Description

Send us your stems for mastering! Make sure it’s at a maximum of 8 Tracks!

Stem Mastering is half way between a stereo 2 track master and a full mix down. It is quite common for mixing engineers to send mastering engineers the main parts of a track bounced into separate stems for mastering. For example, the main stems may be Drums, Bass, Synths & Guitars and Vocals. The idea behind is that you give your mastering engineer more flexibility & control over the total sound and more options to creatively adjust the complete track.

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Stems should be sent as Stereo WAV or AIFF files. Usually 24 bit and 44.1 kHz or higher. Label them clearly and ZIP them together as a single compressed file.

If your track is mixed ‘perfectly’ then stem mastering is certainly not as valuable. But more often than not mixes are sent to us with obvious problems and flaws. A stem master can be a good way to alleviate this problem and in the end give you a better result.

As this process is more complex and time consuming for us, we do charge a higher rate per track.

Frequently asked questions:

In what format do I submit my audio data?

TailOut prefers WAV or AIFF in 24 bit (not dithered!) or 32 bit. 16 bit might be OK for the listening pleasure from consumer media, but is not sufficient for digital processing.
The sample rate is dependent on your project rate, however we recommend the standard that is 44.1 kHz. Please be aware that two different sample rates (like 44.1 and 48 kHz) on one side on vinyl is not easy to cut (or more expensive). The work-around of conversion deteriorates the quality of the converted file.

Please make sure to provide us with your previously uploaded material via the “Additional Information” field on the checkout page or our: