So, they’ll be 4 times bigger than an MP3, take a small bit of extra time to produce, and won’t be as widespread as MP3. I’d be concerned what way they will be priced..
Although it is a super tool, I personally can’t see it taking off from a DJ perspective.
Producers/remix artists may have a legitimate purpose, but, for DJ’n.. how long before it’s going to be going from your ‘A’ list, to the archive, tracks have a certain lifespan, will the cost and effort be enough to justify that? Certainly, it could add a bit extra creativity on those tracks alone that are stemmed, but to most talented DJ’s, they don’t really need this to make them any more creative than they already are, especially when accapellas and instrumentals are already out there and have been for years.
Stems will just be stolen by producers and used in their own productions and there will be even more to add to the “copyright battle” that’s currently happening.
I remember in the early 90’s, there was a format that did this on CD. I’m not sure what it was called.
I don’t see the difference in this compared to remix sets. It’s like they are rethinking remix set format, because it’s a clusterf*ck of random sample files and .trak file.
I’ll bet you the stem tool analyzes and beatgrids as well.
Remix sets may well come in stems format later down the line, but for now there is one major difference: Stems are four big files of identical length, Remix Sets are a collection of small files of various lengths.
I reckon it sounds like a great idea, similar to how I’ve been using remix decks & play my tracks out live.
There are definitely issues with making the stems available to others but that’s a choice that is made by the artist & label, if they’re fine with the possibility of sampling then that’s cool. It’s been going on for years with releasing acapellas and, more lately of course the remix decks.
Where I think it’ll shine is being able to ‘edit’ together sets rather than just straight mixing. It’ll make transitions more unique and in some part, minimise issues mixing inbetween keys by dropping out the melodic elements and replacing them with the next. Also handy for those that like short mixing!
I personally can’t wait for them to introduce it & I’ll be producing all my tracks in that additional format from now on. Whether the labels then decide to put them out is up to them but it’ll be real handy in a set!
For legal reasons this idea will not make it. Putting vocals in a separate track makes it easy to “abuse” the vocals for other remixes without paying for it.
Though it’s only a matter of time until separation of mixed down tracks back to multitrack is a reality - the maths for doing it are improving constantly.
Depends on the label and the publishers - a lot of smaller and/or forward-thinking entities will welcome this kind of thing, but the old school big boys will probably be more hostile.
And it still doesn’t give anyone the right to actually commercially release a remix using someone’s vocals - 99% of people will just do their own mashups / edits / etc
So, just finished reading the update on Stems at DJWorx site.
Based on answers from NI, every stem.mp4 file will contain 4 mono stems + 1 stereo track. Did I understand it correctly?
You can either play the stems or the stereo track, no switching between them once play is pushed.
Initially thought it was an early April Fools joke due to the timing of the announcement, but can see this working well with the remix decks and a future Traktor/Maschine compatibility arrangement. I personally suspect the latter will be where Stems and the D2 will shine. Of course, can’t really see the likes of Dim Mak et al getting on board initially, but very good potential for some labels like Last Night On Earth and Toolroom Records to get behind this.
This is catering to the masses not to the so called “pros”. The “pros” already have access to the stems which is how they make their remix in the first place. The isolated vocal aka "the acapella " is already out there for just about every other song. There are only going to be 4 stems, 1 being vocals, that leaves 3 others, doesn’t really leave a lot considering how may individual tracks make up a song. I guess there will be an entire drum stem of all the drums together, a lead stem, a bass stem and vocals and then whatever they decide needs to be isolated like strings, or rhythm parts but with there only being 4 tracks available it can be limited. If you look hard enough the stems are out there already for a lot of stuff. I have used stems to do what I call a “rework” which is really just doing my own mix of the song only using the stems. There are a couple on my soundcloud. I don’t think its anything I would ever use to DJ with, I don’t use the remix decks either.
