When stems make sense
Stem mixing pays off when editing is done at home or the band is spread across cities. At Culticlayer offline work is €175 per track, or €85 per hour if you attend in Amsterdam.
EPs up to five songs use €695 — send the track list so we confirm scope before you upload gigabytes.
Technical baseline
Deliver 24-bit wav with one sample rate per project (44.1 kHz for audio-only, 48 kHz when video matters). Avoid mp3 stems unless agreed — generational loss burns revision time.
Align start and end on every file: bar one, identical length, no leading silence shifting the grid. Export without normalizing; peaks around -6 dBFS leave headroom.
Bounce from the same timeline position as your rough mix; do not shift the grid between exports. If you hesitate between 44.1 and 48 kHz, keep what the DAW project already uses and note it in the readme.
Naming and folders
Use clear names like SongTitle_Drums.wav, not Audio 47. Zip per song or mirror the same folder tree for each track.
Include a readme with BPM, key, reference tracks (plain-text URLs) and what feels wrong in your current rough mix.
Our team includes dedicated recording and mix engineers who know the rooms at Bilderdijkstraat 112 in Amsterdam. Share a rehearsal video link in your booking — not for judgement, but so we anticipate drum sizes and amp count.
Session files stay on our systems for 18 months; download stems after the mix pass even if you plan a later Mastering round. Losing a drive should not mean losing the only copy of your multitrack.
Include and exclude
- Include: relatively dry tracks; printed effects only when creative choices are fixed.
- Include: tuning/time edits if you want them kept.
- Exclude: undocumented plugin chains we cannot open.
- Exclude: a single stereo bounce of the whole song — that is mastering input, not a mix basis.
Unsure? Email [email protected] with a session screenshot.
We often receive exports with click still audible, reverb printed on guitars when the mix engineer wanted space, or stereo drums from a plugin while real overheads exist separately. Mute unused tracks before export and bounce only what you need.
Dual bass (DI plus amp) is fine when intentional; two identical DIs from a forgotten duplicate are not. Clean the session — our offline rate €175 per track covers music, not guessing which of twelve “Guitar 2” tracks is correct.
Revisions and delivery
Offline mixing includes 2 revision rounds per our terms — feedback with timecodes works best. “Warmer like track X” beats “fix everything”.
We return stereo mix wav and often mp3 for approval. Masters are separate via Mastering; read loudness for streaming before distributor upload.
Upload and privacy
WeTransfer, Dropbox or your drive — avoid passwords that expire before we reply within 3 days. Large sessions fall under our privacy policy; you keep control of your cloud copies.
We archive 18 months on our side; local backups stay yours.
In studio vs remote
Want to sit at the faders? Book €85 per hour via contact — Tue–Fri 10–19, Sat 12–17. Remote saves Randstad travel; in-person helps tricky guitar-vocal feedback.
Recorded the band in our live room and mixing later offline is a common indie workflow around Amsterdam.
Pre-send checklist
| Check | Done? |
|---|---|
| Equal length per track | Yes/No |
| 24-bit wav | Yes/No |
| Naming | Song_Instrument |
| References | In readme.txt |
| Quote confirmed | Via contact |
After vocal-only sessions, vocal session checklist keeps guide exports tidy.
