There are 3 main types of exports you will need to do:
This is the “final” version of your composition. It’s the kind you will typically send for assignments, most student films, some professional projects, when uploading to soundcloud/spotify/youtube/reelcrafter, etc.
The difference between a mix and master is that a master will typically be adjusted so that it’s level meets a certain specification.
These are ALL of the individual tracks in your session. I have also heard these called “synth masters” and “stems.”
This is what you will bounce out when delivering to a music mixer. In that case, you want to send these dry. That means all of your FX are disabled, unless they alter the character of the sound significantly.
| Disable | OK to leave on in some cases |
|---|---|
| Reverb - INCLUDING default reverb in the instrument plugin!! | Guitar amps - though might be good to send these with both |
| EQ | Rhythmic Delays |
| Compression | Flanger |
| Saturation | Phaser |
| Delay | Tremolo |
You may also export tracks for archival purposes, in which case you would want to leave your FX enabled.
Stems are in between your Stereo Mix and Tracks. Stems combine individual tracks into a group. Common stems might be the families within an orchestra, such as strings, brass, winds, etc.
These are commonly asked for on films, games, and production music libraries.
Stems are typically delivered WET.
<aside> 💡 When delivery stems, you do not want to apply any processing on your Stereo Mix buss.
You can apply limiting and mastering compression on each individual stem - but make sure you are paying attention to the final level of your Stereo Mix and that it does not exceed -1db!
Having a Stereo Mix bus that feeds into a Stereo Master bus gives you the option of applying master bus processing without altering the Stereo Mix. This can be useful if you are planning on releasing the music on streaming platforms.
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