I can hear the sound of the undertaker tapping another nail in.
KUVO has entered the chat since 2014.
Maybe I should sell my gear, now that there are still some DJs left to buy it 
Thatās one good thing about my age. 
So far automix is really auto blend and lacks the talent of a good DJ (proper cues, loops, effects, surprise mid-song cuts and overlays). I sometimes use djay Pro automix to preview while at the gym. Unless you carefully construct a playlist, it is mediocre with a few moments of brilliance. It works quite well as background music. Poser DJs are a negative possibility. Those with a pop crowd are going to hit turbulence sooner. On the positive, maybe people will expect mixed music that is better than what they can do.
Lord help us if Denon DJ advertises the next gen all-in-ones as āDJ included.ā
The best automated mixing Iāve heard came via Dragonās Den in the UK.
A guy called Ian Chamings presented his idea, got two Dragons on board and initially created a site called mixalbum, which allowed you to select the tracks you wanted in your mix, then it would calculate for a bit, before presenting you with a mix - which IIRC you could either download or have it put on a CD.
Basically it was aimed at consumers who liked mix albums, rather than DJs.
Nowadays his site is called fitmixpro and aims at fitness instructors.
The fact that itās using the Camelot notation for a consumer facing app is such a power move 
We now better understand why Spotify refuses to integrate with DJ software/hardware manufacturers. Their strategy is to find a way to do without the DJ.
The problem is that everywhere you hear people saying anyone can become a DJ in just a week ā and thatās exactly the crowd Spotify is aiming for.
But being a DJ means so much more than just mastering the equipment and throwing a few sounds together on the decksā¦ or slapping on some FX. Itās about dedicationā¦ years of experience and knowing your tracks inside out. You donāt learn that in a few weeks. It often takes a lifetime ā and the learning never really stops. Playing the right track at the right time ā THAT is the true art, and only that.
Everything else is nice, sureā¦ but no one hires a DJ at, say, a wedding for their mixing skills. They pay them to create an amazing party.
Spotify doesnāt care, though. Just take a look at Twitch and see how many people call themselves DJs thereā¦ A high percentage of them wouldnāt survive 9 hours in an open-format club. Itās a shame to see this development.
just my 2 Centā¦
The trouble is, looking around on the internet, this whole mantra is dying, kids are not interested in any of this and view it as waffle from old boomers who should get with the timesā¦.. I think weāre way beyond the point of no return now, the pool has been diluted and people are becoming DJs in a week. The music of course will suffer but will the mindset just change to accept that as the new norm?
AI will still be able to do basic beatmatching, even mix two tracks harmonically using pitch detection, and maybe even scan the behavior of a dancefloor if we combine it with a whole bunch of cameras and sensors.
But I think thereās one thing AI wonāt be able to do as well as humans: creativity.
AI wonāt improvise a mashup using stems, nor will it use the right effect at the right time, whether itās a filter, an echo out of a roll, a loop, or any other well-placed effect capable of creating surprise or tension.
Because AI will never have something that humans have: feeling and emotion.
Maybe AI will try to implement this kind of effect or creative thingā¦ but it will always be more random and less controlled than what an experienced DJ can achieve.
AI will certainly be capable of fairly basic mixes. Besides, I still see a lot of DJs around me who are content to simply string together tracks using simple beatmatching, without really trying to try anything trickier or more creative.
These DJs will be the first to be devoured by AI, because they will no longer offer any real artistic added value compared to an AI.
Those who will fare best will be those who are able to use more advanced techniques, playing with stems, effects, and all the other artistic tools and features available to us. These DJs will bring added value compared to an AI.
Most people in most venues donāt care though, you could stand there and just press play at the right time and they wouldnāt have a clue whether it amounts to mixing or not. Thatās the sad truth.
Drink prices have spiralled, youngsters arenāt bothered about Alcohol, bars and clubs closing all over the place, all you have left are the stragglers who want you to play the latest cheesy music they hear on commercial radio.
Stems are nothing more than a gimmick that have been hyped to death on the internet, and the people who were employed to hype them are not even using it that much when DJing. Do you honestly think 95% of the people where you DJ at care about some echoed out vocal stem transition?
Moin @StU-C and all concerned,
āmy biggest grin which I can createā
commencing EASTER 1976 the guest are exactly expecting these songs to be played as they had trained to dance them in front of the mirror in the Saturday morning when styling ā¦.
Unfortunately nothing had canged till todayā¦
So I loved the Friday Night for experiments and testing new tracks 
http://nachtasyl.de/index.php/1192-dare
Iām prepared, some tracks I really hate, but the guests are paying also for me ā¦
next never ending story,
Enjoy the day, and I hope you and all others can translate this advertisement into English
Brgds from HAM buff ta buff taaaaaaaaaaaaaa BeatMaster
To be honest Iām not worried about anything that claims to do automixing - especially on a consumer platform. IMO itās for non-DJs, and may even be educational for people to hear and learn from transitions (if it does a reasonable job).
Itās not going to impact what I do, and as Stu has mentioned, the average punter doesnāt care if you mix, or if you use Serato, or if your lights are all DMX controlled. They want to hear some good music.
Stems are useful though, as another method of getting from A to B, or doing something original off the cuff. Not sure anyone was employed to hype them, but I know Mojaxx is a big fan and uses them whenever he can.
They are defo useful (Blakeys videos show as much too) but Serato had a massive ad campaign with Skratch Bastid and Jeff etc all cooing about how its such a game changer and is going to change the industry foreverā¦ since then its become arguably the most overhyped DJ function in the history of DJing, any many of those guys arenāt widely utilising them in their sets.
I feel you could take the internet hype for them and reduce it by 80% and you get the actual real world reaction to it.
Even though I only had vinyl for many years as a resident DJ, then CDs, and finally MP3sā¦ I love the new technology, and STEMS in particular often saves my ass these days when I only have one of those damn short versionsā¦ STEMS and Loop are my helper for solving these problems quite easily.
Also the SYNC buttonā¦ use itā¦ it doesnāt make any of you worse, but it doesnāt make any of you better eitherā¦ but when I have to DJ for 8 hours or more, itās a huge reliefā¦ Iām not one of those people who judges a DJ by his skillsā¦ but 100% by what he plays and when! Of course, he should also be able to pitch by earā¦ but itās not necessary, as long as the softwareās beatmatching is good.
I also really enjoy listening to other DJs at work because they often contain ideas and nice skills that are worth practicing and maybe even using myself.
I love new technologies and use them wherever they make my life easier.
At the end of the day, only 1% of your audience will hear your technical work; the rest just want to party.
And thatās a good thing, considering how often Iāve completely messed up transitions. 
Spotify has recognized this and is targeting this, which will cost us event DJs a massive amount of jobs.
If the party turns out to be a mess because playlists or AI simply donāt understand emotions, itās too late.
The problem is, all these ātime savingā features are starting to be used as a replacement for learning how to DJ, and skillā¦. so whilst the idea that things like Sync are a great accompaniment tool, the reality is many new DJs are using it as their entry into DJing, only to find out the harsh reality of not learning the skills when the tech goes wrong (and it will).
When you add all the components together into a single body, there is becoming very little left for the DJ to actually do. Auto cue placement, dynamic beat grids, sync, smart crossfader, labelling phrases, match and song suggestions. combine all those and youāre simply left with a guy/girl stood there looking cool but not actually doing anything of note.
Ive said this many times, the most alarming part of all this, lots of DJs are essentially begging for more and more automation, its the āTurkeys voting for Christmasāā¦.. ive seen it in my day job, people complaining about having to do a task, can it be automated, it gets automated and they get made redundantā¦ā¦ i cant understand why people in DJ world arenāt awake to this.
Thatās just typical Serato (and their userbase) though. Atomix and Algoriddim did it first in 2020, which IMO had an adequate amount of positive feedback. When Serato finally did it two years later, itās all wow, gee, amazing, game changing.
Same with the latest Serato update. They just added stuff that the competition already had - but itās all wow, gee, amazing again. 
Stems are a powerful creative tool, but the problem for me is that theyāre used incorrectly 95% of the time by most DJs.
I mean, in most DJ sets I hear where stems are used, itās mostly to try to create a mashup, isolating an acapella from track A and layering it raw over the instrumental of track B, even though the structures of the two tracks arenāt necessarily suited to each other.
Having fairly advanced knowledge of music production, my approach to using stems is different.
Letās take a concrete example mixed with and without stems.
Letās say you want to mix track A with track B. Without stems, youāll use the classic equalization method, for example, reducing the bass on one side and increasing it on the other to avoid having a bass-heavy transition. In doing so, when you cut the bass from your track A, you will also lose harmonics in the low frequencies of the melody and, more generally, of all the instruments.
When you use stems the same way a producer would in your mix, for example, cutting only the bass stems of track A when the bass of track B is about to come in means you will preserve all the harmonics on the remaining stems of track A.
You will simply replace the bass line of track A with that of track B and thus obtain a different groove during your transition.
What I explain here with my example of the bass line also applies to all the other stems.
Add to that the use of loops, rolls on some stems and not others, or using FX or a slicer only on certain stems, and you have a world of new creative possibilities.
A scratcher, for example, could scratch only a vocal in slip mode while the rest of the instrumental continues to play in the background.
The Rane One Mk2, in its approach and its flexibility, clearly demonstrates all that is possible with stems. These arenāt new things; we could already do this before; itās just better integrated into the hardware.
What I mean is that where before you were forced to apply effects or actions to your entire track, you now have the ability to do so only on one element or a group of elements.
The tools are there; you just have to learn to master them to learn how to use them to the fullest in the best possible way and ultimately try to surprise your audience like you never could before.
Itās certainly a gimmick for those who donāt know how to use it, but when you know how to use it in the best possible way, itās not a gimmick at all.