At the height of Sunday Service, Kanye West was seen utilizing a portable audio engineering device to control musical levels, sparking curiosity from fans and the audio engineering community alike. As it turns out, the device was the Yeezy Stem Player, as designed by Kanye West and Teenage Engineering. Now, thanks to a few close-up photos, we can catch a closer look at the upcoming device.
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At its core, the Yeezy Stem Player is designed to give users individual control of a song’s various stems, which roughly translates into a song’s individual elements; think “vocals,” “bass,” “drums,” “synth,” and so on. With a final mix being comprised of several balanced stem tracks, the Yeezy Stem Player will theoretically provide users with the ability to remix the levels of songs in real-time.
As details surrounding the functionality are scarce at the moment, it’s as of yet unclear whether or not the Yeezy Stem Player will be able to effectively work with an existing piece of pre-recorded music. For audio engineers and live-music professionals, however, it’s easy to imagine several different purposes for the Stem Player. For one, it could allow even the most casual DJ to experiment with various mixes, all without having to commit to a massive setup, as one of the key benefits of the Yeezy Stem Player is its portability.
Though it’s as of yet unconfirmed as to when the Yeezy Stem Player will hit the market, it should be interesting to see how Kanye’s foray into the realm of audio technology ultimately fares. Given how user-friendly the device appears to be, don’t be surprised to see this one attract demographics only peripherally involved in sound engineering — inevitable, given Yeezy’s prestige branding.