stem mastering:
pros and cons
Last Updated: October 6th, 2025
Read time: 1-Min
Now we know what stem mastering is and how to export our stems it's time to talk about some of the pros and cons to Stem Mastering.
Stem mastering allows the mastering engineer to have greater control over your track. This can benefit the artist particularly if you are struggling to get some elements to sit just right within the mix. With stems, your mastering engineer can alter the tonal balance, dynamic contrast, and gain staging with ease. Access to these files separately allows for a more cohesive final sound to be achieved.
Stem mastering is also great as it allows your engineer to affect only the stems that need attention.
For example, in traditional mastering, if there is a boomy low-mid frequency in the vocal, you can use EQ to reduce or remove the frequency but in doing so you affect every stem in the mixdown that shares the same frequency. So the cost of removing the boomy low-end of the vocal may be that you have removed the depth and body of the guitar. Whereas, in stem mastering you can apply the EQ cut to just the vocal, allowing for a more intentional sound without sacrifice.
Stem Mastering is more expensive than traditional mastering, and the truth is, it's not always better.
Stem Mastering is a great option for those who actively feel like their mix could be improved.
Artists/Creatives who have a clear vision for their sound already and have executed it to within 90% of their vision will do just fine with traditional mastering.
Cons of Stem Mastering
Pros of Stem Mastering
FAQs
How long does stem mastering take?
Depending on how many stems you are delivering to your engineer, stem mastering can take anywhere from a couple of days to over a week. During the stem mastering process time must be allocated for ear-breaks to allow for the engineer to remain objective over the sound and not over-mix. Here at Release Mastering, we deliver Stem Mastering projects within 3-days.
What does the stem mastering process typically look like?
Stem mastering usually begins with listening to a rough version of a mixdown and/or reference track to understand what the artist has in mind.
Then we can begin listening to the stems individually and identifying any noise or artefacts in the sound that need to be removed. Once all stems have been checked, level-balancing can begin.
For the full breakdown of how we do this please refer to our How to Level Balance/Gain Stage a mix post.
Once levelling is complete we move onto reductive EQ to help carve out space in the mix for each of the elements to exist without competition. Further enhancements such as analog saturation, multiband compression and light reverb may also be applied at this stage.
We can then move to the final mastering stage of adding glue via light compression and ensuring a appropriate final level is achieved. We then compare the stem master to the reference track and rough track and start the process of sharing the file.
