Session notes: an acoustic single, the stem list and the mix decisions

6 October 2026 · ~4 min read

A singer-songwriter with an acoustic single, guitar and voice, wants it produced without turning it into something else. These are the notes as a stem list and a set of mix decisions, which is the form a job like this really takes: what was recorded, in what order, and what was left alone.

Session notes, illustrative. This is a composite of sessions, written to show how a job like this runs. No artist is named, no result is claimed, and nothing here is a client's track. The decisions are real; the artist is not.

The stem list, in the order recorded

1. Guide vocal and guitar together, one take, to a click the artist chose to ignore in the bridge. Kept as the map, not used in the mix.
2. Acoustic guitar, two microphones, three full takes, comped to one. Recorded first because the vocal would be sung to it.
3. Lead vocal, dry, four passes, comped in the room with the artist. No tuning on the way in.
4. Harmony on the final chorus only, one pass, the artist's own voice.
5. A low synth pad under the second verse and the last chorus, added at the artist's request after hearing the rough, and kept quiet enough to be felt rather than heard.
6. Nothing else. A song that is guitar and voice is not improved by drums it did not ask for.

The mix decisions

• Vocal in front, untuned except two notes in the bridge the artist asked about and approved.
• Guitar wide, from the two microphones, with the vocal in the middle so the two never fight.
• Reverb on the vocal from one room, the same room on the guitar, so the two sound like they were sung and played in one place, which they were.
• No compression on the master bus beyond a gentle glue; the dynamics were the song.
• Mastered to a loudness target on the quiet side of the range, because a quiet song mastered loud sounds anxious. The loudness guide explains the target.

What was declined

A drum loop under the chorus, offered by the artist's friend. A second vocal tuned to perfection. A radio edit that cut the bridge. All three were discussed and all three were left out, and the single is better for the three absences than it would have been for any of the three additions. The mixing and mastering page says how a single like this is booked, and the studio page covers the session.