STEMs! The Future Of DJing?

The outlook of the modern day DJ landscape is constantly changing and evolving to suit with the latest trends and technology. It’s become apparent that you constantly have to be on your toes to make a name or even half a name for yourself within the industry. With the recent announcement of STEMS becoming the brand new music format which will revolutionise the way a DJ mixes and performs, we’re looking at what this new format is and how much of an impact it will have on the music industry.

What is STEM?

The STEM format is basically the future of enhanced mixing. Taking an open, multi-channel audio file that contains a track split into four musical elements, but unlike other formats each element is also available as a separate entity in itself and can be controlled as independent audio. Based on the already established MPEG-4 file which is widely used in every production or performing element, it was designed to become a simple format for releasing music, simple by design and roughly easy to use, not differing massively from the way you produce and mix music and sounds today. A typical STEM file will include five separate stereo tracks, which include four STEMs and one stereo mixdown.

How It Works

As we’ve previously said, it doesn’t venture too far away from the way you’re used to mixing elements together, being made simple to use by design. Being described by many as;
“a detailed multi-channel mixing of a tracks individual musical elements.”
By incorporating the use of STEMs into your mixing you will be able to produce much crisper, more organised and superior tracks. Using the default 256k WBR AAC formatting and an MP4 container which enables any software that can read an MP4 file to be able to play your finished track, but without the software that can read an MP4 file. Being pretty dated stuff everyone’s professional software should be able to, but if not you’d only be able to hear the stereo mixdown part of the STEM. Also supporting lossless audio, which has seen incredible advancements lately, the STEM format is supposed to be made available in the summer of 2015.

Who’s Supporting It

With free STEM creator tools soon to be made available at a more basic level, premiere DJ software from the likes of TRAKTOR will soon be on offer. Many of the industry juggernauts have already backed the latest trend and already started using early ideas of the concept, worldwide names such as;

• Traxsource
• Beatport
• Wasabeat
• Black Hole Recordings
• Tool Room
• Rejected

We’re predicting big things for STEM in the coming months and banking on it to taking off and transforming the way music is mixed and produced, not just with the DJ industry but throughout the whole of the music industry.