Tracks vs Channels - Exporting Stems In PreSonus Studio One Demystified

The 'Export Stems' option in Studio One is an extremely useful way to quickly render out Stems from your Song. But did you know that there are some fundamental differences between using Tracks vs Channels?
In this video, I demonstrate the key differences between the 2 methods as well as when (and why) to use one method over the other.
Original Article can be found at
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[@Russplight]

Thanks Marcus. The worst part of Marcus Huyskens' video is "That's all the time I have available" that means the wait is on again.

[@bikelane]

(Not sure if this has already been mentioned) Another way to think about this is as follows. If you're rendering (or "printing") some audio (including if it's audio that has resulted from an instrument that is triggering samples via midi), a question arises: from which point in the routing chain do you want to "tap" the audio signal that you want to print? There are multiple possibilities: after inserts, before sends, after buss processing, etc. The audio signal is, notionally, passing through a pipeline and being transformed along the way. When you print, it's like you're inserting a tap at a particular location along the pipeline (along which the audio gets transformed and which can be split along multiple routes and remerged, etc.) where you can sample the audio, and you're going to save that sample to a file. That's how I think of it, and I find it helpful.

[@mefailobenik]

First i click the like button then i start to watch. You're the best about Studio One.

[@jokku]

I switched from Ableton Live to Studio One about a year ago. I've learned almost everything I know about Studio One from your videos. I've also learned how to optimise my workflow and be much more efficient. Thank you Marcus. You are the bestest! :)

[@nickpov3y]

ahhh thanks so much this has cleared up so much for me because I was never sure about what each option did with printing the sends vs not

[@FelipeGruberTV]

Thanks, Marcus. I've learned a lot about Studio One because of you, I appreciate it!

[@Yahoomediaclub]

Perfectly explained, I was slightly confused after I exported 30 tracks last night...All clear now ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@multitracker]

Thanks Marcus for making another feature more useful and clear.

[@paulsvenson7585]

Hey Marcus - thanks for clarifying the tracks/channels issue for me. Your Studio One videos are always excellent.

[@davidcamarda8723]

Perfect explanation with examples. Thx for sharing the knowledge, a lot of which is only available on this channel.

[@erikhausler6858]

I'll second that... Thanks Marcus, the hidden gem, each file getting printed with all & only the effects pertaining to it is great news!

[@davidrotimi]

thank you for the very detailed explanation! I'd been pretty stuck and confused for a long time, but thank you for clearing it up!!!

[@stefan_rosca]

That was very useful. Everything was in solo safe. Thanks

[@1shannonleggette]

Hey Marcus. Thanks. This really helped me out.

[@dopebeatproductions6164]

Great information! I appreciate it!! Keep up the great work!

[@adriankilbourne2163]

Thanks for the good works and the sound information! Blessed Be, Love and Music!

[@jaikumarsivalingam]

Thank you Marcus! This saved a lot of time for me...

[@thepsychosofsoul1238]

Also is there a way to mixdown mastering fx into each track, or does that happen automatically when you mixdown stems?

[@LoR2023]

Hi Marcus. Great video. One question, when exporting either way, does panning or where your volume is on a fader affect the resulting exported file?

[@Yahoomediaclub]

My planning all centered when I exported...

[@LeoBercoff]

I guess if you want separated effect audio pieces for every single track, you have to expot stems (channel mode) soloing each track each time (3 export operations). So, nine audio tracks for this 3 tracks example (if somebody needs)...

[@audio_odyssey]

Great video as always. Thanks and some questions. What happens when you have tracks routed through busses? What if those busses have additional fx on them shared between the tracks routed there? What if you have fx on the master bus? Many of us work this way, and I assume it gets a bit more complicated with a full mix.

[@stupidusername38]

i'd like to know this too as i have the exact same processing as you described. My drums have separate inserts on them, some sends (verb on the snare) and they are routed to a Drum Bus which is then going into a heavily affected sub mix bus which then goes to the master out, how do you we export stems for each element of the drum kit ensuring that they have the effects exported into them?

[@goomba2003]

This. On related note, how would you make sure that side chain compression exported when exporting stems of tracks affected by a side chain send (i.e. exporting stems from a bass bus, and making sure compression is exported when the kick drum hits)?

[@Manuel-Anthony]

@@stupidusername38 when you export through the ‘track’ option, they will all be there. If you exported through the ‘channel’ option they won’t be there but the fx will be on a separate channel when sent. Just click ‘tracks’ and they will be on them.

[@anthonymarocco955]

Great Video! Thanks!

[@ronaldboykin9755]

Good video Marcus! I understand this from you video but never did it in Studio One! I would say exporting the tracks with the rendered effects is not what you want if you have someone else mix the stems or you want to mix in another DAW because you may want to give the mix engineer freedom to use his own effects that may be better than what you have! I've used this in Cubase but I exported the stems without any effects at all and imported them to Studio One. I used Studio One effect and some third party ones! One of my songs I moved it to Studio One because I like the auto wah wah on one of my guitars! For some reason I couldn't get the wah wah effect to work in Cubase! I think Cubase's wah wah effect has to manually triggered with a controller pedal. Don't like that, too much work to create a modulated EQ filter to create the effect!!

[@therecordingplace755]

This was helpful!! Thank you Marcus.

[@goomba2003]

Awesome video, thank you. Question, how would you make sure that when exporting a track or bus that the appropriate side chain FX are exported with the newly rendered track(s)?

[@KordTaylor]

This is a really helpful video. Thank you!

[@imzaazmi]

Very useful tutorial.. Thank you so much 👍👍

[@andrek811]

Great thanks for these explanations !

[@sgresham45]

Wonderful explanation!!

[@aliesfahani4791]

Your Explain was very good and helpful .....

[@tunesofeleven]

Thanks man.

[@djalexia]

@Marcus, thx for your video But! Well, I just got off the remote session with a Presonus advisor. He wasn’t able to solve the annoying issues that I have exporting my project in both Track&Cannel mode unfortunately many of exported tracks had a leaks from another channel merge together i.e. the audio track of the groove had a reverberated vocal and so on. I never seen any thing like that, so the advisor. It should be a simple task exporting audio tracks w. FX or Dry jus by passing FX all this grouping and bussing is ridiculous. I hope you Presonus will make it easier and straight forward like I do in LogicProX or ProTools. All these non sense routing. Why not just simply export audio tracks in one go and with simple bypass FX or Wet. Sort but after the remote session I was told to group, bus even the FX (?) I’m going to try to do it this way. Not so thrilled with this bug. After all when exporting a session separated audio files I shouldn’t worry about this bleeding sound into track’s making it impossible to send out to whom ever.

[@thatjazzshow]

Thank you, Marcus!

[@furryz666]

We shouldn’t have to create automation tracks just to have a matching fader count, Presonus are you listening? Symmetry please, mirror all my tracks to faders or at least give me the option to do so, great vid on exporting audio Marcus did you make one for midi stems too? If I’m sending for collaboration then changing midi created with midi is a must and very easy in SO, thanks

[@adriankilbourne2163]

Ask Presonus!! I second !!!!!!!

[@richy2496]

Amazing. Love it.

[@iam_geyed]

Is there a way to bounce/print audio from a bus channel like in pro tools?

[@andysoemo6428]

thanks for making this video. very helpful. Is there a workflow that includes the mix bus? For instance, Is there a way for me to put things into folders, or something similar, to where I can use the export stems function and get separate files for each group (drums, bass, electrics, keys) that would be rendering with the mix bus processing? In PT I simply solo each folder or set of tracks and do a separate bounce to disk for each one. Is that the same method that would be used in Studio one if I wanted to include the mix bus processing? Thanks again!

[@stevemcnamara2584]

Marcus: This is great. I understood the difference between tracks and channels but hadn't thought about them in the "export stems" situation. I noted your video to Joe Gilder in the comments to his June 1, 2018 video entitled "New Way to Organize Your Mix Sessions" because he sets up a "print track" to essentially record the same printed track you did, but in real time and through various busses -- if you're inclined to take a look at that video, can you opine whether there is any fundamental difference between what Joe is describing and this video? Thanks very much. EDIT: Upon further study, it appears using the "tracks" function does not result in a single "print track" like in Joe Gilder's process, but one "channel" in the Console for each "track" in the Arranger; if there is a way to create a single stereo file (fast-bounce) using export stems, that would be a great addition.

[@MetinOzel76]

thanks

[@kidsplaymusic]

how to split stereo tracks into separate tracks. like drums piano , bass and Guitar... not seeing it in presonus 6.6

[@johnnylucid]

Thanks as always.

[@lasaxman]

Ok, so my question before seeing this video was....if I were sending out dry stems to a client, which option should I choose? That answer seems to be Channels. Next question...when exporting via the Channels option, channel fader position have an effect of the volume of the exported stem? I'm trying to determine if there is a bug in the newest release. For example: I exported 12 tracks, and the client reported that there were two tracks were blank. I opened my session and found that the faders for those two tracks were pulled down. I was under the assumption that fader position should not affect the volume on exported stem.

[@gesslr]

Great video as always Marcus! Quick question: In the last example when you exported the tracks w/ efx baked in, when you play all of the exported tracks back at the same time is there a risk that the reverbs “stack up” in a way that they wouldn’t when everything was playing in real time? So say there were 20 tracks that you exported and played back, the reverb would be more pronounced or thicker because in real time some overlapping frequencies would be masked and therefore not processed by the reverb on the send channel. Does that make sense?

[@yan_nilov_zodiak]

Thanx, Marcus! )

[@HermanvanGelder]

So, in some cases it would make sense to export channels and then send along 'for example' reverb settings (or a preset) instead of the reverb stem. For more control over the send amount on individual tracks. Is this a common practice?

[@djalexia]

@Marcus, I've been following your tutorial especially the export stems in Track mode and I wanted to have those wet, Unfortunately I still end up with weird stems, DRY and the only Wet are the FX channel (?) Any idea why a simple tusk like exporting audio tracks/stems is a Big headache in Studio One 5? Thanks You! A.

[@deangarland3010]

great video, many thanks, I was searching for this info for a long time so really appreciate this video. Would you recommend i export stems using channels or tracks in this situation.......I've finished my song, its also been mixed and mastered by myself in studio one and it has been released. I now want to do whatever is recommended for archiving the song but covering my back in case of any future needs, perhaps i want to remix it or perhaps someone wants parts of it in the future. Should I do both stem options to cover all possibilities but this would take up lots of disk space or should i just select export channels or tracks? Also when creating the stems should i include the effects on the master channel? in the final song that was mastered and released i did include the songs master channel effects in the mixdown before i mastered it. Hope that makes sense, I'm just unsure what the most common/preferred way is to archive/store/backup a song when its finished.

[@tejamelody9677]

I tried with several DAWs but Presonus Studio One is fast and lag free and so many controls on it. But it suitable for only studio work..I can't get any option to make it to live performance like Ableton as easy midi mapping channels and every thing

[@JasonG]

Maybe a noob question but if you have EQ Compressor and Limiter on the Main INSERT. Will it affect the stems? Thanks!

[@AquashiiMusic]

Marcus this is awesome thank you! I was unclear why you put the sends in solo safe before rendering the stems, can you share why please? Also if you was going to send your song to a mix engineer and using channels so that it has flexibility of dry and wet blends, would you also include the bus channels? So for example with the drum bus, it would have the dry channels, the FX channels and then the overall combined audio of all the drums... and also what would happen if that drum bus had FX on? Thanks!

[@smokeylonely]

nice

[@MsDream1979]

Hi, nice tutorial, very informative. I dont understand if these methods give the same final result of the drag n drop one. I need do go further in this. How it works with groups and busses? I give u my scenario: I have a midi project, i used multiple groups and busses. I made a premixing mix (with automation). I turned in different groups my instruments and applied for each one a different mastering chain. My goal is to oversampling 441K > 96K, rendering all my virtual instruments with no effects. than continue to mix only with audio tracks, splitting audio event end applying effects and corrections to each one.

[@blacksaona]

Thanks

[@artdesireboutique]

How can you export a track with the inserts but Not the Sends?

[@DotanBrand]

I was wondering if it is possible to export only folder tracks and fx tracks, without individual tracks.

[@cvader7]

helpful!

[@marcushuyskensmusic]

clayton jackson Glad you enjoyed!! Cheers, M 🍻

[@thepsychosofsoul1238]

So when you mixdown say 3 channels that include the original track, fx and bus channel, the entire sound of that track including the bus and fx will be burned into that one track, in track mode?right?

[@Manuel-Anthony]

Yes; I had to figure it out on my own because a lot of the comments are confusing the hell out of me and yes a simple explanation is this: Export options: Channels= no separate sends like buses, FX, etc…. Won’t be on the track itself but separated so the track WILL be dry. If the effects are DIRECTLY on the track itself they WILL BE on it (WET). Tracks= everything will be on everything that you put on it.

[@flo1creative854]

Hi Marcus. Which export would you suggest when exporting a song out and back in for mixing? Thx

[@PivotLoL77]

Did you forget to mention? I feel like either when channel or track exported, any sidechain plugin adjustment seems to just disappear. That's normal?

[@PivotLoL77]

Very instructive BTW

[@marcushuyskensmusic]

PivotLoL77 hmmmm - that’s a very interesting observation. Can you try one thing for me? Is your SC send pre fader? Please try that, and let me know if it’s works 🙏🏻 Cheers, M 🍻

[@ryanedwardmusic]

I have all my tracks going into group buses - drums, BGs, etc. The buses include any parallel processing for those tracks, e.g. the drum bus has all the drum verb, parallel compression, etc. I don't use safe solo. So when I export stems at the end, I'm just exporting the Bus channels. Although I just did one today but the levels came out a bit off, the lead vocal and BG vocal buses came out too loud. I'm not sure what happened.

[@ryanedwardmusic]

I now see that exporting channel stems is NOT the same as soloing a channel and exporting mixdown.

[@MixedbyToryG]

Hi, I did my own experiment with this. thanks for your help. I try to keep my cpu processing at it's lowest. so, i send multiple tracks to one reverb. when there are multiple tracks/channels that are sent to one reverb, i notice that if i want to render the stem for one track, the reverb FX does not get processed and printed to the new render. Therefore leaving me with the assumption that each sound i used needs to have it's own reverb send in order to actually get printed. is there a setting that im missing?

[@ittybitty8214]

And where do I find these tracks in order to, say, upload to Google Drive to share?

[@s.i.r7741]

I wonder how itd work if sends were on a splitter vs a bus

[@tomaspacifico]

Awesome! This feature is studio one exclusive? For pro tools you can't do this, right?

[@robfulco4739]

Does it matter?

[@tomaspacifico]

@@robfulco4739 depends how professional u are

[@robfulco4739]

@@tomaspacifico Considering the fact they all get the same results, the DAW doesn't make you professional. If a person thinks it's the software that makes them good and a professional, they should find something else to do cause chances are they are not good at audio engineering.

[@tomaspacifico]

@@robfulco4739 I never said that. No DAW makes u professional or not. But if u do this for a living like I do, then u should know how every DAW works.

[@robfulco4739]

@@tomaspacifico Strange but ok. Most people I work with don't give a shit how every DAW works. They are busy making records. But hey...whatever floats your boat, dude.

[@attainableaudio4533]

Stems are usually sub groups if working with a 'pro' if they want your individual tracks they would just say tracks. It's only the self taught or bedroom engineer that misunderstood the meaning and would call individual tracks stems, just a tip so not to look like a fool😜 This is a better less confusing example kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJ6nhZisYtWogNU

[@marcushuyskensmusic]

Hmmmm - I have been called many things, but I have never been accused as coming across as a fool. So let's address this. First off - thanks for your comment, and your feedback. Secondly, I am well aware of what stems are - as I have been "working" with stems in a professional environment since around 2004. Truthfully the majority of my work has involved delivering and/or receiving stems - and I've gone to great lengths to developing templates and workflows with stems in mind. Also if you click the link to the accompanying article in the description of this video, I go into depth about all the different methods of what a user working (in a professional environment) might be expected to deliver. Here's the link to the article if you'd like to read it: marcus-huyskens-music.com/mh-music-blog/tracks-vs-channels-exporting-stems-in-presonus-studio-one-demystified In the article I make mention of Raw Audio Tracks, AAF's, and also stems in varying degrees.. ie: Stems based on Groups of tracks, right down to stems of individual elements with their processing / automation "baked in". Also in the very beginning of THIS video I make mention of the fact that stems are "usually" in groups of tracks that belong together. The example that I used was "all of your drums in One Stem" That being said, I have often received (or been asked to deliver) individual stems of elements where the processing, and/or automation on those tracks is meant to be rendered. An example of this would be if I'm sending (or receiving) drum tracks where the basic sounds have been dialed in, and the artist / producer / composer wishes to "commit" to that processing... Or an orchestral mach-up that has detailed automation that has been rendered.. In those cases I have seen stems that have been exported as stereo files - and make their way to the FINAL mix. This is also done to lock in / preserve the stereo panning of mono elements in a mix - and avoid any issues with Pan Law inconsistencies between DAW's.. Lastly - this video wasn't done as an exercise into what stems are (by definition) it was done as an in depth tutorial which takes a DEEP DIVE into the stem exporting options in PreSonus Studio One specifically. As Studio One see's tracks and channels as not always having a 1:1 relationship - hence there are different outcomes when a user chooses the "Tracks" option vs the "Channels" option. It was meant to give a wide variety of examples - And I feel like I have done that. The article on the other hand, and the other Hyperlinks to the aforementioned formats above (AAF's, & Raw Tracks) WAS meant to go into detail about when a user might want to consider using a different format for exporting. The point is I deal with AAF's, Raw Tracks, and Stems on a regular basis, and I have an understanding of what I would need to do to properly import, and export those formats as needed. In the end, we are all entitled to our own opinions, of course - but please don't come into my comments warning me as coming across as a fool for spreading false information. Because I am not. I am giving accurate information that will give a user the skills and know-how to properly export their audio based on their specific needs. Thanks, Marcus