Akai has announced that it is bringing MPC Stems ‘unmixing’ technology to the MPC.
“With MPC Stems, Akai Pro opens Pandora’s box, seamlessly integrating stems separation into the Iconic MPC work?ow.
This innovation not only delivers superior sound quality but also enhances the speed of the sampling process, ushering producers and beat makers into a new era of sampling creativity.”
Details on availability are still to be announced. See the Akai site for more info.
This is a big deal. When this becomes standalone, it will be the first time we’ve had stem separation in a dedicated hardware device. It’s an update but apparently will only cost $9.99 which makes it a no-brainer. To be able to sample straight from vinyl and then obtain stems without any computer involvement is pretty cool. I think this was the feature Akai needed to bring to the MPC.
It’s supposed to first appear in the software in February and then be ported to standalone in March.
Except that “unmixing” always sounds like washy artefacty spectral mess
Making new stems is easier than making stem separation sound good
It doesn’t work in all cases but it can work remarkably well, and a bit of mixing and EQing can sometimes hide those artifacts. This is an incredible addition.
That sounds like something that can be creatively “ab”used. In fact, stuf like that has a tendency to inspire new subgenres of music.
We need pioneers of everthing, so this is a good start from something that was only software based….thank you Akai!
Agreed. Although companies can cherry-pick specific tracks that happen to work with their particular stem-separation design in order to provide a subjectively artifact-free example, the capacity to do this without a PC and directly cater to the genre it serves best is amazing. Teenage Engineering had their gizmo with Kenye West but they may be focusing on their Rabbit AI gizmo.
I can’t imagine how many hip-hop heads who’ve dreamed of this are going to finally be able to great sounding remixes and quickly.