STEMS Comparison | Traktor Pro 4, NUO-STEMS, Serato, Virtual DJ, djay Pro, Rekordbox 7, Logic Pro 11

[@tomhammah5286]

Thank you so much for doing this! This is an incredible effort!

[@turntqble]

Amazing no bullshit video, keep it up

[@michaelkaercher]

For me as a casual DJ Traktor is more then good enough. The stems are fine. I was baffled how bad recordbox was. It is unusable. The only real competition was Virtual DJ. If I would be a pro, I would buy DJ Nuo. It is quite cheap. But again I am dj-ing 2-3 times a year. For me traktor does it. What I love about traktor is that the old hardware is supported. I have two old controllers (Traktor Kontrol S2 MK II and an F1) and both are supported. I can use the F1 for stem control. With the flexible beatgrid and the stems djing of my 70th-90th pop music are becoming much easier because I can adjust the beat grid for those old pop songs for the mixing and blend out voices of one of the tracks during transition. That is now a cool setup and much better for non-edm music. And thanks god still a perpetual license.

[@moreorlesto]

Thanks for doing a very straightforward comparison (AND you included an EQ and audio analyzer! Very pro!). Also appreciate the variety of songs in terms of dynamics, vocals, etc. Rekordbox sounds like a trash fire while VirtualDJ shines with vocals and *some* drums. For me, it's still between Traktor and Nuo Stems... I'd get Traktor Pro 4 for the integration, additional features and "good-enough" stem sound quality, but learning that it saves the files to the main drive (I can't dedicate space to stemming a lot of my music library - 90% of my music is on an external drive) AND with rando character strings instead of the track name? That's a HUGE turnoff for me TBH. I very much wanted the Traktor Beat-gridding to be better - that also looks disappointing in how to apply it (very time consuming from the looks of it). Any chance you could add Beat-Grid creation to Nuo Stems please? 😃

[@DJNUO]

I might look into beatgrids a bit later) currently I’m focused on substantial quality of vocals improvement for next version of NUO STEMS) it will come very soon, hopefully)) Stay tuned for alpha test: facebook.com/groups/nuostems

[@kizombaonlinedateam.7729]

Видео огонь! Благодарю!

[@Jords3199]

Excellent comparison video. Straight to the point, multiple softwares, no messing about. Thanks.

[@ebproduction2501]

Great Video !!! thank you

[@vicvondark]

New sub over here, great video comparison, traktor is great in every way, but logic is amazing, serato and recordbox are garbage...

[@robinhirte]

Nice video, but I miss Serato DJ (much better stem separation then Serato Studio), Izotope RX11 and Steinberg Spectralayers 10 - These are the players these days

[@michaelkaercher]

I think the assumption was that there is no difference between Serato Studio and DJ in matter of technology. Izotope RX11 is used in Traktor. Look it up in the NI intro to Traktor 4. Steinberg is a quite expensive DAW and you need the most expensive version for STEM separation. It would be overkill like buying a Ferrari for using the ash tray.

[@hamiri9159]

Hi guys, I have a question which stem remover you guys recommend for bongo drums?

[@RaphaelRema]

For me NUO-Stems is better for 3 reasons: 1- The first version of Traktor 4 only lets you stem tracks that are on your mais folder, while NUO-Stems can stem any track anywhere. 2- Traktor takes a LONG time to stem a track, and is just one by one and manually. NUO-Stems can do a bunch of them and super fast. 3- Stems takes a lot more space on your disk. Traktor is full of shenanigans saving them with bizarre names. I'm not sure what to do in order to delete them in the future if needed.

[@michaelkaercher]

concur. At least in regard to 1- NI promised to become better. They want to develop a batch feature.

[@nonpondo_]

​@@michaelkaercher yeah that would be good, I think in general it's where virtual dj has an unforeseen advantage compared to the others cause it does it automatically as you load the track in in like under 5 seconds or so, it's a bit of a different workflow

[@Starlin82]

Virtual dj el mejor 🎉

[@DJNUO]

They are all pretty close, but I wouldn't say Virtual DJ is better 😅

[@djcm-djmovila3740]

@@DJNUO oh course is not!

[@Mjm1138]

To my ears it kind of agrees with the analysis from your other video. Nuo-Stems has a slight edge on TP4 for most tracks/categories, Logic Pro is surprisingly good with a couple weaknesses, the "realtime" engines show a significant degradation in quality in every example, and yikes, Rekordbox has a lot of catching up to do.

[@DJNUO]

Yeah, that's my impression as well that SDR correlates with my listening experience :)

[@djLovelyTime]

@@DJNUO This is Traktor's first effort and Nuo's third attempt. I think the difference is very small for Vocals, Drums and Other, but happy to say Nuo has a slight edge. It's very close. Nuo is the clear winner on bass, however. Will be interesting to see how Traktor improves.

[@DjMrGrimM]

How did you get the mp4 file Traktor 4 spits out and import it into Ableton on separate tracks? Ableton is not recognizing the mp4 file as separate STEMS.

[@DJNUO]

I used FFMpeg CLI. "ffmpeg -i YOUR_STEM_FILE -map 0:1 drums.wav". If you're a developer - you'll understand) If not - alternative approach is to use Logic Pro, Adobe Audition or Audacity (though, for this one I'm not sure what's the right process, you'll need to google) Hope it helps :)

[@DjMrGrimM]

@@DJNUO Thank you, really appreciate it!

[@MichaelWayneX33]

algor, nuo, logic, virtual in that order sounds best to me

[@DJNUO]

Check new comparison for even bigger lead of NUO-STEMS 3.1 xD: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYWkfnx6rZ6Mjdk

[@Hello-userr]

do a test, whose scratch sounds better like real vinyl?

[@DJNUO]

I’m not a scratch DJ) so I don’t know what’s the “real” sound 😅

[@Hello-userr]

@@DJNUO where there are fewer digital artifacts when scratching slowly

[@PasqualeCafiero-w1d]

Excellent video! It's seems that TP4 was worth the wait! Already way better than Rekordbox, just slightly worse than Serato. 🎉

[@AdolfoDj]

Jajaja Recordvox siempre detrás de la ambulancia jajaja😅

[@Yeye_1]

I would have expected you to use serato DJ and not studio to be fair. The Serato studio doesn't receive the updates frequently as Serato Dj. And show us the actual software itself

[@DJNUO]

Using Studio was much more convenient to process 100 tracks to do the scientific comparison in the main review video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKnTmYSje66foZI ). Besides it's the newest version & Serato Pro hasn't updated their STEMS for more than half a year.

[@hilkomenke8340]

Funny how in Scientific mode Virtual DJ and Logic Pro seemed to do really well, but whilst listening here Traktor Pro 4 and Nuo Stems 3.0 create the most pleasant Stems to listen to 😋 Rekordbox is just a joke 😅 Serato not much better.. Curious to see how the different DJ Softwares will fare in one or two years and how they will then compare to each other in Stems Audio Quality and Controller Features. You do really want to DJ with stems on a DJ Controller, not fiddling in the software on the laptop 😅 Having listened to them all twice I have to say that to my ears Nuo Stems 3.0 seems to be the most useable, Traktor Pro 4 coming in 2nd 🎉 With all Bass Stems performing way worse than I'd would expect..

[@DJNUO]

Traktor S4 MK3 covers all the STEMS functions that are available on the UI, so not sure what's else to be desired :)

[@hilkomenke8340]

@@DJNUO Indeed S4 MkIII can probably do all the current Stems Software Features of Traktor 4 Pro. I have an S8 where I really like the faders for the individual Stems, 1 for each stem. Same on the D2. Not sure how fading multiple stems at once works on S4 MkIII, if at all possible. One software feature I'd love to see added to Traktor Pro 4 is 2 FX Sends per Deck, so that you can do one effect on one Stem (FX1: Reverb or Echo on Voice) and another effect on another Stem (FX2). Also Loop for individual Stem Channels would be nice, so not Loop the whole song but only Voice Stem and than Fade Out, Filter, FX or Decrease and Increase Loop Size, or only Loop on or more of the other Stems and keep the Vocal or Melody playing without Loop. Stuff like that, new Software Features specifically for Stems as DJ'ing with Stems becomes more and more common.

[@DJNUO]

These are nice suggestions, though UX might be confusing) Second feature I like especially

[@hilkomenke8340]

@@DJNUO Second Feature you can kind of do already right now by starting the same Stems song on Deck A & C simultaneously but it takes a lot more work 😅 Maybe I'll hear it in your next mix on SoundCloud 😁

[@hilkomenke8340]

​@@DJNUOLoop for individual Stem Channel now with Hardware Controls on the new Alpha Theta (Pioneer DJ) Controller DDJ-GRV6. Rekordbox: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4rTgXyVh6mniLM&si=xcXbV7xGg1yTIAV- Serato: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4rTgXyVh6mniLM&si=Y2Egi-1QqZSaD0Ne Exactly as I expected and was hoping for, new options to mix with stems with direct control from the controller hardware. Implementation and audio quality still suck, but it's interesting to see what they come up with. Loop on just Drum or Vocal did sound cool 😊

[@CONTINUUM2]

Heeeey! Where is my Fruity Loops??? (FL Studio 21)

[@DJNUO]

I'll add it to my "TODO" list for future comparisons :)

[@andreavailati8292]

nuo stems always the best and reckordbox always the worse, no news here..surprisingly traktor is VERY good though

[@DJNUO]

Check the updated comparison, it’s even more crazy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGGtqZ9jgNmngMU

[@kudamah]

VDJ wins this on the vocals especially for me in what i'm hearing.

[@mikelo303]

TRaktor is OFFLINE not LIVE so it's kind of cheating

[@kizombaonlinedateam.7729]

It is a new traktor 4, it can do it live

[@DJNUO]

I did "offline" analysis in all the software. But I agree that some of them can do it "live", while Traktor Pro 4 relies on pre-processing

[@Mjm1138]

I think it just demonstrates that there is a noticeable price to be paid for live stem separation, in the form of sound quality. I'm personally glad that Traktor chose quality over convenience in this case. If you have a reasonably good CPU you can separate the stems from a track in a couple minutes, so it could be used in a live situation (in a pinch) even if it isn't "live" stem separation.

[@djloudy]

That's why it sounds so much better

[@expresswayrecords7306]

@@djloudy The question is why would a Dj that uses them not prepare their set or their tracks in advance… Also, it seems as though it’s a one and done situation even if you have to do it in a live situation.

[@karimabraham8366]

Los mejores es para virtual dj , trakto pro 4 deja muchoque desear a dems tarda mucho tiepo en analizar y hacer stems , deja mucho qe desear el nuevo trakto

[@jii4755]

so bad quality @rb

[@jii4755]

rekordbox terrible sound quality😢never be playable

[@DJNUO]

Check this new comparison: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYWkfnx6rZ6Mjdk Rekordbox 7.0.4 with updated stems is actually pretty decent now :-)

[@evetalbot5696]

Serato and Virtual DJ give an echoey reverb effect that I don't like. Plus Virtual DJ has too much bleed through of other elements. Traktor has nice punchy drums, and really good vocals, Nuo Stems gives slightly warmer vocals. Neural Mix is very good, vocals are clearer but not as warm as Traktor/Nuo and a bit more distortion. Neural captures more of the drums but less punchy. None of them capture bass well but Traktor captures the depth, Serato is hit and miss. To rank well RB is god awful, then Serato there is a lot of emptiness there. Virtual DJ next but Id say there is way more bleed through of other elements and less isolation. Neural Mix next, decent overall, vocals are very good, drums lack as much punch as... Tractor which overall was very good. Ive used Traktor and Djay Pro. Djay Pro is lightning fast ( as is VDJ ). Traktor doesn't auto stem plus it takes longer, 1-2 mins Nuo is slightly better than Traktor. I think Traktor probably uses Nuo to do stems, very similar Logic is at the top across the board which is to be expected i guess. Neuro 2.0 must win because of sheer speed/quality ratio. Neuro 1.0 is not as good though ( windows version ) Traktor is very new so be interesting to see auto stem or batch function or just a bit quicker.

[@DJNUO]

I wonder what's your opinion on updated STEMS across the board: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYWkfnx6rZ6Mjdk

[@evetalbot5696]

@@DJNUO Thanks for the link. Vocals sound great. I have Nuo Stems so will download the update l. Ive got Demucs as well but its not the greatest UI. I'll have a play around on 3.1, im not redoing everything though but might reconvert my main ones if they sound better than demucs. There are so many variables on demucs though it's hard to know which will be best until you try them. Nuo stems is what I use with Traktor though. Live stems on Traktor I think uses Izotope stems separation which seems to be very similar to Nuo. I have RIPX as well which I tend to use for studio stuff as there is a few more options to edit stuff. Menu system looks good as well. Did you redo all 2000 tracks btw ??

[@evetalbot5696]

Also does tying the original to the stems fully work with Traktor on load up ? I posted about this on the forums.