Questions about Stems files in Traktor Pro 4

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  • Didier Malenfant
    Didier Malenfant Member Posts: 36 Helper

    I haven't looked into how the stem files are linked inside the nml but tas long as it's transparent enough that sounds doable.

    @axeldelafosse can StemGen be called as a python module by any chance?

  • Didier Malenfant
    Didier Malenfant Member Posts: 36 Helper

    Looks like it's using some kind of hash to the stem file but I can't see any direct link to the file itself in the NML 😢

  • Ivan Neo
    Ivan Neo Member Posts: 9 Member

    Hello! I made a comparison between Izotope RX 11, Traktor4 & demucs with UVR5. I exported the audio tracks from STEMS and compared them sound-wise. In my opinion, there is no difference between them.I also did a test. Made STEM using Traktor Pro 4 from a Flac source file. As a result, TP4 made Stem without loss of quality! Frequencies in audio tracks reached 22000 gh
    

  • Ivan Neo
    Ivan Neo Member Posts: 9 Member

    Hello! I made a comparison between Izotope RX 11, Traktor4 & demucs with UVR5. I exported the audio tracks from STEMS and compared them sound-wise. In my opinion, there is no difference between them.
    I also did a test. Made STEM using Traktor Pro 4 from a Flac source file. As a result, TP4 made Stem without loss of quality! Frequencies in audio tracks reached 22000 gh

  • Ninesense
    Ninesense Member Posts: 75 Advisor

    thanks for sharing that!
    so the separate stems weren’t compressed?
    that’s good to know!
    Was the size of stems… lossless size? I know it varies but are they more the 10mb?

    Someone somewhere said it converts to AAC. So maybe that’s with a Wav file? And Flac is different?

    I’ve been using ALAC with the stem creator tool to have a lossless stem file.. each track of 7 minutes is about 400mb which normal for a lossless 5 layer track.
    Cheers

  • RobAky92
    RobAky92 Member Posts: 11 Member
    edited July 2024

    I just generated a stem file from a 64MB FLAC using TR4 and the .mp4 came out at 28.6MB.

    Pretty certain that means it's still encoding them with AAC.

    Edit: Just checked on JRiver - the .mp4 is only playing at ~192kbps.

  • Ivan Neo
    Ivan Neo Member Posts: 9 Member

    You're right. It encodes them into AAC format. But I checked the audio tracks (Stem) for the frequency spectrum. And I saw frequencies above 20 kHz there. This means that the quality corresponds to WAV and is higher than that of mp3 320.

  • dannys1
    dannys1 Member Posts: 18 Member

    Hmmm not for me. i've found htdemucs_ft (Demucs v4) does a better job, mainly on the drums. Input source and how complex it is dependant of course. I think with something like minimal techno or basic electronic it's not going to matter.

    I find the RX11/Traktor 4 separation perfectly acceptable though. If you want a bit more control you can just use NUO-STEM 3 and it's basically just as easy as the built in option for Traktor but you're using Demucs v4 instead. At least you can test and find which works best on your source material then.

    If you go really far with UVR5 you can use ensemble mode to create much better extractions - the problem is they then don't tend to blend back together again so it's not really useful for a full stems track, it is good if you want a very high quality acapella on it's own though.

    Traktor though is using AAC. I don't really think it matters in all honesty. No one can hear the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless anyway, especially not on a club system - I only tend to use the lossless just because of the extra processing we do. I'd always go to a lossless if I need to do a remix or some kind of editing for instance. You also of course really don't want to put an MP3 in and get multiple AACs out of it, you've got double compression going on then - but if you start with a lossless file you're going to get results that are perfectly acceptable for anyone.

  • Hirschie
    Hirschie Member Posts: 22 Helper

    Hi,

    is there a column or something with Stem Info for filtering ?

    I would like to create a smartlist for all created STEMS.

  • Owner
    Owner Member Posts: 587 Guru
    edited July 2024

    I'm using a Workaround to do it (also for flexibel grids btw.).

    Second click on a track. Go to edit. Then in the Comments 2 field I use (write) #Stem or #Grid → with a hashtag. And so I an create a smartlist in Traktor with the right criterias.

    With this way I'm able to use this search function in other DJ Applications too. (Write all Tags to file).

  • Hirschie
    Hirschie Member Posts: 22 Helper

    Thank you Owner. Ok, then i have to edit the comments every time i have created a Stem. :-(

    I hope there will be some automatic ways in the next update. Like "is stem = yes" , or something.

  • Owner
    Owner Member Posts: 587 Guru

    You're welcome. Yes, I'm hoping for that too, but for me it's still good. Then I have occupational therapy while I wait for the stem process to be completed and at the same time I maintain my other meta tags, which I often neglect :)

  • Hirschie
    Hirschie Member Posts: 22 Helper

    hehe. so you have more time for tagging your tracks correctly. *g i tag my tracks outside of traktor with mp3tag. i am not using Stem heavily so its ok at the moment . :-)

  • Transmission.today
    Transmission.today Member Posts: 9 Newcomer

    ❌ « "I don't really think it matters in all honesty. No one can hear the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless anyway" »

    I have to respectfully disagree. While it might not be noticeable in every situation, the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless can be significant, especially under the right conditions. If you're just playing music in a garage, sure, it might not matter much. But many people can hear the difference, and it certainly matters to me. When dealing with audio at 1300 kbps versus 256 kbps, the improvement in quality is substantial. For those of us who manipulate pitch with keylock and apply effects, starting with the highest possible quality is crucial. Not everyone is using Traktor for club mixing; some of us are recording sets with high-quality headphones and meticulously working with the finest details of sound. So yes, it matters A LOT.

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