Aligned Stem Audio Production Workflow

This skill provides a resilient pattern for audio production that emphasizes incremental verification, fail-fast principles, and automatic duration alignment. Each major step produces verified outputs before proceeding, with explicit handling for stem duration mismatches using appropriate extension strategies.

Overview

Follow these steps in strict order. Each step must complete successfully and pass verification before proceeding to the next:

1. Early timing calculation - Derive section transitions from BPM and duration first
2. Verify reference audio - Validate input file properties and extract target duration
3. Generate and verify each stem individually - One stem at a time with immediate verification
4. Detect and resolve duration mismatches - Apply appropriate extension strategy (zero-pad, loop, or crossfade)
5. Generate drum stem separately - Dedicated drum extension with rhythm patterns
6. Apply effects with verification - Process each stem and verify output
7. Export master track - Mix all verified stems
8. Archive and final verification - Package deliverables with comprehensive checks

Key Differences from Standard Workflow

• Incremental verification: Verify each stem immediately after generation, not just at the end
• Fail-fast approach: Stop and report errors at each step rather than accumulating failures
• Early timing: Calculate section transitions before any audio generation
• Duration alignment: Explicit detection and resolution of stem duration mismatches
• Adaptive extension: Choose appropriate strategy (zero-pad/loop/crossfade) based on stem type
• Separated drums: Drum stem generation is a distinct step with rhythm-specific processing
• Memory-efficient: Process stems individually to avoid large array operations that cause sandbox failures

Step 1: Calculate Timing Parameters (Early)