Native Instruments Has Developed a New Audio Format.
A new audio format called Stems will be rolled out over the coming months. It was developed by Native Instruments and introduced by the company last week at WMC in Miami. The idea behind it, as the format's name suggests, is to make more parts of the music available to DJs and producers to manipulate. Four "stems"—bass, drums, melody and vocals, for example—will live within the file and can be accessed individually and modified independently.
A DJ, then, could mix from one track to the next by blending between stems instead of the entire track using volume and EQ. Stem files will first be usable beginning this summer on NI's Traktor digital DJing platform, but the format isn't proprietary—"anyone will be able to create, perform with, and distribute Stems in any way possible," the press release states, an a free app called the Stem Creator Tool will help with creating the files. NI promises more information on Stems at the beginning of this summer.