Hello Forum Folk & PG Staff, I started work on a song yesterday. I wanted to use drums stems to address a particular need, (the frequent issue of cymbals being too loud in a stereo Real Drum track). I pulled up my list of Real Drums with stems and selected the best sounding fit. When I imported the stems into my DAW, (Reaper), they were ALL mono. I changed my dry/centred setting selection and the stems still arrived in mono. The MIX of drums inside BIAB, (with the stems muted), doesn't sound mono. How can I recreate a kit when the overheads, toms and room tracks are mono? Am I doing something wrong? Musocity showed his extractor pulling stereo from a stem set but I would think BIAB would do this. Has this been addressed in V2024? This is important to me as I want more stems but not the associated problem. Yes, I tried the search section but there were not matches for mono with stems or drums, I did a visual search of my own to no avail and the A.I. was unhelpful.
Last edited by rayc; 12/15/2306:07 PM.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
ps I counted 124 drums with stems in audiophile 2024.
EDIT: OK, I loaded a new drum style with stems. While most are panned to the center (0), some are not, particularly the hi-hat which makes sense to me. Of course I can adjust the panning of any stem.
Otherwise I'm not sure how to test the stem to see if it's stereo. I suppose I could audition an individual file in /bb/drums.
Reading this in your question: "I pulled up my list of Real Drums with stems and selected the best sounding fit.", I assume you also panned the stems to your liking, and the problem is not hearing them in stereo in BIAB; the problem is exporting the panned settings (while not flat & centeres) to the DAW. Is that correct?
Last edited by Matt Finley; 12/15/2307:10 PM.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I keep finding all of the stems in a kit are in mono...hard to recreate the mix if the overheads, toms and room are in mono. I tried changing export settings to no avail.
The source files should be stereo for the room and overheads but Biab shows them as mono like in the Tracks view now the Drums show as mono. If you use the Reaper ver6 BBVST you should get the stereo source files.
I'm using Reaper 6.4. I've been exporting from BIAB via the Audio - Export song as Audio - process - individual files etc. etc.. I do this becasue the BIAB VST can be quite flaky with regard to generating files - I often get half completed tracks or similar. I'll try using the VST tomorrow morning and hope it resolves the problem. If not I'll attempt the other tow processes you out line Musocity. My biggest issue is that BIAB ought to do this without a problem. THANK YOU.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
...the problem is exporting the panned settings (while not flat & centeres) to the DAW. Is that correct?
Thanks Matt, but no, the problem is that the stems arrive, after exporting as MONO strems. Usually Overheads and things with movement across the sound stage, like toms, are stereo tracks. Exporting via AUDIO or Track Actions delivers mono tracks. Building a stereo image from stems usually starts with matching the panning placement of individual elements with their position in the overheads and then tweaking levels, EQ, etc. to get the sound desired. I can't do this if the overheads are mono. I CAN work on the toms by panning automation but that's lot of effort & time that ought not be required IF the stems that should be stereo were.. I've raised this problem a couple of times and BIAB staff don't seem to pick it up as an issue to address.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
I updated Reaper & had no luck. I downloaded the liked scripts and tried to install & edit them but received error messages when trying to run them. I have BIAB in the supplied drive at G.... UltraPAK (G:) I have the current SGUs in the Reaper Media folder for the current project/song Data (F:) >Documents and Settings > ray > My Documents > Reaper Media
Error messages attached. I know enough to be dangerous...prove that yet again.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
You don't need to freeze all the stem tracks, just freeze the stereo main drum track then load it, select the track and run the Stems script. I have updated the script so it plays over varying tempo maps smoother. Import-frozen-SGU-MGU-realtracks-drums.zip just replace the scripts in the script folder.
When I check the Mix vs the Overheads or Room tracks inside the Audio Edit window in BIAB, the latter 2 already show as mono only, while the drum Mix track, or for example piano tracks show as stereo wave files. So it looks like BIAB simply does not generate stereo tracks for Overheads or Room tracks, never mind the export to your DAW...
If you have the Stems generated in Biab then freeze the Mix track you will get all the Stem tracks in the frozen SGU also, and you will get the original stereo source files but you won't get the Stem name:
If you just generate the normal drum track only (and provided you have the Stems for it) then freeze that track you will get the stereo drum track that can be converted to stems with stem names:
I'll have a crack tomorrow...I've just shut down my computer as the rooms getting a bit hot and there's a bit of thunder about. I thought I may have not edited the scripts properly. The only changes I made were to insert G for C. Okay I need to. a) freeze the "Mix" tracks in BIAB, (easy enough as the stems won't "freeze" b) Save the SGU as frozen to somewhere I can get to with the Action c) call up the action, run it, select the SGU and all will be well? I've sent this to support as an issue as it really is silly that the stems aren't properly useful. It's one of many things BIAB need to address. I know the program has been significantly upgraded for 2024 but I'm less inclined to spend the money if I can't do what I ought to be able to do.
Last edited by rayc; 12/18/2301:08 AM.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
Thanks for your help so far musocity, I'm a slow learner when it comes to scripts. I had another crack at it today. I started in BIAB. I tried to remove all but the stems & drum mix from the project but that doesn't seem to be easy. I muted everything but the stems & drum mix. I froze the drum mix I saved the song with a diff name I opened Reaper, I removed the PG VST I reinstated the PG VST I opened the new song file I ran the ACTION scripts one at a time and all three came up with error messages. Two had, essentially, the same message after selecting the SGU file The third didn't get that far and threw up its message ASAP. You see, I'm a klutz, this is why I try not to get into this side of things. Here're the error messages...
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
I just tried "Live Chat" and the chap there had no idea - even suggested I pan them in the mixer!!! He had no personal knowledge of a "workaround". I did mention that musocity has a script but then the chat magically "timed out".
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
I updated the script in the previous message, you can swap the new ones with the old by just replacing them in the script folder. You don't need to generate up Stems in Biab just the normal drum track then freeze the SGU and open in Reaper, then run Script: Create stems from selected realdrums stereo track.lua
If you have generated up stems and froze the Mix track it will automatically import all drum stem tracks and you won't have to run Script: Create stems from selected realdrums stereo track.lua
Is it importing any tracks, there is no pic of Reaper tracks ?
You don't need the PG VST to load the SGU track/s in.
Nothing happens after the error messages. I'll try the replacement script tomorrow. I suppose it's pointless generating the tracks with the VST as they'll come up mono again won't they? Thanks. I'm a work in progress.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
You will get it sorted, don't worry. You are helping me out as I can iron out any issues.
The PG VST is not working right at the moment I only get 2 stems, if it was working it would give the stereo tracks if you send the track data method, but if you render it would probably give mono:
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