Sidechain Stem Mastering: The Complete Guide

[@mikeperkinpine3563]

great video Eric, I have faced this issue before and now I am more readily equipped to deal with it! Thx bro

[@eldowns]

Love to hear that, dude.

[@OliRay]

Brilliant, finally a solution. Brilliant video!

[@goncalomartins8376]

Man you're giving away absolute gold! Thank you for that!

[@jaysauerbass]

Man life saver, thank you

[@caindanieldrums]

This is badass dude! Thanks for sharing

[@eldowns]

Thanks bro!

[@danoneill130]

Great and informative video. I’ve done quite a few things wrong this whole time. This all makes total sense now Thank you dude!!

[@ThePainter1989]

You’re a wizard thank you!

[@Anatolia909tv]

EXCELLENT!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

[@MarkoFazio]

Great video! Thank you so much for clarifying this topic!

[@kashjaegermusic]

Insane gem of a video Eric. Sharing with everyone I know!

[@christianhansen8274]

This is awsome information! Thank you so much for sharing this❤

[@jeetlejee]

I just found your channel and am loving it! Thank you for the video! Just subscribed!

[@eldowns]

Thanks! Enjoy, and if there’s anything you’d like me to cover, let me know.

[@TheZooNinjaS]

thanks for sharing man!

[@ByCiii]

Thank you very much for this video. We know what to do now with compressors,limiter etc. But if we use eq,iamager,saturation..etc on master bus,when exporting stems,we will copy all these(eq.saturation,imager) to each stems?

[@eldowns]

You can put those on the Master as well, but no side chain necessary.

[@sarinsahil]

This is Gold! You are bringing so much value to the world. Very grateful Eric :) Would you recommend sending, specifically the playback mix through L-R or Multi-Outs to FOH post following this process? (My apprehension with sending Multi Outs for playback is always that it ll do more harm than good (Risk Of Failure, More Lines More Variables, Intent of the Studio Mix not translating..) Thank you!

[@eldowns]

It depends. If you master your stems properly and are sending to an engineer who knows the music, then multi outs is better. If the engineer doesn’t know the music, it may be best to just use an LR so they can’t mess things up.

[@sarinsahil]

@@eldowns Thank you Eric! I hear you, When sending Multi Out would you recommend sending it like your Aux routed to available PHYSICAL OUTs (Bass-Perc-Pads..) or do something like a 4 Way Split like Subs - Low Mids - High Mids - Highs. Thank you!

[@eldowns]

@sarinsahil Split it based on stems. Absolutely do not split it based on frequency.

[@sarinsahil]

​@@eldowns Thank you Eric! I agree. It would be amazing if you could a video on live vocal processing. For E.g If you were using a UAD Apollo x4 Unison (VOX MONO:Preamps, Compressor, De-Esser, Live Autotune) + (STEREO: Verbs, Dlys, Parallel Compression) in a live setting. Would you send three channels a) Mono Processed Vocals and b) L-R Stereo Processing to FOH so that the engineer can dial it in as required? Or do you recommend a different work flow? Thank you for sharing :)

[@eldowns]

@sarinsahil Introducing time-based FX without your engineer is a dangerous game to play, especially considering the inability to automate time/feedback/EQ/etc in UAD Console. That said, if you absolutely insist on doing it, yes, send the FX separate.

[@SusVasquez]

Amazing!

[@JoeMengis]

If I remember correctly, most plugins are calibrated to take audio at -12 lufs, which equals the analog equivalent. There is room for error because of the differences in what is being calculated. Also, streaming standards etc...

[@eldowns]

That’s largely what I’ve heard too, but I think the difference is negligible, if noticeable at all. I’ve actually been experimenting with -18 LUFS lately to increase headroom even further.

[@mvnoxl]

Great content!! ❤

[@ABS_AD77]

Hi Eric Thanks for the video. Does the EQ stays as is ? If yes we would get a sound closer to the mastered version but not identical I guess. Thank you.

[@eldowns]

I’m not sure I understand the question.

[@iamstudiosmedia7886]

AMAZING VIDEO! Thank you so much for this. I'm having a hard time translating this to pro tools. I did the mix bounces easily enough since i had no processing on the master channel. Now that I have those stems in the mastering session all ext inputs are mono for side chain. How does this work? I also have the non affected two track bounce as a target. Like I said, I'm just finding it hard to get the last portion done through pro tools.

[@eldowns]

I’m not sure I’m completely following here. Sorry, I’m kind of Pro Tools dumb.

[@eldowns]

I’m not sure I’m completely following here. Sorry, I’m kind of Pro Tools dumb.

[@emilbrorson]

That’s so smart! Do you think it would be to cpu-intensive to copy and paste the mix bus onto every channel and bounce all individual stems in one pass? Because bouncing every stem separately must take a lot of time right?

[@eldowns]

lol idk I would imagine that would be immensely CPU consuming. But more importantly, I think this method (despite being time consuming in the bounce) is better because if you hear an issue and want to make a change to the chain, you only have to do it once rather than having to make the change and re-paste it like 50 times. Lots of room for error there.

[@emilbrorson]

@@eldowns Definitely!

[@LaimisMatas]

Gold 🙏 A check-up - are these TDTM stems you was working on not mastered prior? I tried working on some (mastered) stems, and while their level's off at first, once I get the gain-stage game right, it looks and sounds dead on similar to the original track, with no processing on the master bus required after..

[@eldowns]

These were bounced from the engineer, and as you could probably hear, they definitely weren’t mastered lol. In theory, if you get mastered stems, they shouldn’t need any level adjustment.

[@talaz2]

Than you for video! Will use this. But i got one question. If ghost track you printed with all the stems, trigerring master chain as it supposed to, but on top of that you also play one individual stem which is also trigering master chain. Doesnt it change how master chain is working? Maeby it should be ghost track (without stem x) playgin with stem x, which you want to print.

[@eldowns]

What you described is what’s happening here. The stems are no longer triggering the master chain - the ghost/target track is.