Coming back from hiatus with questions

[MuzikFreq]

Hi I used to frequent on here often and used to have the gear but I took some time off to do some... I don't know rediscovery of what I was doing also had alot of stuff going on like moving.

Well I started thinking about it and want to mix trance but also I knew about stems and thought,"this would be an awesome way to create my own unique sound with so much control." I thought this because I hear music in a way to make some interesting mashups.
Well upon looking up trance stems... The selection is... Barren. Which now has me thinking if I do go back, get an s8 or one of those standalone rekordbox kits (which wouldn't be bad since I could do my own thing without a laptop tying me down)

Why hasn't stems really kicked off?

Also where should I start over again?

Note I do still have traktor pro2
I never sold that when I sold the s2 I had

[SlayForMoney]

Why hasn't stems really kicked off?

Well upon looking up trance stems... The selection is... Barren.

You have answered your own question. NI touted Stems as revolutionary format but hogged NDK tool for packing into the stems format a little too long and record companies weren't, for some reason, all so interested in re-releasing the back catalogue in such a format.

[astromech]

You have answered your own question. NI touted Stems as revolutionary format but hogged NDK tool for packing into the stems format a little too long and record companies weren't, for some reason, all so interested in re-releasing the back catalogue in such a format.

It also doesn't help that there's no interest or capability to add any back catalogue.

[mostapha]

Why hasn't stems really kicked off?

Because it's not really that poweful. It's capable of mashups and a little finer control of effects, but that's about it.

Also, and I say this as someone who wanted to DJ that way for years, I've come to the conclusion that the naysayers were right. Even if you manage to get stems, it just doesn't work out quite like you think it will. Production environments have such finer control than what you can do live, it creates a very complicated thing that isn't really either DJing or production. It works out for live shows. And there are ways to do it, but I just don't think that stems decks are what you really need to get much out of it.

Also where should I start over again?
Note I do still have traktor pro2

If you want to experiment with stems, there's nothing wrong with that. You can map them to anything, but the D2, S5, and S8 will work out of the box. And the way they implemented it is actually pretty slick...when you load a stems file, the deck flavor changes and the controls show up the way they're supposed to. When you load a normal track or a remix deck, the same thing happens.

If you want to play with finer control, I think the best way to do it is to use Live, make your own stems, and play with them. There have been at least a small number of people who did that (Tarekith comes to mind). And Live is perfectly capable of playing a DJ set, it's just weird control if you're only used to something based on decks.

So....what do you want to do?

[MuzikFreq]

You have answered your own question. NI touted Stems as revolutionary format but hogged NDK tool for packing into the stems format a little too long and record companies weren't, for some reason, all so interested in re-releasing the back catalogue in such a format.

It also doesn't help that there's no interest or capability to add any back catalogue.

Because it's not really that poweful. It's capable of mashups and a little finer control of effects, but that's about it.

Also, and I say this as someone who wanted to DJ that way for years, I've come to the conclusion that the naysayers were right. Even if you manage to get stems, it just doesn't work out quite like you think it will. Production environments have such finer control than what you can do live, it creates a very complicated thing that isn't really either DJing or production. It works out for live shows. And there are ways to do it, but I just don't think that stems decks are what you really need to get much out of it.



If you want to experiment with stems, there's nothing wrong with that. You can map them to anything, but the D2, S5, and S8 will work out of the box. And the way they implemented it is actually pretty slick...when you load a stems file, the deck flavor changes and the controls show up the way they're supposed to. When you load a normal track or a remix deck, the same thing happens.

If you want to play with finer control, I think the best way to do it is to use Live, make your own stems, and play with them. There have been at least a small number of people who did that (Tarekith comes to mind). And Live is perfectly capable of playing a DJ set, it's just weird control if you're only used to something based on decks.

So....what do you want to do?

Thanks for all the replies.
I been at work all weekend so sorry that I didn't respond faster.
That kinda sucks that stems went down like this. It is what it is though. With that in mind I guess the pioneer kits are really worth looking into.
The one I had my eyes on was this
https://store.djtechtools.com/products/xdj-rx2
Nice little break away from needing a laptop at all times.

As for what I want to do is dj primarily. I did like to dable in production but while I can come up with some interesting loops it never went beyond that while as for mashups and pure mixing I heard stuff I could really work with and have fun with.

[Patch]

I can't see a benefit of using Stems over Remix Decks.

Stems are basically arranged loops - so they are actually limiting in a way.

I prefer to have a set of variations of loops (hi-hat patterns, for example) all lined up in a vertical row of 4 in a Remix Deck Page. If I want to add a variation with a fill at the end, I'll just trigger that pad, then revert back to the straight 8/16th note pattern slot after the fill.

[MuzikFreq]

I have since just received the XDJ-RX2 and oh boy. I actually like this more than using Traktor. I decided not to use the PC mode and just use it stand alone.
Really loving the build and actually needing to beat match (Sure there's still a sync button but teaches me nothing) The S2 I have some years back couldn't beatmatch manually to save its life with the tiny faders and Traktors blah translation of it to %. Had to sync.

Having so much fun and I have yet to properly use this with properly organized tracks.

[mostapha]

Glad you're happy.

There are definitely things to like about the simple computer-free setup and the way that the RX2 gives you almost everything a pair of CDJs and a mixer would.