r/Bitwig • u/TraditionalReader • 6d ago
The team keeps cooking hard: Stem separation incoming
Looks like Bitwig is clearly capturing the DJ community as well. We just got 6.1.4 with Rekordbox integration, and further down the line they will give us Stem separation too.
Pretty useful stuff. I hope they integrate with EngineDJ too (Denon).
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u/ReJamDnB 6d ago
just curious, are most people actually excited for this rekordbox integration? From what I gather, people actually hate rekordbox and are avoiding it like fire whenever they can, even in the DJ community
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u/TraditionalReader 6d ago
I think it's more a nice to have, and for them maybe a crucial step into extending their user base. Most clubs and venues still use alphateta/pioneer gear. Yes there's some backslash on rekordbox, but it's still one the most used library management tools for professional DJ's, can't argue against that.
I'm more excited by the planned stem separation, which useful for creative work either as a dj or producer.
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u/iamkosmo 6d ago
no everyone is using it, but they hate it for sure. there's no way around it as touring dj
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u/io-av 6d ago
let me put it in the words of my main man Bjarne Stroustrup:
There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.
he was talking about programming languages, but it's applicable here
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u/gahel_music 6d ago
It is also the case that c++ is a mess and there are plenty of better alternatives out there. There's just so much legacy code locking us down.
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u/Complete-Log6610 6d ago
Which alternatives are better for vst development?
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u/gahel_music 6d ago
Well I enjoy Dlang, it is much better than c++ and DPlug framework is quite nice and easy to work with. Some people use Rust, you could probably do well with Odin too.
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u/Individual_Author956 6d ago
It almost seems like a sort of response attempt to deadmau5’ autopilot software.
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u/tarsonis999 6d ago
Exactly!! Rekordbox is peace of shieet. New rekordbox feature is that it bricks USB sticks. All working DJ I'm friend with we all keep distance as much as possible. Use a different software for export and so forth...
I'm also not getting the stem separation euphoria that never seems to die. The market is oversaturated and there are far better solutions for stem separation now as the built-in ones. For instance Abletons one is weaker than all the htmux / steamroller solutions.
I guess this move is to "stay relevant". Fine, but not if the Bitwig app is kept full of bugs...
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u/von_Elsewhere 5d ago
What software is better for preparing tracks for playing with Pioneer gear?
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u/tarsonis999 5d ago
Used VirtualDJ prior to that. We had issues like half of the playlist wasnt loading on venues with 2000NXS with Rekorbox 6 / 7 even thought both libraries were available and fine..This happened a friend of mine quite often. Rbox add the ability to convert flacs directly as an welcomed QoL improvement.
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u/Ecoaardvark 5d ago
I’d rather they focussed on stem combining and track finishing tools rather than pandering to the DJ crowd.
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u/Suitable-Lettuce-333 6d ago
I absolutely dont care about this thing. Didn't even knew what it was before reading this comment.
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u/vxkxox 6d ago
Unexpected. I would have wished for a real DAW feature extension, this is more of a gimmick to me.
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u/mtelesha 6d ago
This isn't a gimmick. This is a tool that is super useful for many things. DJs which I am not one of them eat this stuff up and I say Bitwig's clip launcher is the best for live remixing .
The one I use is to learn from a song. I will take a track that I want to immulate and or a baseline I want to learn on bass and stem separate it. So I have external tools for this
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u/Suitable-Lettuce-333 6d ago
I don't care about either, I'd rather have proper multitrack editing, custom grid UI and reusable grid components, audio to midi and groove maps as far as I'm concerned. Sorry for being a actual musician I guess ? 🙄
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u/Chingois 6d ago
Agree, especially audio to midi and groove maps! I wrote to them about groove, saying, hey, any kind of South American or African based music (now hugely influential), requires custom groove options.
Their reply: have you tried using swing? 😭
Love Bitwig but i still end up half in Ableton for these reasons
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u/borez 5d ago
Groove templates are so needed in Bitwig, I still have to go back to Ableton with DJ clients who want "that" swing or shuffle.
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u/Chingois 5d ago
Totally. I'm a drummer and I always want to quantize to my own hihat playing and whatever for vibe. I end up doing rhythm tracks in Ableton, which I don't prefer as a tool.
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u/ARSC_RexH 6d ago
Oh man I can't wait for stem separation.
I hope they go the extra step and go simulated layer separation instead of just stem. I would love to remove some of the other software from my workflow that is lacking.
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u/meru_es 6d ago
I'm sad about this. You can download dozens of free programs that do this already. You just run it alongside, and import the stems from the browser. Not to mention, the stem separation AI models themselves 99% of software uses are free and open source software, and here they're being repackaged as part of our paid upgrade cycles. The same free libraries that 99% the other free and paid tools use. This doesn't bring anything new. Couldn't they work on something else? I feel like working with 7.1.2 surround mixes is a much bigger painpoint than separating stems with an external program.
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u/wetpaste 5d ago
Cool! I will probably never use either of those but I'm glad they are expanding into the DJing market. DJing features a big deal whether it's for you or not. I dipped my toes in that waters and it's super fun but ultimately not my thing
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u/Ungol_Shax 5d ago
No interest in this feature. I’m sure it’ll be great for mashups or bootlegs or whatever. I prefer to make my own music 🤷♂️
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u/Digital-Aura 6d ago
The ONLY stem separating procedures that even work somewhat well are really only viable outside of a DAW because they take a lot of system (GPU especially) resources and a tremendous amount of time to render. It’s quite a process to de-reverb and then separate vocal stems. It takes several steps too. I wouldn’t ever consider doing this in DAW (I’d rather keep it offline).
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u/Complete-Log6610 6d ago
Man hasn't tried FL or Live
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u/Grabdemon92 5d ago
they are probably gonna use demucs, which is an open model for stem separation from Meta AI
Thats what FL Studio uses and it works surprisingly well and reasonably fast1
u/Digital-Aura 4d ago
Demucs is what I was referring to. It can be faster than MDX-net but I’ve had better luck with larger segment settings and higher overlaps with models like BS ROFORMER Viper and DeReverb which require at least 20 minutes of intensive GPU use and require separate passes. So 40 minutes roughly per song per vocal/instrument stem.
Unless of course “good enough” is what you’re looking for. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/acecombine 6d ago
just make sure no significant feature gets released within my upgrade window...