You just finished recording your song and are ready to head to the studio, now what? After you schedule your session, you’ll want to bring not only good vibes but, also your stems from your DAW for the engineer. In the music world, stems are the individual tracks that build the song. For example, the audio you recorded from a guitar, the beat you imported, and your vocal track are the stems that make up your song.
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll go over everything you need to prepare your song for a professional mix and export your stems from Garageband, FL Studio, Logic & Ableton.
How to Export A Song From Garageband
From FL Studio:
1) First, you will open the session.
2) Next, on the mixer, mute unused tracks and turn off effects.
3) Click on File>Export>.wav file *make sure you have 44.1K or 48K selected.
4) Choose the destination folder.
5) Then, check “split by mixer”
6) Click Export.
7) Compress folder.
8) Finally, Save and send (or transfer to a hard drive or portable flash drive).
From Logic:
1) First, you will open the session.
2) Next, click File>Export>all tracks as audio files.
3) Check “New Folder” and “Bypass effect plugins” to save dry files in one folder.
4) Select 44.1K or 48K and .wav files.
5) Click “Save” to export.
6) Then compress the “bounces” folder inside the session folder.
7) Finally, save and send a compressed folder (or transfer to a hard drive or portable flash drive).
From Ableton:
1) First, you will open the project.
2) Next, use Loop Start/Punch in to select the length of the song.
3) Then, bypass all effects/plugins.
4) Choose Files>Export audio/video.
5) Here you can choose which track you want to bounce. You can choose to bounce each track individually, but this
option will also allow you to bounce tracks with nothing on them including return tracks.
6) Make sure bit depth / sample rate meets requirements.
7) Click “OK” to bounce files.
8) Choose a destination and save.
9) Finally, compress the folder that was chosen as the destination, save, and send (or transfer to a hard drive or portable flash drive).
You should have now successfully exported your stems. Stems are always a good thing to have with you. You will be a favorite of the engineers you work with, and your sessions will run more smoothly from start to finish, so always bring them when you go to a recording studio!