These are absolute requirements for submitting stems for mixing. Not following guidelines will lower mix quality and waste (valuable) time.

Project Info

It's a good idea to include a note containing project properties, e. g. "Projectinfo.txt" in the stems archive. The info file ought to define tempo (BPM and time signature, e. g. 6/8 or 4/4, 80 or 120 BPM, etc.) and tuning (e. g. non-math equal-temper, 432 Hz, math equal-temper at 435 Hz, etc.).

Tuning

Tuning reference for mathematical equal-temper is A4=430.53 Hz. Anything below 440 Hz will be accepted too, but must be specifically denoted in project files. Anything tuned at 440 Hz or above will be tuned down to 436 or lower Hz. Working with anything tuned at 440-Hz or above is stressful and it's pretty much raping the listeners' minds, so that wrong tuning is not accepted.

Stem Format

The standard format is 96-KHz, 32-bit float Wavpack. All mixing is done in 96 KHz. If you simply don't have a 96-KHz sampler (e. g. if the sampler is limited to something like 48/24), then low-rate stems are accepted as long as they're 32-bit float. This is to preserve warmth and definition - 24-bit files tend to get hollow at low volume, particularly if they follow the Katz standard of -20 dB peaks. So for a 48/24 sampler an acceptable stem quality is 48 KHz/32-bit float. Soft synthesiser output must be 96/32 or higher quality. Wavpack codecs are free, they are included in REAPER (a cross-platform sequencer) and they can also be downloaded at http://www.wavpack.com/downloads.html

FLAC is not recommended, as it does not support 32-bit float quantising. Plain 96/32 wave format is a waste of space and time, so just get Wavpack and save the hassle, or output to Wavpack if using a sequencer with Wavpack codecs (REAPER can be set up to automatically save all stems in Wavpack format - that saves a pretty amount of drive space, too).

Separating Parts

Bass parts (e. g. a swelling bassline) are best separated from treble notes - this way they can be mixed individually.

MIDI

Drum/percussion parts using Solar Battery or other Solar samplers can be sent as MIDI tracks, also from time to time other synth parts could be played with in-house synths rather than original synthesisers, so you could be asked for source MIDI files. For MIDI files, BPM/starting measures must be described in filenames if they're not embedded (e. g. if there's no silence padding).

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