Prime Software and potential p4 purchase

Hi there, I am thinking of buying the prime 4 but the software is really putting me off.

I had 15 years ago the old DNS 3000s and 5000s with a 1500 mixer. Loved the build quality, the BPM readings were dodgy then too :stuck_out_tongue: i had to put tape over them to cover then up. Good players those the 5000s with the elastic band and duel player. Revolutionary. Anyway I digress. I have downloaded prime software on my mac and itā€™s kinda OK. Not sure if OK will do it for me though as the prime 4 looks like a quality controller. It lacks in some areas but overall it is top top hardware.

Probably like a lot of you just have to wait and see. .

You can do a lot with current engine Prime , like getting your music into a collection and crates so that the prime hardware will see all your music.

You can then load any of your tracks onto primehardware and have great fun adding loops, rolls, fx, cues etc

Butā€¦ the relationship between engine Prime software and the hardware hm well. Did you ever see Back to the future 3, when theyā€™re stuck back in Wild West land and they had to try making petrol? Well think of Engine Prime as the Wild West home made prete and Prime hardware like the full-wing door delorean that can travel through time- putting the two things together gives less than ideal results, great Scott Marty !

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So while You are stuck in the wild west mind set, let me fresh things up. The setup works, engine prime needs a bit of time. This year we seen great feature updates, and more of them are coming. The developers are listening to the users - so the software and the devices are getting better. The evolution continuesā€¦

Issues with Engine Prime software are very easy to overrule and in general You can still have great experience with this setup.

Cheers

Is this your first foray into Denon gear? If something doesnā€™t happen soon, theyā€™ll never get my money again.

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Thanks all. I will hold on and see how it all works out. With the new software devision in New Zealand, letā€™s hope they improve what is a great platform. Presently I have my NI S4 mk3 and am happy to wait and see how prime progressess. I want to do more functions which is why Iā€™m leaning more P4.

Itā€™s been akin to ā€œI still canā€™t get you car to start but look! Iā€™ve added some fluffy dice to the rear view mirror for youā€

Forget getting the Primes to play dumb for more DJ software for the moment, forget streaming (still beta only so no good at a gig), forget ā€œreads bpm from tags if some ther software filled that tagā€ just take the third calandar thatā€™s been on the wall since the dreadful BPM algorithm was discovered to be so bad, and get that nailed l, completely nailed before anything else gets offered as a starter, when weā€™ve all been endlessly promised a main course.

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I donā€™t get You, I am running successfully gigs since almost 2 years with prime setup, regardless of all bpm analysis issues or some other problems. Nothing in the Prime setup is limiting my workflow or makes a problem, that could affect my performance. And I use every function there is (except tidal).

Iā€™m using them at gigs too but due to the bpm defects Iā€™m avoiding using many of the features that we all paid for:

Both modes of Loops, auto-sync, both slicer modes, rolls . So mostly everything across the full witdth of the deck toward the front of the platter.

If the sc5000 has been sold at a price which reflected how many of the advertised features worked it would have been half price

Strange, I use loops, rolls a lot, hot cues, beat jumps no issues with that.

Iā€™m fussy :slight_smile:

They all rely on decent bpm detection

The chances of the loops being right on some songs is very low

Depends on

  1. Music style - Techno, House etc seems to be okay. Try with some standard hip hop, afrobeats, reggaeton, dancehall. This is where the algorithm stutters

  2. Size of Library - If you are ā€œi only have 1000 songsā€ dj then you can go through your tracks easily and fix the wrong ones. But if you are a mobile/pub/bar/open format/multi genre/genre bending/anything goes dj, you may have more than 10000 tracks in your library, i am not going through all of that to find tracks that arent analysed correctly.

My library is over 50000 songs. I donā€™t play hiphop or reggae thingā€¦ But I have no problems with dā€™nb or dubstep on the bpm detection and beat grid. I keep my collection of tracks precisely maintained and I use not only Engine prime, but also Rekordbox and Traktor pro 3. All 3 have differences because of differences between the devices that are used to play with that software. Non of them makes me any issues with database to the point that I would have to complain. Engine is not perfect, but still very good in usability and general music management.

With the utility tool from a 3rd party app source you can transfer grid, bpm and cue, loops data from traktor, serato, rekordbox into prime, with pretty good results. I will try this I think and see. I play alot of old skool House which so its important to have good analysis.

The P4 is an amazing unit. Sadly it is let down by the software. You can get by with what is available, but it is very frustrating! Just like any other company, Denon is about making money. Unfortunately that leaves us in the position of having to wait until they feel like implementing what we deem necessary after they implement what they feel will bring more sales. Eg: Implementing Tidal streaming before sorting out Engine Prime software. I canā€™t help but question just exactly where Denonā€™s priorities lie. At the moment it seems like everything has been put on hold for NAMM 2020. Denon want to release something new & are holding back any further improvements in software / firmware until then. Fortunately NAMM isnā€™t too far away now. So until then, weā€™ll just have to wait. Note to DenonDj: If you do release more new hardware without sorting out the software side of things, you will be knocking nails into your own coffin.

Did you get that joke outta Christmas Cracker ? Iā€™ve looked through loads of the posts from. Staff on this forum since I joined abc thereā€™s nothing to back up what youā€™re saying matey

Take that statement however you want bud.

Ooh Nasty!! I donā€™t come here to insult or fight. Have fun with yourself though.

Things are enjoyable and informative on forums when people state facts rather than make stuff up and try to pass them off as factual information.

If you determine the words ā€œseems likeā€ as factual, that is your interpretation of it. Nothing more!!

If youā€™d care to read my first post about your inaccurate statement, rather than trying to pull attention away from your wholely unsubstantiated comment, youā€™ll see that you werenā€™t using terms like ā€œseems likeā€.

Hereā€™s what you said above: