The most fun I could have on a PC......

[Abraxis]

I began computing at 6yrs old on a Timex Sinclair 2068 then moved up to a Commodore 64 and remained there until the 80x86 era. As did many people that are probably reading this post. My accomplishments with computing would probably make several of the QQ members question my sanity. Now to the point, I will not bore you with any of my extremely cool/totally useless computer inventions, but instead I must pose a question before I can safely continue this idea.

I have collected several "Stem" songs in the past few years. For anyone that may be unfamiliar of what a stem song actually is, I can summarize. A stem song is basically a master recording file that has been broken down and seperated into it's original tracks (lead guitar 1-2 tracks, lead vocals 1 track, drums 1-2 tracks, and so on and so forth) as is the genesis of all master recordings as far as I know, atleast before editing. Most stem songs range anywhere from 8-24 tracks and can be nicely "splayed" out using a program that most of us have heard of called Audacity. Audacity supports the .MOGG file extension used by stem songs and sorts the tracks in a seperated but synchronized arrangement. The origin of my collection had been ripped from a long since abandoned game for Playstation 2 known as "Rock Band". The inception of using stem songs were required for people to participate by learning/playing each available instrument identified by the program. Ok, school is over.

My concern is legality. Not for myself, but for me to distribute to whoever would like to really perform some serious "multi-channel surgery" using these hits. And what I mean is, with audacity, a person can actually take an isolated instrument/track and bounce it all around the room around for a true personal 5.1 mix. It is absolutely amazing, and far more engaging than one would guess. I wish I could have grown 2 more ears for what I did to "Eminence Front". Now, I know that the software/game is listed under "Abandonware" and it is not currently sold as "New". Also, these stem songs have been modified, as so that the license for the collection expired many moons ago. I need advice on what would be acceptable in this community. I implore you to keep in mind, I am hoping that some/most of you are archivists, and as you should be. New music doesn't exist anymore and it is without ANY doubt considered by everyone reading this, as "Art". My collection in it's totality is in fact rare and no backups (not in the traditional sense), my solution is you, if I am able to share these stems, then the stems won't be lost if something catastrophic does happen to my system. I only write this post as an offering of a really fascinating experience, every thursday my girlfriend and I make a 5.1 mix of a song just for kicks, then listen to it as to critique our mixing/editing skills. It is fun to do solo, of course. But add another, and all of the sudden it gets as active as a semi-buzzed game of Charades. Actually it would be more like "Jenga", the blocks being instruments, and the position you move the block to would be the channel. I hope that other can experience the fun I have in playing with these.

Your fellow member,

 

[jimfisheye]

Haha. I believe my first computer was a Timex-Sinclair around 1981 too!
16k ram was a lot. The "disk drive" was a cassette player. I put them down for a minute... Got back into computing then after Z80 and IBM days and Apple plagiarizing IBM and then Microsoft plagiarizing Apple thing started around 1994. Apple had audio ability and there was this newer thing called Protools TDM. Microsoft machines at the day job for word processor and spreadsheet when they weren't crashed.

First, did you really say you're rolling with no backups?!?
It's not "if", it's "when". Drives are consumable. Yes, so are SSDs. Get a backup drive. Two ideally. Make backup clones. Don't not do this. (Or maybe a cloud account for a 3rd copy.)

I'll just share some of my experience getting sucked into messing with some of the available multitracks.

A lot of these come from the Rock Band, Garage Band, etc video games as you already know. They're genuinely stems/multis from the source - as in they're not separated after the fact with separation software and just a garbled mess from that. But they're still a mutilated mess! The game stems are usually 4 stereo submixes (vox, instruments, bass, drums). Not the original multitracks in any way shape or form. And heavily brick wall limited and shrill eq'd to be loud and crude in the video game.

This stuff is intensive restoration work with limited success before mixing even starts. And then the stuff you'd want to produce and work on is still mixed together in a submix and heavily compressed. It's frustrating!

After that, there will be a few genuine multitracks that media schools get their hands on. These are genuine and used to practice mixing. They're legal and donated to some school by the artist. And they sure as heck are not supposed to have been leaked out!

Finally, I recommend Reaper for a DAW app. Maybe a little intimidating if you aren't experienced with audio production but you don't have to learn every feature and the licensing and demo nag screen (still full featured) are hobbyist friendly. It's like a modern advanced version of Protools HD without the crashing.