KAUSTHUB RAVI & SIVANESH NATARAJAN
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
Avid Pro Tools Ultimate Audionamix Xtrax Stems
DAW Software Software, Mac OS
Professional! The world’s first fully-automatic stem creator!
With Logic Pro X putting out extremely loaded updates
regularly, Avid is trying to keep up with a new update to
Protools. It's called Protools Ultimate. A software that can separate any song into 3 stems - Vocals,
Music, and Drums. Sounds too good to be true?
Formerly known as Protools HD, Avid has done some
rebranding to keep up with the times. Although the name
suggests an extremely radical change, there is not that much
that is new with it. Avid does claim to have addressed a huge
majority of the bugs and issues with the previous versions
and promises a much smoother experience, but overall the
software still stays the same.
There are certain key features that have been adder. Most of
these features could be written off as ones that other DAWs
have had for a long time. The new ultimate version adds stuff
like Track presets, which allows you to save effect chains etc,
much like saving channel strips in logic. It adds a “Listen”
mode that tracks the MIDI information, allowing the software
to always be retroactively capturing even when not actively
recording. They have added a new comping feature that
allows you to build a target playlist in waveform view. Again
much like logic, it also adds an EQ preview in the mixer
window. The most significant feature maybe the moving on
the license from the dongle to cloud. You don’t require an ilok
anymore as the license can simply be saved on the cloud.
All things considered, it's the same old DAW, with some
kinks ironed and some features added to make it look like a
contemporary competitor.
32
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
Audionamix is a company previously famous for a software
called ADX Trax 3 that is widely used by DJs for creating
vocal and instrument samples and now they have announced
Xtrax stems. What the software claims to do can only be
described as magic.
It is a stand-alone, Mac-only software that you can import any
track into. The software then splits the track into 3 separate
stems (vocals, music, and drums) that can be exported for use.
It uses one of 4 different algorithms. The software runs the
algorithms on a cloud-based system so it cannot run without
a reasonably quick internet connection. What you get post-
processing, are the three stems that you can change levels,
pan, and export for use.
The software is still far from perfect separation. While testing
it, in most cases, it does a fairly good job on drums. It does
pick up some of the bass track, but for the most part, it does
quite a good job. The music stem has quite a bit of the bass and
the remaining instruments sans the vocals. There is a bit of
vocal bleed here and there and if there are background vocals,
it doesn’t do a great job.
Finally, there’s a very long way to go before the vocal
separation gets as good as they claim it is. If the vocals are
fairly dry, without much reverb or effects, it does a decent
job. On effected vocals, it tends to sound too gated and just not
very usable.
In conclusion, it could be a good tool for DJs to collect
samples, especially if they are going to add effects and mask
the inadequacies of the stems. It could also be a good tool
for singers and drummers to do covers. As with any early
software, it has a long way to go and is a glimpse into the
future where something like this may be extremely seamless
and effective.