In post production workflows there is a perennial debate about when and where you should dip your stems, especially the Music and Effects (M&E) track sometimes called a DME in drama production, which is an essential component for international reversioning of programmes.

Paul Maunder who was a winner of the Pro Tools Expert Community Award sponsored by Sonnox got in touch to ask we we could bring some clarity to this debate, Paul wrote….

I’ve been following a thread on the DUC for some time now, about undipped music stems and the best way to go about the routing in Pro Tools. Mike Aiton has been a great contributor to the thread, offering advice on the correct working practices for undipped mixes in Pro Tools. There is a lot of good information in the discussion, but I think it would be easier to understand if it was demonstrated in a video. There are still things regarding undipped stems which I’m unsure of, and given that the discussion on the DUC has been ongoing for such a long time, I’m sure there are other people who would also find a video on this subject useful.

So Paul, here is the video you asked for, and we have chosen to make it a free video which you can find on our dedicated Free Videos page.

Mike Aiton explains and demonstrates why he works the way he does. Why and where to dip the various stems and how the workflow and requirements have changed with file based delivery of the finished mixes. Mike also walks us through his preferred session template format and gives us an insight into how he works as an independent audio dubbing editor and mixer.

We must also thank Paul Maunder for arranging a session to demonstrate with and producer Rob Hallam from Big Tank Productions for allowing us to use one of his episodes from a series called Truckworld TV to use in this video and also to Mike Aiton for taking the time to prepare and make this video with us and to Gwen for providing us a French voiceover to demonstrate the issues with foriegn language reversioning.