I just wanted to give you my feedback of testing out the Prime Go and Prime Engine over the last 20 days. I really like the idea of having an all incl. device so I had to try the Prime Go. Especially as I am more or less an ambitious hobby DJ.
So my conclusion: I will return the Prime Go and stay with Serato instead. Here is why:
No Auto-Gain Feature/No Cue-Gain feature on Prime Go. I have a several year old music library with a lot of different audio levels where MP3s came from all over the place (friends, internet, bought etc.). No Auto-Gain feature in combination with no adjusting on a cue level is just too much.
Prime Engine working (not working) with iTunes workflow. This is just horrible. If I added lets say 100 new songs in my library which led to 20 changed intelligent playlists the workflow from sorting it in iTunes over importing it to Prime Engine and than bringing it to the stick is sooooo frustrating. I simply do not have the time for it.
The time it takes to sync my music to a USB stick.
The beatgrid analysis is not as good as on Serato. 5 out of 10 song get analyzed wrong.
The hardware feels really good and the touch UX is great. But with those huge downsides I simply cannot switch from Serato to Prime.
Issue no1I see here is using itunes to manage Your music library. This I find the most messy option.
Beat grid - it is easy to play even without it. Newest update is analysing tracks very good. But no program will be perfect. Algorithms will improve over time anyway.
Auto gain on a stand alone device - this is why You have GAIN knobs.
Autogain is nice thing, but using Your ears and VU meters also works and does not take much time to set up correctly for each track.
Sync tracks to usb if up the drive is fast usb3 takes seconds.
I like the feedback you left, hopefully its seen by the denon guys
I dont use itunes in my DJ software but i understand how this will be hella frustrating, especially if you are used to having itunes within the main library and not as a separate collection you have to add to main collection
A feature request was started a whilst back, whilst the usual suspects did advise us to use our ears, it will still be nice to have. Do vote before you jump ship if you haven’t already.
The algorithm is constantly being worked on, we are in a much better place than in 2017.
This could also be sweet reason for Denon to consider the ethernet play from computer. If you have a gig yes you can export, but not for home jamming especially if still auditioning tracks.
And as for sourcing music from mates, who may have got some or all the tracks from a mates mates mate, I’d be surprised if levels were all that was wrong with files sourced that way.
Serato vs Go probably isn’t a viable comparison, ergo Unless you really needed the battery element then a far more awesome experience.
