Export Stems From your DAW
Setting Stem and Original Song Volume Levels
The CLICK TRACK and the GUIDE track levels must stay at 0 since these levels have already been preset.
Never adjust the volume level of the tracks or any clip within the CLICK TRACK or GUIDE.
Always adjust the levels of the individual instruments first with the following steps:
Make a selection of all the individual stems and do not include the CLICK TRACK, GUIDE or the ORIGINAL SONG in this selection.
To make a selection of all individual instrument tracks, click on the name of the track right under the ORIGINAL SONG track, hold down shift, then click on the last stem at the bottom to select all.
Click the solo button on one of the selected tracks, this should solo all individual instruments together.
Play the loudest section of the song and monitor the volume meter on the Master Track in your DAW.
If the meter is peaking red, click on the track volume of any of the selected individual stems and slowly begin to bring the level down by using the arrow keys on the computer keyboard. Adjusting the level of one stem will adjust the level of all the selected stems. Continue to bring down the level until the meter on the Master Track is no longer peaking.
Only bring down the level of the stems right below the peak level.
Bringing the level down any lower will result in stem levels that are too low to use. Even 1 db lower can make a big difference in consistency.
In some cases, stem levels will need to be raised because they are too quiet. When that is the case, raise the overall stem levels so that it maxes out right below 0db.
Make sure like before that it is not peaking, but is sitting right below 0dB at its loudest point.
To preserve the original mix of the song, when adjusting stem volume only adjust all stems simultaneously.
The volume of the ORIGINAL SONG track must be set to match the level of the individual instrument tracks.
Play the same loud section of the song that was used to set the level of the stems.
While all individual stems are selected and soloed, listen to the same section used to set their volume levels, then solo the ORIGINAL SONG track.
Listen carefully to the level of the ORIGINAL SONG compared to the already set level of all individual instrument stems soloed.
If the level of the ORIGINAL SONG sounds too loud or too low compared to the individual instrument stems, adjust the volume level until the loudness is close to the individual stems played together.
Usually, the volume level of the ORIGINAL SONG track will be the same as the individual instruments (around -6 db.) This is why the template has the ORIGINAL SONG track volume level already set to -6db, even so, double checking the levels is important.
Remember that the reference for setting the individual stem volume level is the Master output track meter and that the reference for setting the level of the ORIGINAL SONG track is the level of the individual instrument stems.
Exporting All Stems in Ableton:
Once all previous steps have been done, double click the loop bracket and all stems from beat one to the end of the last measure of the song will be selected automatically.
Be sure to check that no tracks have been accidentally turned off or soloed while setting the track levels.
Hold down Shift + Command + R to open the Export Audio/Video window and set your export settings in this window to match the settings in the image below.
The most important is that the Sample Rate is set to 44100 HZ and the Bit Depth is set to 16 bit.
The Export Audio/Video window shows the correct settings for exporting all stems. All individual tracks will be exported to the length of the Loop Bracket at 44100 Hz 16 bit.
Click Export and navigate to the directory where the Ableton Session was saved.
Create a new folder named "Stems" and export the stems using an underscore "_" as the name as shown below.
Select all of the newly exported stems (click one of them and press Command + A), right click one of them, and press "Rename".
Enter an underscore (_) followed by a single space ( ) in the "Find:" box.
Leave the "Replace with:" box empty.
Press "Rename" and all stems should have the correct names.
Zip that file and upload it to multitracks.com
Exporting All Stems in Logic:
Once all previous steps have been done, double click the loop bracket and all stems from beat one to the end of the last measure of the song will be selected automatically.
Be sure to check that no tracks have been accidentally turned off or soloed while setting the track levels.
Hold down Command + E to open the Export Audio/Video window and set your export settings in this window to match the settings in the image below.
The most important is that the Sample Rate is set to 44100 HZ and the Bit Depth is set to 16 bit.
Press export to the folder you created.
Zip that file and upload it to multitracks.com