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Art of DeeJaying, WK 1: A New Way to Play – Stems. We will be releasing a new post every week for the next 52 weeks (sometimes more than once a week) educating deejays on art of the profession, tips & tricks, latest trends and development in the business.
Deejaying like any other profession advances everyday. It is quite important to stay in touch, and if possible ahead of the latest trends and development in your trade (i.e. make history by innovating). Having said that, I will like to introduce (though no longer so new) an audio format called Stems that is about to revolutionize the music industry in general and the deejaying specifically.
The concept of stems audio file originated from stem mixing and mastering which has been around since the 60’s. Sound engineers and producers can easily cut musical instruments or vocals from the live audio mix via its independent channel on the mixing board. However, Stems as an audio file is pretty new and has been around for only a couple of years. Stems is an audio format like mp3, m4a, aac, wav etc. However, only mp4 compatible audio softwares can utilize the stems audio file, for example iTunes, as stems is in a similar format with mp4.
Stems is a completely new way to DJ, it is a new format for music that redefines creative live performance. You can create spontaneous edits, a cappellas, instrumentals, and more with your tracks’ musical elements available independently. Unlock the door to innovative mixing with Stems – and discover an all new way to play.
A Stems file is an open, multi-channel audio file that contains a track split into four musical elements – bass, drums, vocals, and melody for example. With each element available independently, you can mix in ways that just weren’t possible until now.
Unfortunately, since the existence of stems audio format, only Native Instruments has designed specific software and hardware to harness the potentials of the stems audio format. It would be great to see other industry leaders such as Rane/Serato, Pioneer/RekordBox, Denon/Engine, Virtual DJ, Numark, American Audio and many others incorporate stems functionality into newer versions of their software and hardware as the case may be.
Check out Traktor Kontrol S8 on Amazon
Check out Traktor Kontrol S5 on Amazon
You can get mixing with Stems right away with a 1.5 GB package of free Stems tracks. Derived from selected MASCHINE expansions, these 65 Stems tracks cover a wide range of tempos and genres ranging from techno, house, and funk, to trap, drum and bass, dubstep and more. Click here for free download. Visit online stores to purchase stems music format Beatport, Bleep, Juno, Traxsource, whatpeopleplay, and Wasabeat now to start playing Stems and unlock the door to new performance possibilities.
For the producers and artistes, do not get left behind start releasing stems format of your music and content. Here is a Stems Creator Software available for free download.
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