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To add there is a format of music called Stems designed for DJ's and live remixers from Native Instruments which is a disassembly of the song into it's various

To add there is a format of music called Stems designed for DJ's and live remixers from Native Instruments which is a disassembly of the song into it's various parts. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/stems/ https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/stems/

Intermernet 7y ago
FYI The term "stems" to refer to the individual tracks of a piece of recorded music is a lot older than NI's format. I love NI, but I'm annoyed that they chose to appropriate the industry standard term as a proprietary product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering
- unlinked_dll 7y ago
  idk anyone who uses this as a proprietary format. "stems" is an industry standard term.
  - Intermernet 7y ago
    As discussed elsewhere in this thread, it's not as I suggested, a proprietary format. It's still a format created by NI which appropriates the industry standard name. For a list of parties using NI's implementation of the file format see https://www.stems-music.com/stems-partners/ https://www.stems-music.com/stems-partners/ . I'm happier that it's a (mostly) open standard, but I'm still slightly annoyed at the confusion that comes from NI appropriating the industry term. It's like if I released a non-text representation of storing data using a particular subset of technology that was standardized, and then called it "The Binary" format. Technically nothing wrong with it, but it's bound to cause confusion!
- crucialfelix 7y ago
  They published it as an open standard. Many apps and stores support it. The purpose was to take an informal industry practice and make it into a formal portable open standard. https://www.stems-music.com/ https://www.stems-music.com/
  - Intermernet 7y ago
    This is better than I originally thought, but it's still a bit confusing. The Stems file spec (available via registration) is basically an MP4 container with some JSON metadata. This seems to have the usual donwsides of MP4 patents, but it's actually about as good as any standard a pro audio software company has released. Ideally, I'd have liked to have seen a completely open audio codec used for both encoding and container, but MP4 is a pretty safe bet for compatibility , and it's not really NI's fault that it has some patent issues. All in all, I could pedantically argue the "open" status, but I'll instead give credit where it's due, and give kudos to NI for releasing a pretty damn usable file format. I'm even happy that it's limited to 4 parts. For the purposes of live performance with DJ style gear, this is plenty. If a performer wants more parts then they're probably going to be creating some or all of those parts. Either way, they'll probably be using something more like Ableton rather than Traktor.

Intermernet 7y ago

FYI The term "stems" to refer to the individual tracks of a piece of recorded music is a lot older than NI's format. I love NI, but I'm annoyed that they chose to appropriate the industry standard term as a proprietary product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering

unlinked_dll 7y ago
idk anyone who uses this as a proprietary format. "stems" is an industry standard term.
- Intermernet 7y ago
  As discussed elsewhere in this thread, it's not as I suggested, a proprietary format. It's still a format created by NI which appropriates the industry standard name. For a list of parties using NI's implementation of the file format see https://www.stems-music.com/stems-partners/ https://www.stems-music.com/stems-partners/ . I'm happier that it's a (mostly) open standard, but I'm still slightly annoyed at the confusion that comes from NI appropriating the industry term. It's like if I released a non-text representation of storing data using a particular subset of technology that was standardized, and then called it "The Binary" format. Technically nothing wrong with it, but it's bound to cause confusion!
crucialfelix 7y ago
They published it as an open standard. Many apps and stores support it. The purpose was to take an informal industry practice and make it into a formal portable open standard. https://www.stems-music.com/ https://www.stems-music.com/
- Intermernet 7y ago
  This is better than I originally thought, but it's still a bit confusing. The Stems file spec (available via registration) is basically an MP4 container with some JSON metadata. This seems to have the usual donwsides of MP4 patents, but it's actually about as good as any standard a pro audio software company has released. Ideally, I'd have liked to have seen a completely open audio codec used for both encoding and container, but MP4 is a pretty safe bet for compatibility , and it's not really NI's fault that it has some patent issues. All in all, I could pedantically argue the "open" status, but I'll instead give credit where it's due, and give kudos to NI for releasing a pretty damn usable file format. I'm even happy that it's limited to 4 parts. For the purposes of live performance with DJ style gear, this is plenty. If a performer wants more parts then they're probably going to be creating some or all of those parts. Either way, they'll probably be using something more like Ableton rather than Traktor.