— stem prep guide
How to send
your stems.
A great mix starts with tidy stems. Five minutes getting this right means everything lines up, nothing gets lost, and your mix comes back sounding its best. Here's exactly how to export and send them.
The one rule that matters most: bounce from the start.
Export every track from the very start of your session (bar 1 / 0:00) to the same end point — even the ones that come in late. That way every file drops in perfectly aligned, with zero guesswork. Don't trim silence from the front of files.
The format.
Export each track as its own audio file — one file per track, full length.
Mono in mono, stereo in stereo.
Export each sound as what it actually is. A single mic or DI is mono; anything with real left–right width is stereo.
Mono files
one channel — close mics & DIs
- Kick
- Snare
- Hi-hat
- Toms
- Bass mic
- Bass DI
- Lead vocal
- Single-mic guitars
- Mono synths
Stereo files
true left + right width
- Overheads
- Room mics
- Piano / keys
- Organ
- Synth pads
- Strings
- Backing-vocal groups
- Stereo FX / returns
Please don't save a mono sound as a stereo ("dual-mono") file — it doubles the size and can cause phase headaches. And don't fold a true stereo sound down to mono.
Name & number them.
The order is what matters most. Always group your tracks and run them in this sequence — it's the order I build every session in:
- Drums
- Percussion
- Bass
- Guitars & keys
- Synths & strings
- Other instruments
- Lead vocals
- Backing vocals
Then start every filename with its number so they line up in that order — like 01 Kick.wav … 24 Lead Vocal.wav. (Tip: write 01–09 with a leading zero so they stay in order on every computer.)
The list below is just an example — include whichever of these tracks your song actually has.
Before you export.
- Take the limiter off your master bus. No compressor, limiter or EQ on the 2-bus — I need the stems clean. (Keep processing on individual tracks if it's part of the sound — tuned vocals, amp tones, a signature delay. If you're unsure, print it and just tell me.)
- Leave headroom. Nothing should clip — peaks around -6 dB are perfect. Don't normalise individual files.
- Include a rough mix. A simple stereo bounce of how you hear the song. Even a rough one tells me your vision.
- Tell me the BPM and key, and flag any tempo or time-signature changes.
Send it.
- ZIP all your files into a single folder.
- Name the ZIP
Artist - Song. - Upload it using the private link in your confirmation email.