Soundtrack in a box - Stems?

[ergalthema]

I'm finishing a small budget feature where I created almost everything in Pro Tools - like, I was trying to be a whole post audio team myself (besides composing the music). I think it went well, considering. But this means everything is in one Pro Tools session. Would there be any advantage to making stems and using them to create the master audio file if I'm not going to alter the mix?

[charles maynes]

Originally Posted by ergalthema

I'm finishing a small budget feature where I created almost everything in Pro Tools - like, I was trying to be a whole post audio team myself (besides composing the music). I think it went well, considering. But this means everything is in one Pro Tools session. Would there be any advantage to making stems and using them to create the master audio file if I'm not going to alter the mix?

if you have an approved mix, then yes. Print Stems as a part of the deliverables. They will be need for any M&E work that comes with the release.

[ergalthema]

Thanks!

I should have said that for now, we're making the discs ourselves for festival submissions. I plan to eventually have everything routed to their respective stems tracks, but for now there are a few music cues in the Foley tracks if you know what I'm sayin'.

So is there any advantage to bounce to stems then bounce to a master? It's just 2-channel stereo.

I believe that some people would recommend running the mix through an analog board at some point. Would this be when creating the stems? Or would the stems be mixed analog into a master after they have been bounced in Pro Tools?

[charles maynes]

I would personally suggest getting your tracks squared away so if anything happens someone can trust your work without having any surprises.

I am not a re-recording mixer very much, but I personally feel a trip to analog land isnt going to make anything sound better. I would just stay in the digital domain myself.

[ErikG]

Well I am a re-recording mixer (although a lot of my time is also spent as a sound editor) I would not go to analog for any silly suming bus idiocy, I might consider it if someone would through a lot of cash at me and say, spend it! Then I might run the dialog premix over to mag with SR and back again (still no plugins can create that magical tapecompression imho), but as that doesnt really happen I'll just stay digital all the way.