have any questions, please email me.
shane.grush@grushaudio.com