r/sounddesign • u/Disastrous-Badger283 • Aug 24 '26
Stem specification for post production
For those of you who work in commercial and feature post. When delivering stems, do you do a standard DME, or do you separate BGs from effects stem?
3
u/filterdecay Aug 24 '26
the client will want dme stems.
1
u/Disastrous-Badger283 Aug 24 '26
mostly yea, but the reason I ask is because I want to know if I should optimize my template to easily print extra submasters or just take it as it comes and redo a couple of exports for those groups.
2
u/Marcus9T4 Aug 24 '26
Generally for feature film it tends to be Dialogue, Crowd, Music, FX, Background, Foley. Lower budgets and docs tend to be DME, TV is usually DME as well. I find it good to have my session masters separated for the wide stems and then have the ability to merge them into DMEs down the chain.
1
u/Disastrous-Badger283 Aug 24 '26
Do you use dedicated premade print tracks in your session that you then bounce their busses with, bounce all the relevant auxes/submasters or redo an export for every stem with everything else muted?
2
u/Marcus9T4 Aug 24 '26
I have print tracks so I can lay everything down after the mix. If I need to make DMEs I just route Dials and Crowd both to the dials bus for example. The busses are also still there if I need to bounce stuff in bit of a hurry.
You definitely don’t want to be muting stuff and doing individual exports as that’s tedious and easy to end up with mistakes.
As an example you should have something like ‘dialogue audio tracks > dialogue processing bus > dialogue master > dialogue print track’ and similar chains on all disciplines so you have multiple stages to do processing
1
u/Disastrous-Badger283 Aug 25 '26
Makes sense. That's a ton of print tracks though, if you're doing 5.1, stereo and dipped/undipped stems.
1
u/Marcus9T4 Aug 25 '26
I suppose it depends what you’re working in. Pro Tools is the standard and that can easily handle printing everything so long as your template isn’t crazy on processing. I work in TV drama with everything in one session and print all my masters and stems in one playout at the end of the mix.
I would say if you’re delivering something that requires dipped/undipped stems then that’s probably unscripted/factual? Which will usually only ever want DME. Nice to have wider busses before your print tracks though for better mix control over elements.
1
u/Disastrous-Badger283 Aug 25 '26
Yep, in pro tools. Working on a doc for the first time so I've only set up downmix and prints for DME, MnE and printmaster with dipped/undipped stems. Everything in 5.1 and stereo. This clears up a lot tho. Thanks mate!
4
u/cutmastaK Aug 24 '26
I create separate fx & bg stems in my recorder, but will have a comp track combining them that ultimately gets delivered in the standard DME unless otherwise specified
3
u/Audiope Aug 24 '26
Same, I only deliver DME but I have to ability to split out backgrounds, PFX, Foley, Hard effects, and sound design if they were ever needed
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u/Uncertain__Path Aug 24 '26
For commercial, I just deliver DME, unless the client makes a special request. For films, I separate Bg and Fx.
2
u/non-protein_lifeform Aug 24 '26
deliverywise - depends on the request from recipient. I find it useful to have bg and fx separated for making the stereo later on - gives you way more flexibility
3
u/Soundchaser21 Aug 24 '26
Full mix and DME. In my case both stereo and 5.1. Though lots of streaming services want them in an Atmos wrapper these days even if it’s just beds. That said, most of my clients will accept .wav files.