STems, ALats, and questions about retitled tracks.........

[CHuckmott]

Is it typical for most composers on here who are involved with libraries to keep stems of all their tracks? Also, while the libraries seem to prefer different sorts of alternate versions and/or stems are there versions you do as standard practiv=ce. For example, particularly the royalty free libraries seem to ke 15, 30, 60 second versions of tracks? DO people here make those tracks straight away even though they may not be used for example, in a library they are pitching to> For future reference and/pr possible use? Finding after doing this for 2 years a large part of the work of producing relatively large amounts of music is keeping it all organized, and accessible. At the point know where it would be a good idea to make some space on my hard drive, starting with clearing out/backing up 2012 stuff. Any thoughts on this and the alt versions question?

[eeoo]

I don't make alt mixes until I know who is signing the track and what it is they want, no sense doing all that extra work if it's not necessary.

eo

[CHuckmott]

Good point. Do you at least keep all your stems though for down the road?

[eeoo]

If by keeping my stems you mean keeping the session and all it's associated audio files then yes, of course. I just know which library a particular tune would work for and I know their requirements. I don't work with any libraries at the moment that require 15, 30, 60 second edits for example so I definitely don't bother with those. The main libraries I work with simply want a vocal version and an instrumental version.

eo

[CHuckmott]

I split my itime or try to, between some Royalty Free libraries, and it is kind of standard (or was at least recommended )to do 15 30 60 second versions for those. And usually a stinger and a drum and bass. Other libraries ask for specific alts which at the moment usually mean drum and bass, a stinger, and subtracting other instruments and sending various mixes.

Seems kind of standard that if the tracks you send the higher tier libraries don't work for them (which doesn't always necessarily have to do with quality) then send them to the royalty free, in which case it is handy to have those 15 30 60 secs available. Some composers seem to like to eventually send their tracks to the royalty free libraries anyway as a matter of course, say if the contract runs out or sales fall of in the higher end library, then at least in the royalty free they stand a chance of possibly still making them money. So for that reason, it may be useful to have those versions ready from the get go, and have stuff set aside in long term storage on an external drive or something.

Some ecomposers completely avoid trends and write tracks they would consider "evergreen" with the intent of keeping them in the market for years to come. Anyway long story, and I may be assuming a lot of things, but that was at the heart of my question when I asked whether some people just create those alts straight up and just save them. But also, eventually we have to clean out our drives, our computers die, etc. SO folks who adhere to this system aren't necessary hammering out a track a day, but spend a week working on a track and doing the above and it seems to work for them.