Stem mixing and mastering

Stem-mixing is a method of mixing audio material based on creating groups of audio tracks called stems and processing them separately prior to combining them into a final master mix. Stems are also sometimes referred to as submixes, subgroups, or buses.

The distinction between a stem and a separation is rather unclear. Some consider stem manipulation to be the same as separation mastering, although others consider stems to be sub-mixes to be used along with separation mastering. It depends on how many separate channels of input are available for mixing and/or at which stage they are on the way towards reducing them to a final stereo mix.