Stem Mastering
Mastering with surgical control.
Send stems instead of a stereo bounce. I treat each one individually, then deliver back a single stereo master — same final file as regular mastering, with more surgical precision.
When to choose stem mastering
More control. Better polish.
Standard mastering works from a single stereo bounce of your mix. Stem mastering works from a small set of grouped tracks — typically drums, bass, lead vocals, backing vocals, and instruments — giving us finer control over the final balance.
It’s the right call when your mix is almost there but the vocal sits a hair too soft, the low end needs surgical lifting without losing the punch, or you want to bring out background detail that’s buried.
Stem mastering is $150 per track and turnaround is 2–5 days — slightly longer than standard mastering since we’re working across multiple files. You still get three revisions and streaming-ready delivery.
How it works
Three steps, two–five days.
Send your stems
Export 5–8 grouped stems at 24-bit / 48kHz from your DAW with all your mix automation printed in. Drop them in a folder, share the link.
Mastered surgically
We rebalance the elements, apply targeted processing to each group, then dial in the final glue, loudness, and translation for streaming.
Delivered streaming-ready
Final master delivered as 16-bit WAV + MP3 reference (24-bit available on request). Three revisions included if you want tweaks.