If you are bouncing stems to send to a mastering engineer, client, or for archive purposes, I recommend bouncing down your tracks in the “Gang of four” approach, suggested by Mastering Engineer Bob Katz. It will allow for flexibility where it is needed.
Create four stems, as follows:
Stem #1. TV (that’s instrumental plus chorus or background vocals).
Stem #2. Lead Vocal(s) (plus its reverb of course —basically muting everything else).
Stem #3. Full Mix (that’s what I will use unless there is a problem, and it’s also a reference to prove that #1 and #2 were made correctly).
Stem #4. Instrumental – All Instruments only (by adding this to #1 we can reduce the chorus level. By subtracting this from #1 we can increase the chorus level. By subtracting this from #3 we can increase lead and chorus. And so on! – Bob Katz
