The challenge
In Pro Tools, exporting a large stem package is usually a babysit-the-computer situation. Sean often needs 80+ stems printed in real time through his master bus and analog chain, and doing that manually means triggering each print one by one, watching it, naming it and repeating, with no chance to step away. It is repetitive, easy to mess up and steals time from actual creative work.
The cost before Forte
Before Forte, Sean either did it himself manually or had his assistant come over and run the stem prints. Either way, someone had to be in the room actively clicking, monitoring and managing file names. The cost was real time, stress and scheduling friction, plus the occasional human error when clients inevitably asked for a weird combination of stems last minute.
With Forte
With Forte, Sean sets up the full stem list once, hits go and walks away. Instead of manually triggering every bounce, Forte runs the whole export process start to finish. The biggest change is that he no longer needs his assistant in the room for stem exports, and he is not stuck babysitting the session. He can focus on family time or other work while the exports run reliably in the background.
On a typical 80+ stem deliverable, Forte cuts hands-on stem export work down to about 5 to 10 minutes of setup, instead of being locked in the room managing exports for an hour or more. That is roughly an 80 to 90% reduction in manual labor for stem printing, and it removes the need to schedule an assistant just to get deliverables out.
With Forte, I can set up the full stem list once, hit go, and walk away. The exports run reliably in the background while I focus on other things.
Sean P. Jones · Off The Square Studios · seanpjones.net
