If you’re sending your track off for professional mixing, one of the most important steps is exporting your stems correctly.
A clean, organised export doesn’t just make your mixing engineer’s life easier — it directly affects how quickly and accurately your track can be mixed.
Done properly, it saves time, reduces revisions, and ensures your vision translates clearly from your session to the mix.
Done poorly, it creates confusion, delays, and unnecessary back-and-forth.
Here’s how to do it right in Logic Pro.
Before exporting anything, it’s important to understand what a stem actually is.
A stem is a grouped audio export of elements in your track.
For example:
However, in many mixing workflows, what engineers often prefer are actually individual tracks — sometimes still referred to as “stems” casually.
So unless your engineer specifically asks for grouped stems, you should usually export:
One file per track.
If you’re unsure, always ask — but default to individual tracks.
Before exporting anything, prepare your session properly.
This is where a lot of time (and money) can be saved.
Make sure to:
Good naming goes a long way:
Instead of:
A clean session = a faster, better mix.
One of the most important parts of stem export is alignment.
All exported files must:
Even if a track only comes in halfway through the song, it still needs to begin at the start of the timeline when exported.
That way, your mixing engineer can drop all files into a new session and have everything line up perfectly.
Before exporting, make sure:
This step is essential.
This is where many exported sessions go wrong.
Before you bounce your files, remove any processing on the stereo output that belongs to mastering, not mixing.
This usually means turning off:
Why?
Because your mixing engineer needs headroom and flexibility.
If your stereo bus processing is baked into every export unnecessarily, it can restrict what’s possible in the mix.
However, if a plugin is part of the sound design of an individual track — for example:
Then that should usually remain on.
The goal is to remove mastering-style processing, not erase the identity of the production.
In Logic Pro, the cleanest way to send individual files is usually through exporting all tracks as audio files.
A typical process is:
When exporting, make sure you are not accidentally printing effects or bus processing you don’t intend to send.
If you’re unsure whether to include certain processing, ask your mixing engineer before exporting.
Not every file needs to be stereo.
As a general rule:
For example:
This keeps the session organised and avoids unnecessary file size or confusion.
If you export everything in stereo by default, it won’t always break the mix — but it can make the session less efficient than it needs to be.
Before uploading anything, take a few minutes to review your exported files.
Make sure:
This simple check can save a lot of time later.
It also helps avoid the most common back-and-forth emails a mixing engineer has to send.
Once your files are exported, keep them tidy.
A good delivery folder might include:
Example:
SongName_Stems/
– Kick.wav
– Snare.wav
– Bass.wav
– LeadVocal.wav
– Guitar_L.wav
– Guitar_R.wav
– RoughMix.wav
Then deliver via:
Clear delivery makes the whole process smoother.
These are some of the most common export problems:
Avoiding these mistakes puts you ahead of most submissions immediately.
For a broader overview of audio stem concepts, this reference is useful:
Wikipedia: Stem Mixing and Mastering
And for additional Logic Pro workflow guidance, Apple’s official user guide is worth exploring:
Apple Logic Pro User Guide
Exporting stems from Logic isn’t difficult — but doing it properly makes a huge difference.
A well-prepared session allows your mixing engineer to:
At Moreish Studios, we’re always happy to guide artists through this process if needed.
If you’re preparing a track for mixing, or you’re unsure whether your exports are ready, learn more about our Mixing services or get in touch and we’ll help you get it right from the start.
