No sooner does Native Instruments announce their open source Stems initiative, that another stems-based resource comes to our attention. Dubseed has been going for a very short time and looks to spread new music in stem form, but unlimited stems, and in WAV format. Take that NI.
A few words from the website:
Dubseed is a networking/distribution resource that allows you to discover and explore music at its core.
Our goal is to provide music enthusiasts a deeper insight into the creative and technical elements behind musical compositions. Through networking and the distribution of song stems, we want to influence the progression of remixing, djing, and music education, which in return will result in an overall growth of the music scene.
The nutshell version is that Dubseed lets you buy and download stemmed tracks. Unlike the NI Stems, there seems to be an unlimited number of stems per track. And when I say track, the stems are supplied as individual stem WAVs with a complete version of the track as well. The one I downloaded was 13 individual WAVs for a total of 855Mb, a considerable hike in file size over a single audio file.
Obviously if you can buy stemmed tracks, then they have to get there somehow. So you can upload and sell your stemmed creations through the Dubseed website. They charge $4.99 to host each stem file you sell through them, plus a 30% commission on every sale. You can if you wish make your stems available for free and use Dubseed as a music discovery and promotion site too. And you can play the stems from within the website to see if they’re what you’re after.
Right now the site is beta with just a handful of tracks on there. And while it’s not a contained single file that loads into a deck in one go, and doesn’t require updates to software to work, this is an alternative take on the whole stems thing.
this is good i hope the steams thing takes off where is mixvibes in all this tho
dam i hope they do something with this to
I like the idea of this. Hopefully they will release music in the 4 track NI version when it comes out. I have little use for a 13 tracks purchase unless I’m remixing in the studio. The 4 track NI version should be plug-and-play once it gets rolling and has more appeal for me.
I am super skeptical about this site. They might be offering more stems but I doubt their service is going to take off.
First, this service is not analogous to NI’s Stems. They just sell a zip file. The Stem format is similar, but the differences are super important.
I want to bring up what I saw last night after playing around, but their site is pretty much broken for me. What I remember, though, is that Dubseed’s service made very little sense when I was reading through it. They claim to take 70% of the sale, if the artist sells stems, AND they say they charge $5.99 per track unless the artist has enough of a following. When their site works again I’ll confirm.
The site works for me, although as a beta is lacking a lot of essential legal info. But the sales page (https://www.dubseed.com/sell_stems) says:
And:
Ah right, got it backwards.
Regardless, that is a weird thing. So they charge $4.99 for me to put up a composition and then keep 30% of the sale? A lot of the stuff up there is free, so I’m not sure how that works. Maybe if you get a following they won’t charge for you putting music up?
And it bothers me that I have to agree to a Terms and Conditions to sign up that I can’t read. That seems like a MASSIVE oversight.
Hi Jared,
I am one of the founders of Dubseed, and I was hoping you had a minute to chat either over the phone of via skype regarding your experience with our site? I would really appreciate your feedback! Feel free to shoot me an email at Robert@dubseed.com
I like this just a little more than the Native Instruments approach. It addresses the original content part (the most important part), first. Second, it addresses the true complexity of original tracks, which typicallly run way over 4 tracks (it’s easy to capture more than that with just a drum set). Last, it allows you to preview the tracks before you buy them, so kudos to Dubseed for this. I’m looking forward to Liquid Mixing these stems in my future projects, as this is how I see most performing DJs remixing their tracks, and how some (hopefully more than just some) will choose to perform live.
Much Awesome!
I think the idea behind NI stems is to make it easily accessible for DJing and performance. A zip file with 13 wav files is not very easy accessible for DJing and performance…
It’s not even the same idea other than the word stem.
Theses are actual stems.
The NI format is a usable file to load into traktor.
In my opinion this is a valuable site for mixing and a good idea, but the NI format might be better for quick use and very little planning. When of course used with Traktor.
The question is which do you find more valuable? Stems fit for mixing, or stems fit for remixing? Would love to hear more of your thoughts so feel free to shoot me an email at Robert@dubseed.com
Thanks for the interest, my understanding is that the Traktor (or so they named them) stem files, are basic parts of the track in a combined file for use in the (special) Traktor decks.
I think the idea of the Traktor stems file is for a quick useable in a single deck without any preparing, it’s not actual arrangements and planning all mastered or a vast knowledge of production needed, actual stem use in a DAW is not quick, and neither would making a Traktor stem file.
So both types of stem use are good but very different ideas in actual use, I think many people are confusing the Traktor stem mixing file and actual stems use.
I do like your site and the idea is awesome, and could very well be used to make the basic Traktor “stem” files. And is even more valuable for actual remixing preparation. My use of actual stems has been limited to contest downloads and I usually am disappointed in the content available.
Honestly I think the Traktor stems content will be limited to artists that do mostly basic house or techno like PanPot or Carl Cox. Which isn’t bad but the Remix deck sets on Beatport and free NI content was all to much the same styles.