It's a bit like Columbus's egg. You take 4 audio tracks, put them in a single file that allows you to listen to them together or separately and here is Stems!
For those who know midi it is now common to have 16 tracks in a single file, so the concept is at least as old as digital. In this case, however, these are audio tracks, four to be exact, so we have the possibility to independently carry high quality tracks and voices with us with the possibility of using them as we wish.
If we think of the existing sequencers, it would not be revolutionary at all if they had not invested a little money in marketing, hardware Stem ready and a few ready-made songs on the market in this format.
We add that the project partners are giants like Native instruments, which he made Stem ready all products in the series Tractor, and online music stores of the likes of Beatport, Bleep, trax source and many others (http://www.stems-music.com/stems-partners/).
Finally a hundred labels they have donato their 4 tracks to the project. The file extension is .stem.mp4
Let's recap… the dj which has the Traktor control, he buys some backing tracks in Stem format, mixes them in real time and uses what he needs, when he needs it, in a comfortable and excellent audio format. Every remixer's dream!
The files are packaged in a readable mp4 format - and this is a real trick - even by simple readers like iTunes, VLC, Finder and similar. The weight is higher than an mp3 track but is still contained, on average around 70mb.
The practice is not new, however, the term itself vote it is already known as a “set of audio tracks mixed together” and used in film or even live to simplify mixing.
How to create a Stems
To facilitate its dissemination, Stem is an open format, Open Source. Everyone is free to assemble their tracks using a free software, Stem Creator, freely downloadable in Mac and Windows formats from here http://www.stems-music.com/stem-creator-tool/
The rather basic system. Four tracks to be added on a sort of sequencer with the possibility of changing their names, 1 master track which is what you will hear when reading a common stereo player, the possibility of pre-listening to the mixed tracks or only the master, the insertion data such as photo of the song, title, etc., a small console in the display expert to premasterize everything, dynamics, dry / wet, input / output, a compressor and a limiter with their threshold, different preset dynamics presets (punchy, crisp, flat, custom).
The master track cannot be edited in terms of dynamics, compression and limiter. For the mix of the others there is also the Bypass button which excludes the dynamics section.
The program only creates the file, it does not allow reopening and editing, so once exported its work ends there. The format of the exported file will obviously be .stem.mp4
External links
Official website
http://www.stems-music.com/
Native Instruments website
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/
