"Stem" is the term from film sound applied to one finished element of a sound track, such as dialogue, music or sound effects. This definition was expanded with the introduction of multichannel surround mixing formats to include both the finished elements and available channels of a surround sound mix. For instance, the stems in a 5.1 surround format mix include Left, Center, Right, Left surround, Right surround and Low Frequency Enhancement. The term is used interchangeably.The three or more final components of a stereo film mix, usually comprising three lcrs mixes, one each of dialog, music andsound effects that, combined, make up the final mix of a film. Minimal (hopefully no) additional level changes, equalization, etc.,should be needed to create a printmaster, although of course a 6-track print master will have different requirements than a 2-track stereo optical print master.The separation of elements afforded by stems allows domestic (English-language in the U.S.) mono and M&E stereo and monomixes to be easily derived from the original stereo mix. The word "stem" should not be used for any other element prior to the finalmix masters although it is a common mistake to refer to the various premixes as stems.