Help with Master behaviour, and manual BPM controls between layers

Hi All,

I have a Single SC5000m and the X1800 mixer. I’m having issues with selecting Master when using two layers to mix. I can’t untangle the master and move to the next layer. Also, with Sync, if I switch this off - then it doesn’t allow manual BPM changes. Sometimes, if you really crank the speed slider top to bottom it will suddenly take effect. Also, whilst mixing, and setting the non active layers speed using jog wheel - it will effect the playing layer - not great sounding :slight_smile:

Any help / thoughts on the above appreciated

green.

You know what soft takeover is?

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The behavior @vinylthieves reports sounds exactly what happened to me last night. I haven’t pressed the sync button or tried to use it yet, but a friend was over and he pressed sync and then some weirdness happened. I just restarted the machine and went back to my normal way of using it, but I’ve also not had a chance to look into what that was about.

@SlayForMoney I assume you mean this: Soft tempofader takeover

But there’s not really an answer there

Hey! I think I can help.

Master is assigned to a single SC5000, but not to individual layers. So the Master light will be on as long as sync is on for either one of the layers. The layer that provides the “master BPM” between the two is the one you activate sync on first.

Once both layers are synced, the fader and jogwheel will affect both layers. They are basically locked together and will move in unison.

The pitch/tempo fader will still be in play while sync is activated (and deactivated) but if you don’t see it respond to small movements that’s because it will need to catch up with where the selected layer is in order to start taking effect, also known as takeover mode. If your pitch fader is in the center and the selected layer is playing at 118 BPM, but the original BPM is 88, you’ll see a green arrow at the bottom of the pitch fader lit. You’ll need to move the fader down to where it will match the 118BPM position, at which point the green arrow will turn off, and the fader changes will start to take effect. Basically, you need to catch the track BPM with the fader and pull it back to where you want it.

That’s tough to explain through text and not demonstration, so I hope that makes sense!

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I was too lazy to explain but Corey dit it for me. I see a lot of Prime user totally confused by something that is standard on 4 deck controllers for almost 10 years.

3 Likes

No sorry I don’t, can you help out and explain or post a link? mucho appreciated.

Thanks to @DenonDJCorey for the lengthy explanation on this.

Corey explained it to you in one part of his post, and very nicely.

I don’t mean to be rude to you but since I see you’re struggling with some basic features (stepped from vinyl into Prime system?) I have to suggest to first spend some days reading manuals and online searching for terms that are unknown to you. If AFTER that you have any unknows - that’s what this forum is for.

many thanks for your comments Slay, but I had tried to work this out, googled tutorials, and recorded a couple of shows for my radio show before hitting the forum… I was around using the internet with 9600baud modems, so I appreciate the etiquette very well. Actually, I’ve totally missed the lesson I learned waaaay back to not rise to posts about forum etiquette.

A forum " a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged freely"

cheers, Green.

Etiquette and what not aside, I think this thread highlights one of the MAJOR hurdles Denon DJ and the Prime series (and even users of the Prime series) must face: ‘dual layer’ player technology is a conceptual and technical leap. Prior to the sc5000 (and yes I know there have been dual layer systems before), the only way DJs had to think about DJing was a one-to-one mapping between tracks and player/line/deck/etc. The concept of dual layer players might sound ‘simple’ once you ‘get it’, but there’s a difference between getting an sc5000 and learning to use it well AND internalizing how the pitch/tempo slider is actually behaving based on what it means when two individual track sources share a single - though digital - physical slider.

I think @vinylthieves questions - even if the manual makes a passing reference to the behavior described above (which it does but it does not stress the significance in any way), I wasn’t truly aware how the pitch control would behave, ie. “when the little green light comes on when you switch layers letting you know that the fader must be manually moved to the point where, once reaching that point, one can then adjust the pitch” doesn’t even really have a stated, official term or designation (to my knowledge).

The reality is, if every DJ on earth went out and switched to a Prime setup this entire forum would be awash in THIS question. In the future, I hope Denon DJ and users that care about the Prime system, can come up with better and more instructive ways to convey this information than currently exists online/in a manual/on this forum. We live in exciting times - don’t let the excitement be the downfall.

#DualLayerLife4Life m