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Tom Fleischman · 12th November 2011

A stem is a generic term that refers to any sub-mix of a complete mix, which when played at unity with all of the other stems (or sub-mixes) form the complete mix. Examples of this are film stems (dialogue, music, effects) which together form the complete final mix of a film, or the stems which together form the complete mix of the musical score as delivered to the re-recording stage by the composer.

A bit of history. Prior to the early 1970's virtually all films were mixed in mono. Theaters were standardized with an Academy roll-off (if I remember correctly it was 12db per octave beginning at 8khz). The Academy roll-off was also applied to the mixing stage monitors so that the mixer would naturally equalize to provide the necessary pre-emphasis during the course of mixing. The timeline was measured in feet and frames. There was a 12 foot Academy Leader with countdown and a "2" frame at 9 feet from Picture Start. The first frame of picture would occur at 12 feet.

The genesis of the term "stem", at least in my experience, goes back to the widespread introduction of stereo into the world of film mixing. When films were mixed onto analog magnetic film, in mono, the master was recorded on a 3 track 35mm film recorder. The three tracks were dedicated to dialogue, music, and sound effects. This allowed for the production of foreign language versions and accurate music timings. When Dolby Stereo was introduced in the early 70's we had to be able to continue to provide for this flexibility while also using the (then) state of the art 4-track film recorder as the master recorder. The 4 tracks were dedicated to left, center, right, and surround and the master had to be recorded on three 4-track film recorders. These were referred to as Stem Masters and would have to be mixed together at unity into a matrixed Dolby Stereo Printmaster before the optical track negative could be shot.

Now that we are using digital workstations and are not limited to three stems I routinely record at least five stems (Dx. Mx, Fx, BG,and Foley) for my final mix masters. On a number of films I've recorded two music stems which were later combined for M&E and delivery. This allowed for easier conformations when I knew the picture would be changing a lot.

12th November 2011	#78
Tom Fleischman Gear nut Joined: Aug 2011 Location: Nyack, NY Posts: 87	A stem is a generic term that refers to any sub-mix of a complete mix, which when played at unity with all of the other stems (or sub-mixes) form the complete mix. Examples of this are film stems (dialogue, music, effects) which together form the complete final mix of a film, or the stems which together form the complete mix of the musical score as delivered to the re-recording stage by the composer. A bit of history. Prior to the early 1970's virtually all films were mixed in mono. Theaters were standardized with an Academy roll-off (if I remember correctly it was 12db per octave beginning at 8khz). The Academy roll-off was also applied to the mixing stage monitors so that the mixer would naturally equalize to provide the necessary pre-emphasis during the course of mixing. The timeline was measured in feet and frames. There was a 12 foot Academy Leader with countdown and a "2" frame at 9 feet from Picture Start. The first frame of picture would occur at 12 feet. The genesis of the term "stem", at least in my experience, goes back to the widespread introduction of stereo into the world of film mixing. When films were mixed onto analog magnetic film, in mono, the master was recorded on a 3 track 35mm film recorder. The three tracks were dedicated to dialogue, music, and sound effects. This allowed for the production of foreign language versions and accurate music timings. When Dolby Stereo was introduced in the early 70's we had to be able to continue to provide for this flexibility while also using the (then) state of the art 4-track film recorder as the master recorder. The 4 tracks were dedicated to left, center, right, and surround and the master had to be recorded on three 4-track film recorders. These were referred to as Stem Masters and would have to be mixed together at unity into a matrixed Dolby Stereo Printmaster before the optical track negative could be shot. Now that we are using digital workstations and are not limited to three stems I routinely record at least five stems (Dx. Mx, Fx, BG,and Foley) for my final mix masters. On a number of films I've recorded two music stems which were later combined for M&E and delivery. This allowed for easier conformations when I knew the picture would be changing a lot.