Disadvantages
- Stem-mastering can alter balance of the mix.
- Individual processing of stems may make them sound incongruent with the rest of material.
- Processing of stems adds small amounts of distortions and noise to each stem and thus may magnify the distortions and noise on the entire master proportionally to the number of stems being processed.
Generally well-done mixes do not need stem-mastering as this process potentially magnifies the noise floor and amount of total harmonic distortions (THD).
Read more about this topic: Stem Mixing And Mastering