Virtual Dj has been in the stems game for at least 6 years, they have a certain lead over the rest of the industry in this area. And the little guys at atomix have always been at the forefront of new features (the scrolling waveform is them, the beatgrid is still them etc…)
Denon DJ is just catching up on the stems features and even if the new algorithm is much better than the very first version presented over a year ago on the prime 4+, it still needs to be refined.
It is not bad it is just in the upper average compared to what other competitors are doing on the market. This is how I would currently rank the quality of Denon DJ’s stem rendering algorithm among the major players in the industry
Best stems algorithm:
- Virtual DJ Stems 2.0
- Djay Pro AI
Quite good:
- Serato Stems
- Denon Dj Stems
Average
- Tranktor Stems
- Rekordbox Stems
Denon Dj is currently positioned well above the Traktor Stems, but slightly below the Serato stems, which is not so bad for a first try. The quality of Serato stems already satisfies the majority of DJs who are the least demanding among us.
It should also be noted that this is a personal and average ranking because the quality of stem separations will depend enormously on the type of tracks and also on the way this track was mixed/mastered. This can also depend a lot on the musical genre.
Also keep in mind that many current productions, often Remixes/Edits/mashups are produced and mixed from tracks that have already been stemized previously (sometimes with a quality of stems used that is questionable and close to what we had in the first beta prime 4+).
But drowned in an edit or one to which you add instruments and therefore frequencies to mask the muddy sound of the stem used, it works. (Block & Crown are the specialists in this for example)
So if you re-stem a production that has already been created on a stem base, do not expect exceptional quality during your tests.