After working out a few kinks between the software and the Prime 4, I’m having zero problems with the Prime 4 and Engine Prime. I guess I’m writing this just to say that. let me elaborate: I stepped away from DJing for awhile. So long, in fact, that all of my music was only on vinyl or CD. Back in February I got asked to play a party, and I thought, “why not?” I had to purchase a controller anyway for an event I do every year, so i got the DDJ-400 and began slowly rebuilding and importing my old stuff into Rekordbox. I quickly ran headlong into the limitations of laptop djing, (mostly the limitations were with the laptop though, and not the controller itself). And then it happened. Back in April–Somewhere, somehow, a vision appeared before me. That vision was the Prime 4, and i pre-ordered without hesitation. I’ve had it since June 8th and though there are a few things that can probably use a tweak (and how FRIGGING GENIUS of them to build this beauty so that it can be tweaked with firmware upgrades.) here and there, i have literally ZERO complaints. My library, cues and loops all imported from Rekordbox beautifully.I did have one still as of yet unidentified issue that caused my tracks to appear with Filename only on the Prime 4 ( a weird holdover from a previous version of EP?) until i hit “REFRESH” on the USB drive in EP. But that’s fixed now.
I love my P4 and I feel like a lucky betch to have one. It’s fast. It’s beautiful. It sounds amazing. and i honestly feel really blessed to be alive at a time when DJing looks, feels and sounds like this. Thanks, Denon. Keep up the good work.I have confidence y’all will get EP to where it needs to be to make the rest of the world happy. until then, i’ll just be over here with my Prime 4 not complaining. 
This sums me up entirely. Except for two things.
One, I haven’t bought a prime 4, Two, I just don’t “get” engine prime.
I am, by my own admission not great with computers, but I downloaded rekordbox, and just got in with it. It’s totally intuitive. Engine prime? Just makes no sense. It’s driving me mad.
I was hoping that I could just stick a rekordbox usb in the prime, but it’s now clear that’s not strictly true. You don’t get all the track data until you push it through engine prime. Happy to be corrected on that, but it’s what I’ve gleaned from lots of posts.
I want a prime 4, but the software frustration is suggesting I shouldn’t. I should be enjoying my music, this just makes me annoyed!
Did you really have no issues coming from rekordbox?
Should just add, I borrowed a mates mcx8000 just so I could go through the process. I’ve yet to actually get any music onto it with all the data.
@Roger440 I’m in the same boat as you… I’m considering selling all of my Pioneer DJ equipment in order to fund a purchase for the Denon Prime 4. It really does look like an amazing bit of kit and has promising potential. For now though, I see a lot of issues being raised on the forums. I’m tempted to head to my closest DJ store that stocks Denon and see if I can test a unit out to see how I get on with it.
I’m due to sell my Pioneer CDJ850s, DJM800, Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 and DDJ-SX (mk.1)… simply because Prime 4 looks like the future of DJing for me. I hope to see more users chip in on this post with positive feedback, I know a lot of the time the forums will only ever see issues/problems being raised so it can paint a product in a negative light at times, like the Elektron Analog Four MK2 synth that I own, lots of complaints on the Elektron forum, but my unit seems solid!
I’m just not sure whether to wait before making the switch or just go ahead and bite the bullet and hope for the best!
Either way, Denon have excited me with this Prime 4 unit and the SC5000 units with their DJ controller like features and I look forward to jumping from Pioneer to Denon in the near future!
As Many have said, the hardware is solid but the software is lacking. you will be frustrated but overall will love the unit itself. As previously said, because of the infinite upgradable path of the hardware,all can be fixed in the future.
A play in the store will not give you the overall ups/ downs to the experience.
If you purchase it, make sure you understand the return policy but I’m confident you will keep it.
Incredible sound, feel and overall design can’t be beat . The Software is really the only"Big" Achilles heel at the moment.
And it’s not even a big achillies heel either
Playing with the Prime 4 in a shop, no matter for how long, won’t unveil the Prime Ecosystem problems. As myself and others have already stated, the hardware is solid and show great potential. The problem currently lies in the Engine Prime (EP) software, which you probably won’t even have the opportunity to familiarize yourself with in a shop evaluation. In order to do that, you will need to take your own music library, probably in your own notebook, import the music library to EP, let it do it’s thing analysing your tunes for beat grid, BPM and key (which may take quite a while depending on the size of your library), then let it “pack” this already analysed library into a USB disk (flash drive, SDD, or hard drive), then finally connect this drive to the Prime 4 unit. I don’t see most shops allowing customers to do this kind of evaluation, but your mileage may vary… Of course, you can do all of that, previously, at home and only take your EP “packed” USB disk to the shop, but most people are not aware of this need when they first see the product on a window, or run by it inside a shop…
Thank you all for your replies! I wasn’t expecting such a quick response from you guys!
Yeah I see that a lot of the issues raised seem to revolve more around Engine Prime. As a Serato user, I know I’ll probably be left wanting for more at first on the switch over Denon workflow, but I know that in time Denon will vastly improve upon the software side of things, as I’ve read about their heavy investment into their software development team. I tend to only play, trance, house and techno though, all 4/4 stuff, so I imagine the analysing and beat grid issues will affect me less than those playing music that has variances in tempo throughout their tracks.
I guess I’m just looking for reassurance that the operating system of the unit itself is fairly solid and handles everything that’s thrown at it without any issues. The few replies to my previous comment are more confidence inspiring.
I can’t wait to make the jump. Hopefully sooner rather than later, just gotta off load most of my Pioneer gear first for funds!
Thanks again!
That’s exactly why myself and others ditched our laptops. One (well more like 1000) less thing to worry about when in front of punters
I play the same tunes as you @illwhacker and the only thing I find is the beat grids csn be off but I come fron vinyl so it’s not a problem for me as I’m sure you can beat match by ear from reading your background story go buy one I’m loving the p4 and it’s only going to get better
Sorry, Djcraige, I only just saw that you had replied!
Yeah beat matching isn’t really a problem for me, I learnt on some very basic Citronic CDJs 13 years back, they were the perfect learner set, no fancy bells or whistles! It made the transition to Pioneer CDJ-1000s extremely simple when I started playing events!
I’m just waiting for my Pioneer kit to sell, it’s currently listed on Reverb.com so hopefully I’ll get it sold soon enough and can then switch over to the Denon Prime 4!
Thanks for your reply!