{"id":3924,"date":"2017-10-30T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T18:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2023-05-23T16:57:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T20:57:17","slug":"six-prints-complete-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/six-prints-complete-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Six prints to complete a mix"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019ve dialed in the perfect mix – the vocal sits with the track, the bass and kick drum are playing nicely, and the song feels done. But if you\u2019re not printing the following six mixes\/stems, then you might be hurting yourself down the road.<\/p>\n

1. Master Mix<\/h2>\n

A master mix is clearly an important mix to print. This will be the mix that you release, publish online, and use for most of your distributing purposes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to print a \u201cfull-res\u201d version at the highest resolution you mixed at (for bit-depth and sample rate). I usually record\/mix\/master 24-bit \/ 48kHz WAV files.<\/p>\n

Then, print one at \u201cCD quality\u201d – 16-bit \/ 44.1kHz WAV. In most cases, this is going to be the highest resolution that you distribute.<\/p>\n

Finally, an mp3 can be really helpful if you\u2019re going to distribute your music online. I like to print an mp3 at 320 kbps in order to keep the maximum resolution while still keeping the file small enough to share online.<\/p>\n

2. Instrumental<\/h2>\n

An instrumental mix is one without any vocals. This is a really important mix if your music is every used in a sync placement (TV show, film, commercial, YouTube video, etc.).<\/p>\n

For this mix, I generally will print a 16-bit \/ 44.1kHz WAV version.<\/p>\n

3. Individual stems<\/h2>\n

Stems are a little tricky to define in some cases, but a good rule of thumb is: if you were remixing the song, which stems would you want to have access to? Here are the stems I go with most of the time:<\/p>\n