Questions about Stems files in Traktor Pro 4
I am excited about the new Traktor Pro 4, but have a couple of questions/doubts about the stems feature.
I understand it is not "real-time" stem separation as Serato uses. It's a pity, but I can live with that. However, I also understand it saves the created stems file as a separate file. I like to know the following, please:
Will the stems files be the same quality? If the file is 320kbps Mp3, will it stay 320kbps Mp3, if it is a Flac file, will it stay a (unencrypted) flac file?
Also; how large is this stems file, compared to the original file?
Let's say the original file if 5 MB in size. is the Stems file larger (since it contains more data) or the same size or perhaps smaller? Please let me/us know how the size (percentage wise) will be compared to the actual file. i.e. that file being 20% larger will make the file 6 MB or something like that.
I feel this is quite important to know, in case I decide to create stems of my thousands of tracks, so I do not run out of disk space quite fast.
Thank you for the answers!
Cheers,
DJ Bite
Comments
-
Check the folder in Music for the one called traktor. There is the Stem folder. I made 5 songs and each one is 40mb to 50mb.
0 -
Thank you for your answer. I haven't upgraded yet, since I like to know if this might be a problem before I do.
You say the stem file is 50MB?! That is a lot more than I expected. Can you tell me how large the original file is? Thank you!
0 -
I made them from mp3. They have some 6mb maybe 7mb
0 -
Wow! So the stems become about 10 times larger than the original files?! That is going to be a big issue, storage wise, when you want to create stems for a lot of files. Thank you so much for your answer.
0 -
I'm not going to make the entire collection in stem. I will do some that I think are important. At the end of the day, people want to hear the music the way the artist created it. This is more to create some mixes and entertainment for the DJ. In some songs it is necessary. And to make live or recorded remixes. Traktor remains the same if we do not use the stems. The sound of the maximizer is super cool. Flexible bitgrids are very good. The play Pattern is a very good tool too. I like it. In Windows I have already had about 4 crashes. On Mac still no problems.
0 -
Each stem file has 5 tracks in it. The original and the 4 septation. They use aac codec. I don't know the Bitrate.
So no, if your original is lossless the stem will not be lossless file. It will also be smaller.
2 -
NI can you please implement ALAC or FLAC encoding for stems. Many of us have entire libraries exclusively made up of lossless files (who doesn't, it's 2024!) and being forced to encode in AAC is preventing me, at least, from using the stems feature at all.
2 -
Thank you for the answer. When it's encoded like that, I imagine the sound quality gets worse. And still the file becomes so much larger. I would like to know more technical information about the process NI uses to get stems realized.
0 -
You can load the non stem version any time.
You can download the demo and take a look at the stem files with audacity or similar.
0 -
I am not sure I'd like that. If it becomes 8-10 times larger, I would run out of disk space quite fast, with flac files as the source. Especially, since I would create it on the fly (while DJing) I guess, I have to delete my stems after each gig when I used them, so the needed space stays available…?
0 -
Wat?
If the source is flac, then the stem file is smaller. I just told you that.
Where did you get the 8 times larger from?
0 -
From the first answers DJ Anibal gave me, who told me that the original files from about 6 to 7 MB became stem files from 40 to 50 MB. But I guess, I do need to test it myself to see the actual results. By the way, I hardly use Flacs myself, But almost everything is 320kbps Mp3's, which are quite large as well.
0 -
I bet they use a fixed bitrate. 256 kb/s AAC is quite common, maybe they use more. Just take a look at a file and you will know for sure.
IF that is the case, and and again I don't know what bitrate they use, then a stem from a 256 kb/s file will be more or less 5 times larger (master + 4 stems)
And a flac or wav might shrink in size. A 128 kb/s mp3 will balloon up.
0 -
Also FYI for those creating stems files, the created files DO NOT name themselves like the original file name, but instead use an obtuse folder/naming convention, so if you plan to archive the stems files elsewhere, you will need to convert one at a time, go to music>traktor>stems> then into the folder it created, then rename the file to the original filename (keeping the .stems.mp4 at the end), then copy the file to wherever you are backing it up to.
I was REALLY hoping using traktor would now finally afford me a one-click/batch stems creation solution but alas, I will continue to manually create them as I have been doing for years now :(3 -
It's crazy really but all NI adding one click stem separation to Traktor 4 has done is make me want to make my own even more with the Stem Creator app we've had since 2015!
I don't like Izotope's separation, I prefer demucs via UVR5. Also if we use Stem Creator with ALAC it doesn't convert to lossy, it keeps all the stems in ALAC format.How small is your hard drive that you're worried about MP3 file sizes??
1
Categories
- All Categories
- 19 Welcome
- 1.5K Hangout
- 62 NI News
- 785 Tech Talks
- 4.1K Native Access
- 16.5K Komplete
- 2K Komplete General
- 4.3K Komplete Kontrol
- 5.7K Kontakt
- 1.6K Reaktor
- 378 Battery 4
- 845 Guitar Rig & FX
- 429 Massive X & Synths
- 1.3K Other Software & Hardware
- 5.8K Maschine
- 7.3K Traktor
- 7.3K Traktor Software & Hardware
- Check out everything you can do
- Create an account
- See member benefits
- Answer questions
- Ask the community
- See product news
- Connect with creators