Standalone Stems... inmusic already has it!

MPC-Tutor wrote:It was always going to sound poor, it's an early alpha, and they're processing live audio. They'll tweak it, plus MPC doesn't need to use it in real time, quality almost certainly better when dealing with a fixed length audio sample.

The guy on the first video says it's not realtime. You start the processing, it works on the audio file for awhile and shows something when it's ready.

Is it me or is the screen on that Denon a lot more vibrant than on the X? It just looks a lot duller on the MPC, and they are the same screen so it shouldn't.
Maybe it's just the different colours they use but it looks much nicer....and love the two-tone waveforms.

bitermc wrote:Please forgive me if I ask something too obvious, but when you all talk about stems, you mean:

A) a file with several tracks from where you can mix the acapella, bass, chords, etc..

B) a software that somehow separates tracks from a stereo source, maybe not 100% accurately

or maybe C) something else?

I found my own answer

The AI-powered stem separation function first launched in 2020 and allows users to separate stems from tracks in real-time, which means you can fade out, mute and solo vocals, basslines, drums, instruments and more from a fully mixed down track, without having access to the individual parts.

https://djmag.com/tech/virtualdj-2023-r ... io-quality

I might be getting old, I know this technology exists but it sounds too good to be true. I grew up collecting acapellas on B sides...

Try free PC software like Demucs. Sounds much better than this Denon thing.

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:Try free PC software like Demucs. Sounds much better than this Denon thing.

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And it seems to require GPUs, at least for acceleration (maybe it works without them, at the cost of being slower). Definitely worth a try.

I think the Denon thing is more a quick and dirty DJ effect than a serious production tool. As if you were muting/filtering tracks in real time.

Also, a bit of LOOK MA I'M A DJ, so I expect this effect to be used and abused

I don't see it coming to the MPC line. I might be missing a point but I don't even see the need for it. It's a nice DJ trick, but for serious stem separation in music production it's better to have a dedicated tool like the one you mention, with the maximum achievable quality, and then have already separate tracks for remixing/sampling/whatever...

bitermc wrote:I might be missing a point but I don't even see the need for it. It's a nice DJ trick, but for serious stem separation in music production it's better to have a dedicated tool like the one you mention, with the maximum achievable quality, and then have already separate tracks for remixing/sampling/whatever...

Rather than complete tracks, I imagine it would be great if you have a sample or loop and simply want to isolate one element,. e.g. extract a bass riff, isolate a vocal etc. So load up the sample in SAMPLE EDIT, hit 'PROCESS > Separate' and the MPC splits it into it's various elements.

I use Backbone a fair bit, it has the 'Decompose' feature, which is limited to creating two elements, tone and noise, which you can tweak before committing. Generally designed for working with short samples.

Works very well, quick, no fuss, good results sonically. Automatically creates individual layers from the splits so you can quickly move on to adding more layers or further editing etc. Great for stuff like taking the noise element of a snare and blending with the tonal element of a different snare or clap etc. Or extracting a noise element, further process, layer, loop, convert to an instrument and so on.

Demucs is great for aligning tempo and audio in Ableton, because the drum track provides a much clearer reference. (You can warp multiple tracks as a group in Ableton) And after first aligning the tempo grid to the audio, the audio can be made slave again, and then it's in fixed grid, and the results sound really good when the Elastique algorithm can work on simpler material. And you can use different warp modes for each track like the "beats" mode for drums, which sometimes keeps it punchier. AND if the original tune had mistakes like rushing or dragging or slightly out-of-tune notes in one instrument track, you can now FIX IT IN THE REMIX, decades later.

jaymack wrote:its too bad separated stems sound like a 64kbps mp3

I agree and it’s usefulness generally depends on what you wanna do with these stems. If anyone hopes to get that fat string and brass section sound out from under that singer’s voice then nope, it will sound bad…

You could also try splitter.ai or Spleeter from Deezer. Those are the tools I have seen being used by my students.
Other than that, iZotope RX definitely is your friend.