Vandall App
Deliver stems to a label
By the end your label will have every stem in order, plus one note with everything they need to work from, and they’ll know the delivery is complete.
Before you start
- Your stems bounced and named on your computer. Vandall keeps file names exactly as they are, so name them before you upload.
- The track your label created, if they made one. Starting your own gives you two records of one song.
- 1
Open the track they made
If the label invited you, open their row on Home and find their track. Upload to that one. The label can’t see a separate track you create yourself, so a delivery there can look late even when it was on time.
- You now see the track your label is looking at.
- 2
Name the files before they leave your machine
Number your stems so they sort into play order, such as 01_Drums, 02_Bass and 03_Keys, and give the reference mix a clear name. The Files tab keeps file names exactly, so your label sees them in the order your names set.
- You now see files named to arrive in the order you want.
- 3
Send them in one selection
Press Upload and select the whole set, including the reference mix. Four files upload at a time and the rest wait their turn. Always include the reference: your label compares the stems against it, and a set without one always gets the same follow-up question.
- You now see the whole session uploading in one go.
- 4
Check nothing failed quietly
Check the upload progress at the top of the track before you close the app. If a file fails, it stops and waits for you to press Retry. It won’t restart by itself, so a delivery missing one stem can look complete to you until someone asks.
- You now see every file in the list, or the one that needs retrying.
- Tap the red pill to see Retry, Remove and Cancel for that file.
- 5
Leave the one note that replaces the email
Open the reference mix and untick Timestamp comment, so the note is about the whole delivery. Write down what they’d otherwise ask you: tempo, key, the headroom it’s printed at, and anything unusual. The note stays on the file, where the label will find it.
- You now see your delivery note on the reference mix.
What a label needs from a stem delivery
- The reference mix
- Uploaded with the stems, not sent separately. Everything else is checked against it, and it’s the file most often forgotten.
- Numbered filenames
- Files are listed in name order. Vandall doesn’t reorder anything, so your names set the order.
- One file-level note
- Tempo, key, headroom and anything unusual, with no timestamp so it’s clearly about the whole delivery.
- The right track
- Theirs, if they made one. The label only sees tracks in their workspace, so a delivery to the wrong track is invisible to them.
- A complete queue
- Every file showing in the list. A failed upload waits for you to press Retry, and the label isn’t told about it.
- No send step
- The label sees files as they finish uploading. There’s nothing to press afterwards.
Ways people use this
A delivery that generates no follow-up questions
Numbered stems, the reference mix in the same track, and one comment giving tempo, key and headroom. Everything an engineer would otherwise email you about is answered before they open it.
Uploading from a venue or a hotel
Upload the reference mix first and wait until it appears in the list, then queue the stems. If the connection drops, the most important file is already there, and you can press Retry on the rest in the morning.
They ask for a change to one stem
Upload the new stem to the same track with a name ending in V2, and keep the old one. The comments stay where they are, and everyone can hear what changed.
Tips
- Don’t publish a release to deliver stems. Publishing creates a public page for a finished record. Stems are work in progress, so leave them in the track.
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