I played a bit with VDJ 2023 with its new STEMS 2.0 feature and I must admit that it is very interesting… Not only the ability to separate instruments from a track but also the possibility to make an ACAPELLA on the fly is a game changer… I wonder if and (maybe) when this feature will be available also on our STANDALONE deck like the SC5000… Since I don’t use a computer in my setup do you think the player could be powerful enough to process an audio stream and extract the STEM info on the fly? Let me know! CIAO.
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Given the fact Serato has been jamming up M2 MacBooks, I very much doubt a media player has anywhere near enough power to facilitate that. There have been a few other threads about this so probably no need to create another.
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I tested 4 parts stems on an iPhone 11 last night using 4 decks and couldn’t make it stumble. I imagine it’ll be possible on the standalone player.
Algoriddim djay pro ai
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I doubt these DJ units even have a processors that match the iPhone ones, look at the price, the Denon Prime 2 and my iPhone 11 Pro only cost £100 difference. Given all the extra components contained in the DJ unit, something has to give.
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Funny you should mention that. It simply won’t install on my iPad Air 2 - not powerful enough (requires 3rd gen or later).
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TIme for an upgrade. Once apps start requiring signing for iOS16, not much is gonna run on that Air 2.
Have a search on the forums existing posts. There are a few dozen with people asking for this feature free of charge.
If the SOC in the SC6000’s is the same as the prime 4, we know it is capable of playing 4 decks at the same time while handling fx and mixing.
There could be an implementation of stems that requires pre-processing on your computer then it just splits on the deck into its 3-4 parts.
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Lexicon DJ, which works with Engine DJ, and can even replace Engine DJ for many database uses, offers this feature. Also Spleeter software (free, free, free) offers a pre-gig track splitting feature for drums, acappella etc
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it’s the same topic again. You indirectly answered it very well. Something like Stems only runs on desktop software and not on the device itself. A DJ player can’t muster the power and makes no sense. In my opinion it won’t be available on the devices themselves in the near future and there’s no point since it’s DJ gear. Then there is the software to prepare yourself.
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Real-time STEMs processing - na. Offline (so on PC/Mac) with the Prime/other using the pre-created STEMs, I’m confident it can.
However, I’m sure there are bigger problems for Engine to focus on. If they could import the VDJ database (XML), I expect they could re-use the VDJ STEMSs files (and probably also use the Serato STEMs files if it caches them).
The STEMS feature is not trivial to do well and if I ever get my Prime 2 to work standalone with my VDJ Database (or even my music) then, sure, I’ll miss the STEMS features of VDJ.
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How do the various apps store the stems? As separate audio files? Otherwise I don’t see how an XML file could re-use the stems, unless it’s just pointing to the actual files.
It’s a bit funny how it has suddenly become a hot topic, after being introduced (and discontinued) multiple years ago with “actual stems” (of proper audio quality) - curious to see if it will stick this time around 
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I’ve not checked, but assume VDJ (and Serato) Cache it in some (ideally) lossless format, using their databases to keep things together.
The Audio data won’t be stored in XML format (but is technically possible, but highly unprobable) , but the filename/path would be.
Its certainly the new ‘buzz phrase’ thats for certain. We see it across the tech industry don’t we, the new ‘must have’ feature that defines whether a company is succeeding or failing miserably, with the latter option the fuel that feeds people of a certain ilk.
Maybe Prime could use an At-home (off-line/pre-performance) system like a function inside Engine DJ, to make and save split copies…and save those music files and acappella files alongside the normal/original file.
Then, whenever the user picks the original file from any search results, the prime prompts “stems available! Would you like to load acappella and music into the two layers of this deck? (Yes or “load original only”.
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No, because to date there have been no issues running anything else. My point was that you can’t just do real time stems extraction on any old thing. The system has to have enough grunt.
I don’t know of any standalone device that can generate stems in real time.
I think the power of the CPU is simply not enough.
In addition, the Stems tracks must also be created, which as files would also occupy a not inconsiderable amount of storage space on the medium.
Conclusion: Stems on standalone devices will probably remain a pipe dream…
Agreed that realtime processing is unrealistic, but it would be awesome to have a “baked-in”, pre-processed version of this. (You’d process the tracks directly on the Engine DJ Desktop app)
Denon DJ devices (as well as the Akais) have the RK3288 CPU built in, a 28nm low-mid-tier chipset from 2014, combined with 2GB RAM. It’s not nearly as powerful as any current desktop/laptop or iPhone CPU. So Stems won’t come to the standalone devices, unless Engine Desktop can pre-analyze tracks accordingly prior. I don’t regard this as top priority, though, as long several other, more essential user requests haven’t been implemented yet.
Stems is an exciting and very promising new technology, not bullet-proof yet, but it will improve over the next few years, just like many AI-driven functionalities did.
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I disabled my Stems on VDJ.
I found that some songs that were preloaded with stem values couldn’t be changed, or wouldn’t reset during song load, especially in cache files.
I had to delete any stem alterations, to stop the music file becoming corrupt…
A great gimmick gone bad, not sure about Serato, apparently that just crashes the P.C completely ! 