What is Separation Mastering?

Basically, allows them to adjust the mix appropriately when mastering. For instance, this would allow them to EQ the vocals without effecting all the instruments. Sometimes compression can bring out vocals, this would allow them to readjust the volume level of the vocals. ETC.

You can also google the term "mix stems"... lots of info available. It makes sense, if you think about it.

BTW, I like this statement toward the end of the linked article: "Separations do what multiband compressors DREAM they could do!"

Uh... that's because a multiband compressor is not designed to fix pooly mixed source material! If you find yourself trying use a multiband compressor to fix an individual element in an entire mix, then guess what: you're starting with a bad mix, plain and simple. Mastering cannot fix a bad mix (unless you're using stems, of course ).

ORIGINAL: RockStringBender

Anyone using this theory of mastering and have some details of what exactly they are doing with all the layers?


http://www.johnvestman.com/separations.htm

Mastering engineers have given up on getting a decent mix even from the big bands. It’s either unbalanced mess or clipped so badly there is no way to even give the perception of any dynamics. If you can get them to give you stems each one might be distorted and bogus but you stand a chance of making it better just by being able to adjust each one.

In the old days this wasn’t a problem there were talented people doing mixes that played by the rules. The entire production chain in some cases was tightly controlled by the record label resulting in a consistent product. Today, all bets are off. You have no idea who might be doing the mix or who has a say in it.

The tools used (digital gear.. software and computers) are also capable of producing much worse results when not used correctly. In the analog days you could only get it so bad with what you had to work with. Try producing a sharp edged clipped waveform with a analog recorder.... not gonna happen. Only a digital system can crimp a waveform into that shape.

ORIGINAL: ohhey

Mastering engineers have given up on getting a decent mix even from the big bands. It’s either unbalanced mess or clipped so badly there is no way to even give the perception of any dynamics. If you can get them to give you stems each one might be distorted and bogus but you stand a chance of making it better just by being able to adjust each one.

In the old days this wasn’t a problem there were talented people doing mixes that played by the rules. The entire production chain in some cases was tightly controlled by the record label resulting in a consistent product. Today, all bets are off. You have no idea who might be doing the mix or who has a say in it.

The tools used (digital gear.. software and computers) are also capable of producing much worse results when not used correctly. In the analog days you could only get it so bad with what you had to work with. Try producing a sharp edged clipped waveform with a analog recorder.... not gonna happen. Only a digital system can crimp a waveform into that shape.

What?? Please explain further.

ORIGINAL: feedback50
I suspect some M.E.s may charge more to master stem sourced material for the additional effort.

That's an interesting question... I would think you're making the ME's job that much easier by giving more control to the varous components!

ORIGINAL: papa2004

ORIGINAL: ohhey

Mastering engineers have given up on getting a decent mix even from the big bands. It’s either unbalanced mess or clipped so badly there is no way to even give the perception of any dynamics. If you can get them to give you stems each one might be distorted and bogus but you stand a chance of making it better just by being able to adjust each one.

In the old days this wasn’t a problem there were talented people doing mixes that played by the rules. The entire production chain in some cases was tightly controlled by the record label resulting in a consistent product. Today, all bets are off. You have no idea who might be doing the mix or who has a say in it.

The tools used (digital gear.. software and computers) are also capable of producing much worse results when not used correctly. In the analog days you could only get it so bad with what you had to work with. Try producing a sharp edged clipped waveform with a analog recorder.... not gonna happen. Only a digital system can crimp a waveform into that shape.

What?? Please explain further.

Wow... I really don't know what else I could add to that. The basic idea is if you let them give you a stereo mix it will be so bad you can't fix it. If you can get your hands on some submixes, buses, stems, whatever you want to call it.... then you at least stand a chance of making a decent product out of it.

Mastering houses are getting blamed for the loudness wars and the poor quality of CDs now, it's damaging their reputation and causing some artists to believe that mastering causes your record to sound bad. This might be true in some cases but I think most of the time it's just a bad mix that can't be fixed no matter what. However, when you get enough bad press and word gets around you mastered a bunch of bad sounding records it's not enough to go on record in some small audience article and say "It's not our fault". The damage is already done.

Mastering businesses and engineers and are going to have to get out in front of this and get something done before it kills the entire industry. Requiring more then a stereo mix is one way to gain some control back.

When I say kill the entire industry I don’t just mean mastering houses. Think about it. CD sales are going down every single year. It’s going to get to the point where they only folks buying CD are the ones who care about sound quality and don’t want to just download a compressed MP3. If you make the CDs so bad that there is no extra quality to be had there,.. you have eliminated the very last group of customers you had for the media.

Uugh ough.. looks like it might be too late, CDs could be dead. New media

Ohhey, CD sales are not dropping due to mastering, it's dropping due to mp3s and internet sharing...

There is a lot of confusion about separation mastering in the market at the moment, since traditional mastering remains to be the dominant method commonly used.. but common doesn't mean good..
Most people think separation mastering is used only if the mix is bad...that's untrue! Many major acts use separation mastering too.. separation mastering offers more control in your mastering, and as the word is, SEPARATION.. the mastered product will sound more separated unlike the traditional mastering method where everything is just stuffed in the center.
There is a difference...!!! 
I'm not promoting that company link someone gave earlier, stem mastering is a common technique use by a lot of engineers, and i too use it often..
Basically, stem mastering places more effort on the part of the Mastering Engineer (ME) and i hope it's not in some people's way to take the easy way out by going traditional.
As it is, using stem mastering may affect the mix, depending on how the ME does it. I had seriously myself affected my own mixes in the start, had to reference back to get it right again.
In Wiki, it's mentioned that stem mastering should not be used on a well-mixed product, but that is false.. the explanation given was as more stems are utilized, more noise is added into the final product. But what they don't get is that, it's the NOISE that is exactly what we want!!!
Look at it this way, with all mixing done using softwares these days, going digital gives a mix that is too clear for it's own good. Noise adds a presence to the mix, but not the digital noise. (Digital noise is harsh sounding).
Using Stem Mastering, subgroups are played each into Analog compressors/reverbs etc, and if 5 stems are used, noise is 5 times that of traditional mastering. It may not work for a mix that was not done using digital softwares, but considering that most mixes nowadays are created via software, the equivalent analog noise added is sufficiently replacing the weakness of overclarity new mixes nowadays are giving.