Engine Prime 1.2 Beat grid limitation explained and why improved flexible beat grid will be welcomed

For starts

Engine Prime has flexible beat grids by default but limited in how one can use it.

I haven’t found a way to expand or shrink the space between two beat markers or anchors. If this was available one can make BPM corrections that way.

_ Shrinking the space = Increased tempo_*

_ Expanding the space = Reduced tempo_*

I have also not found a way to place a beat marker or an anchor at a specific location using the playhead as a guide.

In the video attached i was able to grid majority of the test track but when i got further into the track i could not drop the anchor/marker exactly where i wanted it (on a clear downbeat)

To my workflow this is the last piece of the puzzle to sort out and if this feature is improved i will make sure my great grandkids only use Denon DJ products. :smile:

ENGINEPRIME BEATGRID ISSUES.mp4 (6.7 MB)

I found an easier way of moving my crates from Serato with ■■■■ so thats not an issue for me again.

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Interesting video. I was beat griding the same track for comparison and I could make it match to the end of the song… In comparison I was doing the Beat grid correction in RB, which personally I like most. But this might be because of the lerning curve required when switching from something new from something which you’re used to it. For comparison I did it in EP 1.2 as well. Took me much longer.

Could it be that you got something wrong up there? I was Feeling when shrinking the space the tempo is decreasing and when expanding the space the tempo is increasing. Because the beatgrid is locked to the BPM. Therefore you have more to Play within one beat… Personally I don’t like that the tempo of the song is changing in case the beatgrid is off.

Is that the behaviour on the SC5000 as well?

Did you do it in Engine Prime or Rekordbox?

I did that in Engine Prime only.

I know that I can do a tight beat grid edit in Serato as that’s what I use mostly.

In Engine Prime software when I got to the end area I keep pressing the icon to place a beat marker but no marker was placed.

Did you say you can shrink or expand in Engine Prime? How did you do that? Because I can see no icon to do that?

Not sure if I got something wrong I could be missing a step.

Share your own system of making corrections.

Mine

First down beat beginning of track I placed a marker

Then I use beat jump to move every 4 bars to see if they still like up and if they don’t I place another marker

I did this to end but when I got to the ending part of the track I couldn’t lay another marker

I can try it again in 8bars jumps, perhaps there is a limit in number of markers one can place

Serato has a limit of 128 markers per track.

@mufasa I did it in Engine Prime 1.2 and RB just to compare. I didn’t had to shrink or expand in Engine Prime. What might be the case - and I saw it in your Video - when clicking on the grid marker and the place where you want it to be is Closer to the next marker, you might be in Trouble. Hope you understand what I mean - I Need to Play around with it a bit. But when I was doing the griding in EP, the marker wasn’t that much off then I saw in your Video at the end of your track. But what I realized it got more ugly at the end of the track similar to yours. The way I was doing it - I was nearly adusting the marker every 4 beats. There were not many where I had to do after 8 beats. And I was doing the marker correction only at the ‘1’.

Hope that helps.

So you ran into same issues like i did at the end of the track?

At the outro part of the track i’m using which is 8 Bars (32 Beats long) i could drop the marker at the exact point i wanted.

At the end of the track it was getting more ugly but I could still fix it by placing the markers.

Okay I will revisit it again, maybe I will do each beat this time around. That’s the only difference between your description and mine.

So just tried again using a different track

More More More - Andrea True Connection.

I noticed a neat feature, longer yellow marker for the downbeat or beat 1 and smaller ones for the 2,3,4.

I ’ ’ ’ I ’ ’ ’ I ’ ’ ’ I

Anyways i gridded / placed a marker on each and every 1 beat the entire song, it worked well till the very end again, when the song started to fade out but the beat is still a bit audible.

Could that be the issue? EP not able to deal with the fading out part.

I am doing this on my windows laptop just to be sure this is not a Mac OS issue.