one of the reasons I've switched to Djay Pro AI is the way STEMS is implemented. using the EQ knobs to fade out/in the STEMS is, for me a game changer in the way I mix and blend tracks together.
Yeah, I agree that on/off stem buttons/pads have limited use for mixing. But it was back in 2020, before any other software had stems, that VirtualDJ pioneered using EQs to dial them in (called EZRemix). It has completely changed the way I mix for the last 4.5 years.
Being a turntabalist for over 45 yrs, only person can tell is other djs, most people just want to hear their jams, they dont care about sound or even people that hv crappy speaker systems lol
I’m going to add to that. If you are using parts of things to sample from or make a worthy track to be listened to outside of the clubs. Then you want quality. Drunk people in a club might care or mostly not. But listeners on headphones at home might care about stuttering vocals or bleed of other artifacts that don’t work well in key with another song being mixed.
As a user of all (except Traktor) in my experience and use with multiple tracks, and based off your test track. I am right there with you. 1. Algoriddimg Djay 2. Virtual DJ (although in some tracks I believe VDJ and Djay can swap back and fourth) 3. Traktor (although I only heard this comparison on Traktor) 4. Serato (Again I believe that different tracks Serato and tractor could jump back and fourth, I thought I heard more artifacts on Serato) 5. Pioneer (A Major step up from their first release of stems, but still behind..usable) 6. Engine DJ (Great first release, mostly usable, will get better in future, but at a price of having to rescan and re-export, anytime an improvement is made) To my old ears. In the mix all 6 are usable in live mixing situations. Great demo Phil, thank you.
Personally, I thought the drums by themselves sounded really good on Serato. I only use stems to strip away all but the drums for mixing purposes anyway. So I’ll just keep using Serato. Thanks for taking the time to make this video! 🤘🏼
Yes agreed - they're all getting close and the decisions made by the software companies dictate how much attention is given to drums, instruments, vocals etc more than anything at this point.
I’ve used VDJ before with stems but it was about 3yrs ago and I know they’ve improved since then. I’ve used Serato stems and they sounded nice. Also Rekordbox which needed to be updated and they did update pretty well. I now have djay pro but I haven’t messed with it as of yet. I’ll be messing with them this week to test them all here at home now that I have a little break. Thank you for the video Phil!!!
I think it should've been #1. It did the acapella a bit better than the other one. Sure the drum were a tiny bit better but to be honest, people use instrumental/acapella more often than the others.
As a current engine os user i think vdj has it so far . Great comparison, review. But also it depends on the track and when it was produced ( time wise)ex. year ect . and who produced the track.
I listened to this through my DJ set up and I think I have to agree with your ratings. However personally I'd say VDJ has the best vocal separation overall, the other stems are done better by DjayPro , but not by much. The real comparison I'd love to see and I'm sure others will too, is who has the least resource intensive version of stems - it would be great info for those with older computers.
place 1 & 2 is what i enjoy the most too. they do the job best for me. sometimes using UVR5 (free / open source) with different models to absolutely get the finest out of a flac/wav when doing a remix. thanx phil.
Hi Phil, many thanks for another long-awaited comparison. Please offer any thoughts about stand-alone non-dj stem separation software (apps, DAWs, online services etc) ... keep up the good work!!
One "dirty little secret" of this game is that they all use the same tech underneath, the big advantage of standalone apps is that they don't have to do it in real time so you can have more control over the quality. RipX is good, iZotope too.
Honestly they all sounded about on par for me. I've been starting to use stems in my mixes (Rekordbox) and its been a joy now that the quality has been stepped up. Some of the bleeding / isolation of a stem doesn't really come through depending on what else you are mixing the track with.
I’m 100 percent with you only commercial grade stems sound great all these software companies are not there yet some tracks sound good and other horrible
Good comparison, agree with your rankings (I'm a Traktor user). The looped section used for the demo also shows how you can create your own phrasing just by removing (or adding) elements within a short loop, which i think is often overlooked. I expect the stem course you advertised goes into this in more detail.
I came out with pretty much exactly in the same ranks as you, for pretty much the same reasons. I'd be ok using any of those on the instrumental side, but I probably wouldn't use an acapella from Engine or Rekordbox. And yes, I'm using stems all the time! I actually switched from Serato to DJay, partially for the hardware support, but also because I liked the sound of the stems better. Anyway, I play a weekly online show and a monthly club night, and I've found that even if I'm not trying to do anything "tricksy sounding," stems are a great way to make a transition just sound like the natural progression of a track. For example, maybe after a breakdown, I've swapped out the drums for a loop from the next track, then I de-loop and bring in the vocals after the current track's vocals are done, and at that point all I have to fade over is the instruments, but with everything else already in place it just sounds incredibly smooth and seamless compared to the EQ juggling I would have done in the past. Though of course, they're also great for those tricksy transitions when the fancy strikes!
Would be cool to test against DJ Studio, even though its not for live performance, just curious as they are doing some pretty cool things, and be to see their quality level
I say my list is close to yours Phil, but I would probably swap 5 and 6. Denon is better than most on their first iteration, but still have some catching up. That being said I still prefer instrument bleed over, as that is less noticable when mixing, while taking away too much vocals is more noticable when mixing. I am pretty blown away at DJAY Pro's iteration. Be interested to see the STEM performance at the midyear mark. 😂
Ive got a DDJ-400 and Denon MCX-8000... with a choice of Rekordbox, Engine, Serato, Virtual DJ or DJay Pro (paid version). What do I use... 80% DJaY Pro on ipad with MCX 8000. 20% VDJ on laptop if i dont need decks as im just playing background music for an event. Upgraded my ipad from an ipad pro v1 to a v5 with the M1 chip, and is purely for DJing with Djay. But controlled by the MCX-8000 It works lovely with the 3 top FX mapped to channel FX, channel filters mapped to stems, with shift to use standard lo mid hi, pads for on off of stems and FX. Plus ipad screen for touch control of the XY filters. Stems that good i can do a in key live mix on songs ive not pracised with. Drop the vocals on track 1, acapella track 2, filters and off we go.
@digitaldjtips What type of music file was that track? mp3, flac, aiff? My order was essentially the same as yours, I had Serato 3rd after DJPro and VDJ... I am a serato user, and have found the quality of stems and separation is dependent on the source material. Foir me, Lossless files split much cleaner without bleeding using Serato DJ Pro. Interesting topic... thank you sir.
For me: 1. VDJ - 5 separate stems not 4/3, crisp clean sound to blend with another track 2. DJay Pro - clean as well but only 4 stems (no hi-hat control along w the rest) 3. Serato - marginally better than Traktor but still sounds mid 4. Traktor - marginally better than EDJ but more mid than Serato 5. Engine DJ - Super bleedy, super mid 6. Rekordbox - 3 stems…need I say more?
Are there specific sotwares for specific OS systems to pre analyze tracks and have the stems ready for import, or does each ecosystem (Serato, Rekordbox, DJay pro, etc.) accept just a specific type of stem files? I would like to my whole music library and have them prepared for whatever next mixer I decide to buy, therefore my question.
Stems all depends on how the track was recorded and varies from genre and artist. I got the best separation from Modest Mouse, how ever they recorded there music made the stems very clear.
Rekordbox Stems are sounding much better now than they used to back when RB7 came out. I hope to see Denon keep working on improvements on their Stems since I know they just recently implemented the feature.
I think it should be noted that the underlying technology used to split stems is essentially the same. It comes down to compression and quality of the training set data used.
Wow!!! Djay Pro beat VDJ. But I ain’t gonna lie am starting to like Algoriddim Djay. I been using it for a few home practices and i gotta say the software is good. But it feels like sometime it’s AI doing the task.
The dynamic beat grid is amazing too. I gave it a try, but overall the app is still very basic and missing so many features that I use in VirtualDJ. I think it will get there eventually and I'm willing to give it another try later. VirtualDJ has had decades to mature.
@@paxwebb I been using VDJ for quite a while now and I do love it. But I think VDJ should adapt the X/Y effects pad option like what Djay Pro has. Another thing I notice.... it seems like Djay Pro analyses keys better than VDJ
Hopefully engine will get better at the pre processing as (correct me if I'm wrong) that is the only version you can use on a standalone unit? I pretty much immediately took a liking to stems a few years ago when I first saw them and they have only got better since.
I think I might agree with you. I think with DJAYs version of stems I'm more so surprised they have improved so much. I thought for sure they would be a bottom 2
@@slopiijoe Djay and VDJ were number 1 and 2 last year too. But I really don't like the VDJ instrumental at 08:34. Sounds terrible compared to the others to me.
I think they all do instrumental & drum & bass however stem acapella’s are always tricky. I think it really depends on the track. I’m an open format DJ & mix everything however 70’s - 90’s tracks are always tricky with stems
@@digitaldjtipsThat's why you should at least give Nuo Stems 3.1 with Insane quality a try. It's free to test. I hope soon Nuo Stems generated Stem files can also be used on VDJ and Engine DJ. For now the generated files can be used in Traktor, or you can choose to create seperate files for each stem.
Just starting the DJ road, learning in rekordbox at the moment and no where near to start using stems, but listening to them in rekordbox leaves a lot to be desired
thanks for the great comparison 👌 - I would have voted for both Virtual DJ and DJ Pro on 1st but they are still far away from being perfect. But for sure I do understand how difficult it is to optimize algorithms to provide perfect results for all this different kind of music thats out there. Hope that the most used DJ software Rekordbox and Serato quickly make progress in the STEMS area as quality is more important than the feature itself and looking forward into the future of AI to get this thing "perfect" one day. Last thing I would really be interested in is how this really sounds on a really huge and powerful PA setup with dozens of speakers at a huge festival? Is it usable or would you rather ruin your gig?
I would still consider Virtual DJ #1 in stems for me, because I can access it in my Windows laptop. If Algoriddim Djay can implement the same stems workflow on their Windows platform, I would be surprised and maybe I can give that a try someday. I don't do care much about the quality, as long as the stems on apps can be accessible on both Mac and Windows platforms.
I'd be interested in hearing DJay Pro Vs. Virtual DJ on a windows machine I"m thinking VDJ would come out on top, given that Algoriddim is so Apple-centric
This was exactly what I was looking for. I have struggled with which had the Stems that worked the best. The way you time-stamped these to allow us to toggle between them and compare was perfect. Thank you for that. Personally, the Virtual DJ sounded great to me. Acapella's is what I was most interested in to be able to mash-up songs. Virtual sounded the cleanest to me. Thanks for sharing this!
To my ears VDJ sounds best. With Djay Pro I'm not sure the Sum of Stems actually sounds the same as the original song. Djay Pro seems to have some sort of processing going on hiding the artifacts but reducing clarity, muddying/suppressing certain sounds. Somebody mentioned on VDJ Hi-Hats sound the best; They sound more suppressed on Djay Pro, but also on Melody. Same for the artifacts on Djay Pro, they are present but sound suppressed. Djay Pro artifacts @7m45s @7m51 @8m09. It just sounds weird at those moments. Virtual DJ sounds more complete, cohesive, less distracting (Apart from VDJ Acapella Male Voice, beginning of Scratching parts sound weird and distracting, some Instruments ended up in the Vocal stem there..) I'm very happy with Nuo Stems, and really curious to see how stems features will be implemented in Software and new (Modular) controllers in 2025/2026. VDJ software really impresses me, but I don't like the waveform view that gives no clue at all about the Stem Structure of the song. Same for Djay Pro. Waveform fade away if you lower stem volume or mute a stem. Traktor Pro waveform shows song structure for each stem, so you have a much better visual representation of the individual stems in the song.
Djay Pro is the best period. I've been on stems even creating my own app before Traktor Stems even dropped. Djay Pro really needs to be adapted into CDJ players so Dj's can use it on pro gear rather than just Controllers.
@@digitaldjtips Yes but most pros would love it if it were built into the mixer controllers or cdj themselves. Then all you had to do is use the usb without a computer.
I thought Traktors acapella was best, it was the only one that picked up & played the scratch before the rap, plus sounded better. The best quality though would be the track released in stems from the producer, why doesn't this occur more even just for DJ use, from dj pools?
⚡ TIMESTAMPS ⚡
00:00 Intro
00:32 The demo track
02:00 Test overview
04:10 Rekordbox - instrumental
04:29 Rekordbox - drums
04:46 Rekordbox - acapella
05:05 Serato - instrumental
05:22 Serato - drums & bass
05:39 Serato - drums
05:56 Serato - acapella
06:14 Traktor - instrumental
06:32 Traktor - drums & bass
06:49 Traktor - drums
07:06 Traktor - acapella
07:24 Djay Pro - instrumental
07:41 Djay Pro - drums & bass
07:59 Djay Pro - drums
08:16 Djay Pro - acapella
08:34 VirtualDJ - instrumental
08:51 VirtualDJ - drums & bass
09:09 VirtualDJ - drums
09:26 VirtualDJ - acapella
09:44 Engine DJ - instrumental
10:02 Engine DJ - drums & bass
10:19 Engine DJ - drums
10:36 Engine DJ - acapella
10:54 Which sounds best?
15:31 How to DJ with stems
Read the full guide: www.digitaldjtips.com/best-sounding-stems-2025/
How To Mix With Acapellas (& Stems): djtips.co/stems
This was a great comparison!
Thanks
Algoriddim kills it. Again. Luv it!
Yes!!!!
one of the reasons I've switched to Djay Pro AI is the way STEMS is implemented. using the EQ knobs to fade out/in the STEMS is, for me a game changer in the way I mix and blend tracks together.
Couldn‘t agree more.
You are definitely not alone there! We concentrated on sound quality here above all else though.
I can do that on flx10 with rekordbox too
Yeah, I agree that on/off stem buttons/pads have limited use for mixing. But it was back in 2020, before any other software had stems, that VirtualDJ pioneered using EQs to dial them in (called EZRemix). It has completely changed the way I mix for the last 4.5 years.
My REV7 has this feature on Serato as well
Being a turntabalist for over 45 yrs, only person can tell is other djs, most people just want to hear their jams, they dont care about sound or even people that hv crappy speaker systems lol
Agree with your pragmatism more or less, although chasing good sound quality is worth at least a bit of time and effort.
@@digitaldjtips For us djs and music audiophiles in general worth it 100%, if I am not happy with the sound, my customers cant neither! :)
I’m going to add to that. If you are using parts of things to sample from or make a worthy track to be listened to outside of the clubs. Then you want quality.
Drunk people in a club might care or mostly not. But listeners on headphones at home might care about stuttering vocals or bleed of other artifacts that don’t work well in key with another song being mixed.
On vdj stems when I want vocals only I add the hi hat stem to the vocal stem and it comes out alot more clear
Great idea, thanks for sharing!
Phil out here reading our minds of what we would like to see next in a video... made my day!
i started on vinyl many eons ago so this all amazing to me
Indeed!
Thank you Phill didn’t know you were live but I caught the replay mate . 🙏🙌💪🔥🔥🔥
It wasn't a live, so you didn't miss anything!
Stems are soooo useful especially when you want to turn a vocal off and mix out !
Great for clashing vocals, agreed!
As a user of all (except Traktor) in my experience and use with multiple tracks, and based off your test track. I am right there with you.
1. Algoriddimg Djay
2. Virtual DJ (although in some tracks I believe VDJ and Djay can swap back and fourth)
3. Traktor (although I only heard this comparison on Traktor)
4. Serato (Again I believe that different tracks Serato and tractor could jump back and fourth, I thought I heard more artifacts on Serato)
5. Pioneer (A Major step up from their first release of stems, but still behind..usable)
6. Engine DJ (Great first release, mostly usable, will get better in future, but at a price of having to rescan and re-export, anytime an improvement is made)
To my old ears. In the mix all 6 are usable in live mixing situations. Great demo Phil, thank you.
Good to know you agree!
i LOVE DJAY PRO, i use it for all my major gigs
Good to hear!
Personally, I thought the drums by themselves sounded really good on Serato. I only use stems to strip away all but the drums for mixing purposes anyway. So I’ll just keep using Serato.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video! 🤘🏼
Yes agreed - they're all getting close and the decisions made by the software companies dictate how much attention is given to drums, instruments, vocals etc more than anything at this point.
I’ve used VDJ before with stems but it was about 3yrs ago and I know they’ve improved since then.
I’ve used Serato stems and they sounded nice.
Also Rekordbox which needed to be updated and they did update pretty well.
I now have djay pro but I haven’t messed with it as of yet.
I’ll be messing with them this week to test them all here at home now that I have a little break.
Thank you for the video Phil!!!
Good news is they all sound pretty good nowadays Benny!
@ yes and it’s only going to get better every time!
Totally agree Love dj pro but love serato. Stems is such a game changer . The innovation is so mind blowing. Well done GOAT! Amazing Live 💪🙌🙏
Thanks! Stems are a huge game-changer.
VDJ king on top as always 🤞🏽
I think it should've been #1. It did the acapella a bit better than the other one. Sure the drum were a tiny bit better but to be honest, people use instrumental/acapella more often than the others.
Yes!!! Yes!!! Virtual DJ! King of innovation! STEM SWAP Killer!
this is one the crazy feature of vdj. my imagination is too weak for it
Djay pro baby!!!
As a current engine os user i think vdj has it so far . Great comparison, review. But also it depends on the track and when it was produced ( time wise)ex. year ect . and who produced the track.
Yeah of course - we could have spent a week making this and we only had a day!
The result is just valid for this song because with other songs it could look completely different.
I agree. Rating the performance based on just one song suboptimal.
Agreed but we only had a day so choose a song that we knew would properly test them all
I Concur Phil, I agree thats why I use it.
I listened to this through my DJ set up and I think I have to agree with your ratings. However personally I'd say VDJ has the best vocal separation overall, the other stems are done better by DjayPro , but not by much. The real comparison I'd love to see and I'm sure others will too, is who has the least resource intensive version of stems - it would be great info for those with older computers.
Serato is least intensive for decent sounding stems.
Vdj needs a designated GPU for stems 2.0.
Good call on the resource-intensive aspect! We just stuck with audio quality for this. Truth: They all are very resource intensive.
place 1 & 2 is what i enjoy the most too. they do the job best for me. sometimes using UVR5 (free / open source) with different models to absolutely get the finest out of a flac/wav when doing a remix. thanx phil.
We love UVR :)
Hi Phil, many thanks for another long-awaited comparison. Please offer any thoughts about stand-alone non-dj stem separation software (apps, DAWs, online services etc) ... keep up the good work!!
One "dirty little secret" of this game is that they all use the same tech underneath, the big advantage of standalone apps is that they don't have to do it in real time so you can have more control over the quality. RipX is good, iZotope too.
Yes, that's exactly the top 6 👍
I agree. Love djay❤
Honestly they all sounded about on par for me.
I've been starting to use stems in my mixes (Rekordbox) and its been a joy now that the quality has been stepped up. Some of the bleeding / isolation of a stem doesn't really come through depending on what else you are mixing the track with.
I’m 100 percent with you only commercial grade stems sound great all these software companies are not there yet some tracks sound good and other horrible
Exactly, in real life situations, nowadays all can do the job.
All sounded very usable tbh, even the denon had a good try all things considered. Great comparison video
Glad to have helped, and they're definitely all moving in the right direction, David.
Good comparison, agree with your rankings (I'm a Traktor user). The looped section used for the demo also shows how you can create your own phrasing just by removing (or adding) elements within a short loop, which i think is often overlooked. I expect the stem course you advertised goes into this in more detail.
Ooooh it does indeed!
Nice review. To me, the Virtual DJ acapella sounded best
Thanks for sharing!
I came out with pretty much exactly in the same ranks as you, for pretty much the same reasons. I'd be ok using any of those on the instrumental side, but I probably wouldn't use an acapella from Engine or Rekordbox.
And yes, I'm using stems all the time! I actually switched from Serato to DJay, partially for the hardware support, but also because I liked the sound of the stems better. Anyway, I play a weekly online show and a monthly club night, and I've found that even if I'm not trying to do anything "tricksy sounding," stems are a great way to make a transition just sound like the natural progression of a track. For example, maybe after a breakdown, I've swapped out the drums for a loop from the next track, then I de-loop and bring in the vocals after the current track's vocals are done, and at that point all I have to fade over is the instruments, but with everything else already in place it just sounds incredibly smooth and seamless compared to the EQ juggling I would have done in the past.
Though of course, they're also great for those tricksy transitions when the fancy strikes!
Yes - you hear this an awful lot nowadays on radio mixes as you say.
for me its dj studio always come out crisp and clear
This was about testing DJ performance software though.
vdj is and will be next year and beyond> best software for DJs period
You are on point Phil. Even if I am pro VDJ I completely agree with you in your assessment.
They're all very good though David, it's getting harder to spot an awful lot of difference year-on-year.
Would be cool to test against DJ Studio, even though its not for live performance, just curious as they are doing some pretty cool things, and be to see their quality level
Might have to do a separate video on that one, we tied just to performance DJ software here.
Stems realtime mixing with Djay Pro together with fluid beatgrid is world class!
It is - they're a great combination.
I say my list is close to yours Phil, but I would probably swap 5 and 6.
Denon is better than most on their first iteration, but still have some catching up. That being said I still prefer instrument bleed over, as that is less noticable when mixing, while taking away too much vocals is more noticable when mixing.
I am pretty blown away at DJAY Pro's iteration. Be interested to see the STEM performance at the midyear mark. 😂
I tend to agree with you on acapellas - a bit of instrument bleed is no big deal.
Ive got a DDJ-400 and Denon MCX-8000... with a choice of Rekordbox, Engine, Serato, Virtual DJ or DJay Pro (paid version).
What do I use...
80% DJaY Pro on ipad with MCX 8000.
20% VDJ on laptop if i dont need decks as im just playing background music for an event.
Upgraded my ipad from an ipad pro v1 to a v5 with the M1 chip, and is purely for DJing with Djay. But controlled by the MCX-8000 It works lovely with the 3 top FX mapped to channel FX, channel filters mapped to stems, with shift to use standard lo mid hi, pads for on off of stems and FX. Plus ipad screen for touch control of the XY filters.
Stems that good i can do a in key live mix on songs ive not pracised with. Drop the vocals on track 1, acapella track 2, filters and off we go.
Sounds like you've got it exactly how you want it, well done!
Might be good to add the ranking from previous year next time, to see if any of the software got worst or improved in this regard. :)
Noted!
Agree as I use all and test myself
Great!
@digitaldjtips What type of music file was that track? mp3, flac, aiff? My order was essentially the same as yours, I had Serato 3rd after DJPro and VDJ... I am a serato user, and have found the quality of stems and separation is dependent on the source material. Foir me, Lossless files split much cleaner without bleeding using Serato DJ Pro. Interesting topic... thank you sir.
320 MP3 (chosen as that is what nearly all our students use)
For me:
1. VDJ - 5 separate stems not 4/3, crisp clean sound to blend with another track
2. DJay Pro - clean as well but only 4 stems (no hi-hat control along w the rest)
3. Serato - marginally better than Traktor but still sounds mid
4. Traktor - marginally better than EDJ but more mid than Serato
5. Engine DJ - Super bleedy, super mid
6. Rekordbox - 3 stems…need I say more?
NuoStems, a 3rd party stem maker for Traktor (and VDJ at least on Windows, not tested on Mac), sounds better than any of these.
Came here to say exactly this!
Yes, should of tested at least the best third party stem separation software, including DAW's that have it.
Vdj stems on an m1 or later is perfect
We limited to performance DJ software here
Nope, idea with this every year is DJ performance software, lots of production sites cover the others very well.
Are there specific sotwares for specific OS systems to pre analyze tracks and have the stems ready for import, or does each ecosystem (Serato, Rekordbox, DJay pro, etc.) accept just a specific type of stem files? I would like to my whole music library and have them prepared for whatever next mixer I decide to buy, therefore my question.
Specific for each platform
VDJ sounded way better than all the others should have been No.01
Stems all depends on how the track was recorded and varies from genre and artist. I got the best separation from Modest Mouse, how ever they recorded there music made the stems very clear.
Yes, that's very true!
Good ears Phil, I scored it same as you
Good stuff Ronald!
Rekordbox Stems are sounding much better now than they used to back when RB7 came out. I hope to see Denon keep working on improvements on their Stems since I know they just recently implemented the feature.
They do indeed
I think it should be noted that the underlying technology used to split stems is essentially the same. It comes down to compression and quality of the training set data used.
Yes, indeed.
For what's it's worth is the song file a WAV, MP3...? Would this make any difference? Thanks @digitaldjtips 👌🏼
Maybe, but it should be imperceptible compared to the loss due to stem making anyway. Unless you have bad quality mp3s
320 MP3
Wow!!! Djay Pro beat VDJ. But I ain’t gonna lie am starting to like Algoriddim Djay. I been using it for a few home practices and i gotta say the software is good. But it feels like sometime it’s AI doing the task.
I agree
The dynamic beat grid is amazing too. I gave it a try, but overall the app is still very basic and missing so many features that I use in VirtualDJ. I think it will get there eventually and I'm willing to give it another try later. VirtualDJ has had decades to mature.
@@paxwebb I been using VDJ for quite a while now and I do love it. But I think VDJ should adapt the X/Y effects pad option like what Djay Pro has. Another thing I notice.... it seems like Djay Pro analyses keys better than VDJ
Cost denon or pioneer
Djay Pro only Mac version of it, does the IOS not support it or how does it work there?
Yes, there are versions for other platforms, but the one we tested was the Mac one
Hopefully engine will get better at the pre processing as (correct me if I'm wrong) that is the only version you can use on a standalone unit?
I pretty much immediately took a liking to stems a few years ago when I first saw them and they have only got better since.
They have indeed Danny!
What audio files are they mp3 or wave, aiff?, and stems ...what can i say, options are endless, on the fly mash ups!...love the flexibility
320 MP3
How about DJ Studio?
Not DJ performance software
Virtual DJ still king of the stems! Should be the number 1!
I think I might agree with you. I think with DJAYs version of stems I'm more so surprised they have improved so much. I thought for sure they would be a bottom 2
Vdj 100%✓
@@slopiijoe Djay and VDJ were number 1 and 2 last year too. But I really don't like the VDJ instrumental at 08:34. Sounds terrible compared to the others to me.
Nah. Algoriddim DJay Pro was way better. 😊
I agree. Vdj is the best.
I think they all do instrumental & drum & bass however stem acapella’s are always tricky. I think it really depends on the track. I’m an open format DJ & mix everything however 70’s - 90’s tracks are always tricky with stems
Agreed, acapellas are what really test these algorithms.
@@digitaldjtipsThat's why you should at least give Nuo Stems 3.1 with Insane quality a try. It's free to test. I hope soon Nuo Stems generated Stem files can also be used on VDJ and Engine DJ. For now the generated files can be used in Traktor, or you can choose to create seperate files for each stem.
Just starting the DJ road, learning in rekordbox at the moment and no where near to start using stems, but listening to them in rekordbox leaves a lot to be desired
Are you running the latest version of Rekordbox?
what about multiple source on denon? can you cooy files (including STEMS) from SD card to SSD drive and usb? video for that?
We're not deep-diving on features here, purely comparing sound quality.
VDJ started it and keep improving on EVERYTHING.
VDJ and Djay, on the same day as it happens!
thanks for the great comparison 👌 - I would have voted for both Virtual DJ and DJ Pro on 1st but they are still far away from being perfect. But for sure I do understand how difficult it is to optimize algorithms to provide perfect results for all this different kind of music thats out there. Hope that the most used DJ software Rekordbox and Serato quickly make progress in the STEMS area as quality is more important than the feature itself and looking forward into the future of AI to get this thing "perfect" one day.
Last thing I would really be interested in is how this really sounds on a really huge and powerful PA setup with dozens of speakers at a huge festival? Is it usable or would you rather ruin your gig?
Remember these are used in the mix, not played individually, so would usually sound fine.
@@digitaldjtips Thanks for your feedback and keep up the great work, really love your channel. 😀👍👍
For me its very close between Traktor and Denon!
DJay Pro is the best for having stem fader volumes to balance levels when mixing 16 stems.
Lots of people like this
Virtual dj for me
That was a great comparison.
They all sounded best when it was just Drums & Bass 😂
Glad you liked it!
DJ Pro's implementation demonstrates their expertise.
Indeed, they're an advanced company for sure
Again I stand corrected. I love djay pro!
Cool :)
I would still consider Virtual DJ #1 in stems for me, because I can access it in my Windows laptop. If Algoriddim Djay can implement the same stems workflow on their Windows platform, I would be surprised and maybe I can give that a try someday. I don't do care much about the quality, as long as the stems on apps can be accessible on both Mac and Windows platforms.
Have you tried their Windows version recently?
@@digitaldjtips yes but i use it for a short time, because I'm still used to VirtualDJ, and I was a bit unfamiliar with the interface
Djay Pro 💯👍
Off subject but I really want these dj apps to work on steam os
Can u imagine having the steam deck under your decks with a touch screen over your desk
i said it before the results were read out, 1st and second would be between djay and virtual.
You were right, Reuben!
Hopefully helpful Obvious tip: Ripping a track from cd to wav gets the best results when extracting stems from a song
For sure
Traktor ❤
I'd be interested in hearing DJay Pro Vs. Virtual DJ on a windows machine
I"m thinking VDJ would come out on top, given that Algoriddim is so Apple-centric
Algoriddim has been working hard on its non-Mac platforms recently, so probably worth a test!
what about AKAI STEMS?
AKAI do not make DJ equipment?
Based on the audio from this video I thought Traktor just edged it, with VDJ and DJPro very close behind.
Thanks for sharing!
This was exactly what I was looking for. I have struggled with which had the Stems that worked the best. The way you time-stamped these to allow us to toggle between them and compare was perfect. Thank you for that.
Personally, the Virtual DJ sounded great to me. Acapella's is what I was most interested in to be able to mash-up songs. Virtual sounded the cleanest to me. Thanks for sharing this!
Glad to help you find the best stems!
Check DJ Nuo videos for more comparisons. He compares more tracks, and sorts them per stem a d not per software.
I have Denon and like it, but it's not the best. Great when it takes out the vocal. But vocal alone is weak! Great video!
Thanks!
All workable tho 👌
If Akai are using the same thing In there MPC’s Denon is the best.
Well, it isn't here.
Virtual Dj win and Serato second but people can get bios to what they are using so a hard ask
Indeed!
virtualdj for me
👍👍👍👍👍
thats pretty much how i see stems....VDJ & Algoriddim
Djay pro🎉
The high hat definitely sounded best so far on vdj
Good spot!
Only stem fx's are preventing me of switching from serato to djay
Yeah they are pretty cool!
To my ears VDJ sounds best. With Djay Pro I'm not sure the Sum of Stems actually sounds the same as the original song. Djay Pro seems to have some sort of processing going on hiding the artifacts but reducing clarity, muddying/suppressing certain sounds. Somebody mentioned on VDJ Hi-Hats sound the best; They sound more suppressed on Djay Pro, but also on Melody. Same for the artifacts on Djay Pro, they are present but sound suppressed. Djay Pro artifacts @7m45s @7m51 @8m09. It just sounds weird at those moments. Virtual DJ sounds more complete, cohesive, less distracting (Apart from VDJ Acapella Male Voice, beginning of Scratching parts sound weird and distracting, some Instruments ended up in the Vocal stem there..)
I'm very happy with Nuo Stems, and really curious to see how stems features will be implemented in Software and new (Modular) controllers in 2025/2026. VDJ software really impresses me, but I don't like the waveform view that gives no clue at all about the Stem Structure of the song. Same for Djay Pro. Waveform fade away if you lower stem volume or mute a stem. Traktor Pro waveform shows song structure for each stem, so you have a much better visual representation of the individual stems in the song.
Thanks so much for sharing these detailed thoughts. We should look at Nuo Stems
Vdj is the best
Told ya Djay is the best!!
Djay Pro is the best period. I've been on stems even creating my own app before Traktor Stems even dropped. Djay Pro really needs to be adapted into CDJ players so Dj's can use it on pro gear rather than just Controllers.
You can, as long as you run it on a connected laptop
@@digitaldjtips Yes but most pros would love it if it were built into the mixer controllers or cdj themselves. Then all you had to do is use the usb without a computer.
I thought Traktors acapella was best, it was the only one that picked up & played the scratch before the rap, plus sounded better.
The best quality though would be the track released in stems from the producer, why doesn't this occur more even just for DJ use, from dj pools?
It would of course, but we can't usually get those! Thanks for your feedback
Rekordbox and Serato user. I thought Traktor sounded the best. Was using some jbl Bluetooth speakers
Traktor was probably the most CONSISTENT across all the variants.
Dj Pro Sounds good but i will go with virtual Dj
Serato acapella sounds the worst to me. Which is unfortunate being a Serato user.
Don’t worry your dance floor won’t care I’m more than happy with the Serato Stems
Not even close...VDJ 2025 rules the STEMS capacities.
TRAKTOR is King!
the AKAI was the best one
not recordbox ,not vdj last time i looked .Its a toss up between Algorriddim and Serato. Serato of course is not subscription only.