Transformers (The Movie) Stems

[buzzsmith]

Call me isolated in "backwoods" Houston, but I learned something new Sunday.

On CBS's "Sunday Morning" they did a feature on adding all of the sounds to the "Transformers" movie including the music.

I was surprised to learn that they had the orchestral recording broken down into stems, as well.

On the far right side of the console were at least 5 faders...

Strings, Brass, Percusssion, etc.

I was under the obviously false impression that the composer/studio supplied the film maker with a stereo (or surround) master.

I wasn't aware that the "stem approach" was being used.

Makes sense, though (except for the purely artistic in which someone else is controlling your mix concept)...is this the norm now for Hollywood film music incorporation?

Just curious!

Buzz

[aafarr2]

I actually assumed that they were looking at the composer/studio's mixing board, since they showed clips of the studio orchestra doing the (or a) recording.

Either way, if it was at the sound studio, I guess it would make sense to have stems for the orchestral mix. Even if the composer is careful, there may be something like percussion that he wrote in that might interfere with a sound effect. I would think, however, that for the most part, if this stem situation was the case, it would be treated with care as to not take out of the artistic design of the composer (unless the composer and/or music supervisor was present).

I'm glad somebody else saw this on CBS, it was a neat little special.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

...I was under the obviously false impression that the composer/studio supplied the film maker with a stereo (or surround) master.

I wasn't aware that the "stem approach" was being used....
Buzz

All depends on who's doing post audio. Most often, the mixer will want isolated tracks for hi and low frequencies (or independent instruments) That way, if a section of the dialogue, Foley or other audio conflicts with the score, they can adjust the score accordingly.

In most short or indy flicks, you do deliver a stereo mix. But for a more well funded (ie- more to loose) films, you will usually isolate tracks.

[bralston]

On the last feature film I did, GRADUATION, I had to deliver in stems. The mix was done at the Wilshire Stages in Hollywood, CA. Basically, my music editor has to create a separate pro tools session for each reel with my stems and the stereo source/song music cut and spaced out on the various tracks. The score was produced and recorded on a Digital Performer rig. The stems were recorded on the DP rig as well. Everything was transferred into a pro tools session via OMF and added to the song stuff the music editor was already working on. (A big reason why I have not upgraded to DP5.12...I need OMFs to work flawlessly).

At the mix (there are some photos half way down on the blog page of my site)...there were about 4 separate Pro Tools computers all in sync and running through the Harrison 166 trk mixing board. One computer was a Pro Tools session with nothing but dialogue tracks. All of the ADR takes and the production tracks were available and ready to be used. There were 2 Pro Tools computers set up to run the various background soundtrack noises from the sound designer. And...finally, the fourth computer was a music computer with score and songs.

being on separate computers, any one computer could be brought off line and a problem could be fixed without holding up anyone else and then the computer could be brought online again to continue on with the mix.

Score was straight forward with stems for strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, synth/elec. guitar. With the songs...they are all stereo mixes...but they have to be choped up by the music editor on the various visual edits. For example...we had a prom dance scene in GRADUATION that had one song playing through a scene of dialogue...but the characters kept moving throughout the scene. Sometimes closer to the dance floor...sometimes just outside the room...sometimes in the back of the room, etc... On each of these cuts, the stereo song would be placed on another stereo track so the mix guys could position and effect them different (to make it sound close, far, behind a closed door...etc...). The music dept. (my team consisting of me, music editor and one assistant)...were at and monitoring the music Pro Tools station throughout the film's sound mix.

There were 16 tracks allocated to music on the board (8 Stereo pairs). So...we would have to place these stems carefully so as to 1) be consistent with what tracks the various stems were running through and 2) be mindful of areas where song and score would overlap a bit or sit right next to each other. The cut up song tracks could be on any track that score was not using at the moment, the mix guys just had to know what was coming through where.

The levels for all of the music tracks (songs and especialy the score stems) were pre determined to the best of our ability and that automation was pre-recorded into the pro tools session. So...For the most part, the score stems would only have to be dealt with by a single fader move by the mixer and all of the stems/mixer tracks would be grouped and move accordingly. But...having the stems there would give them options if they were needed. Percussion on a loud track could be isolated out or made softer, etc...

It is all done in the name of having options at the mix with the intent of giving all of the mixers the ability to produce the best possible mix at the session in the shortest possible time.

As far as having to give tracks separated out by high/low frequency. I have never had to do that with a film score. The film mixer guys don't really want that in my experience and if they need to deal with a frequency or a problem instrument track (like percussion or strings), they will work with the full dynamic of the stems and EQ accordingly.

I have delivered high/low frequency stuff to mastering engineers for stereo albums and such. But that is a whole other animal.

[dosuna11]

Excuse my ignorance. What is a stem?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Excuse my ignorance. What is a stem?

It's not ignorance (at least I hope not as I was/am in the same boat.)

Stems are basically audio files (if I understand the correctly) and each stem may be a different element, such as a stem for dialogue, a stem for music, a stem for SFX). Each would have a 2-pop and an end pop so they could be accurately aligned with the picture and each other and verify sync.

I was struggling with finding a definition of "handles" (I'm in the middle of a feature which I'm doing music, SFX and the final mix with dialogue as well). From what I gather, the "handles" are the segments of the recording that lead up to the actual material used (the AD saying ACTION, etc.)

Someone PLEASE correct me if i am wrong about any of this. There is also something called a "file handle" which the computer uses to recall files, but I don't think that is what folks are talking about when dealing with audio terminology.

[m2]

t's not ignorance (at least I hope not as I was/am in the same boat.)

Stems are basically audio files (if I understand the correctly) and each stem may be a different element, such as a stem for dialogue, a stem for music, a stem for SFX). Each would have a 2-pop and an end pop so they could be accurately aligned with the picture and each other and verify sync.

I was struggling with finding a definition of "handles" (I'm in the middle of a feature which I'm doing music, SFX and the final mix with dialogue as well). From what I gather, the "handles" are the segments of the recording that lead up to the actual material used (the AD saying ACTION, etc.)

Someone PLEASE correct me if i am wrong about any of this. There is also something called a "file handle" which the computer uses to recall files, but I don't think that is what folks are talking about when dealing with audio terminology.

The stems are any audio element at MIX level. That is in a simple example of a song as a finished mix - you may make a separate vocal and instrumental stem of the mix. Where the vocals are everything just as you hear them in the song , by it's self. The instrumental stem is exactly whats playing under the vocals with all the relative changes in volume around the vocal p[erformance.

A stem in audio post is the same kind of animal. A background stem would be a surround or stereo track as a file or [ more rarely on tape] that is all the enviroments as they were mixed to picture with all the volumes, EQ , panning changes etc. in place as a isolated element. Why? Well one simple use for example is in TV where the show will also be dubbed in various languages and they want to have the mix essentially as it was completed in english but with the ability to change out the dialog and have some flexibilty to pull down the music or raise the effects track to polish this foreign language mix WITHOUT having to start from scratch with all the many tracks and effects that made up the finished mix. It also, as in the described film mix above, lets you edit music to picture where thay have made last minute changes after the music has been recorded. You can more easily 'fix' the music to the scene if you have more than just the stereo file. Strings/WW/BRS/Perc/Piano all as separate stems - at their mix level relative to each other. Later there will be a rerecorded music stem that is the final version of the music - as it plays against picture with the other elements. If you listyened to this finished music stem by itself you would hear all the changes in volume to the whole track that was part of the final mix. Certainly won't sound like the Soundtrack CD version!

The 'handles' are the extra time at the head and tail of a file that give you some to grab on to. They often contain head and tail 2 pops for sync.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Great! Thanks.