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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Just spent a weekend on Denon Engine Prime ....
So I had a couple of gigs in a venue that has a terrible load in (loads of stairs as it's a squash club) so tried out the Prime Go+ in standalone mode with Engine lighting instead of VDJ with ShowXpress via OS2L and VDJ.

Bonus was that Engine DJ supported Apple Music directly on the unit and it worked well. Negatives were there the fact the music from the Samsung T7 kept pausing and skipping a fair bit. So many things missing on a software level it felt like I was a DJ 20 years ago. I guess I'm used to VDJ but the amount of times across the two nights I thought "I wish I had that feature" held me back. I guess the customers didn't notice but it was a bit like DJing with an arm cut off.

If VDJ implememted Apple Music it would be a slam dunk!
 
Posted Mon 09 Jun 25 @ 6:15 pm
Can you tell us what you were missing? What did you feel was holding you back??

I know for me personally my prep time when running standalone is a lot more work (Cues, Loops, just getting playlist sorted out right, making sure tags are 100% for me) but I haven't really missed to much when playing standalone vs VDJ (video doesn't count for obvious reason ;-p )

Also, I've had problems with T7s in the past, I know everyone loves them but the last 2 I bought I had the same issues. Maybe a bad batch I don't know.
 
I'm done with engine os. My prime 4 locked up in the middle of a show a few weeks back. Had to finish the night with my iPad. The next day I tried to get it to work It would boot up then freeze. Completely disassembled the prime 4 and now it's large pile of parts
 
Main issues were lack of automix (you can load a playlist as continuous play but Soundswitch won't work on those tracks unbelievably) so no lights. Also you can't modify or randomize the playlist either. Tracks skipping and jumping for no reason.

Just so many things missing that make life so easy using VDJ.

It's a half implemented platform and each new release causes more problems than the one before it. If I roll back to 4.2 the skipping doesn't happen but then I lose Apple Music :)

I only really use that setup at venues with difficult access so it's only the odd gig thankfully.
 
djjohnnyrox wrote :
I'm done with engine os. My prime 4 locked up in the middle of a show a few weeks back. Had to finish the night with my iPad. The next day I tried to get it to work It would boot up then freeze. Completely disassembled the prime 4 and now it's large pile of parts


Had the Prime 4 and for the power house it can be I never could get used to the layout of the FXs. And the loading of tracks to the HD was always a hassle. Got rid of it like 2 months ago.

kradcliffe wrote :
Main issues were lack of automix (you can load a playlist as continuous play but Soundswitch won't work on those tracks unbelievably) so no lights. Also you can't modify or randomize the playlist either. Tracks skipping and jumping for no reason.

Just so many things missing that make life so easy using VDJ.

It's a half implemented platform and each new release causes more problems than the one before it. If I roll back to 4.2 the skipping doesn't happen but then I lose Apple Music :)

I only really use that setup at venues with difficult access so it's only the odd gig thankfully.


Well damn!! I didnt realize SS wouldnt work with the mix. That is crappy!! Maybe Im licky but the only problems Ive run into were the tracks skipping and it was those damn T7s causing the issues.
 
Just chiming in. I used my Prime Go+ for a ceremony last week for the first time. I was really pleased with it. The mic inputs, autoplay of my music playlist, fader control, not having to rely on a 1/8 jack on a ipad or drag my laptop along for music. It just simplified everything. Plus it's a backup in case something goes wrong with my main rig. And I'm really impressed with how tightly it integrates as a controller for VDJ. I haven't dug into Engine much and I probably won't, but for ceremonies, backups, and couch DJ'ing the Prime Go is a really nice piece.
 
I have a Prime 4 and a prime go and a prime go+

for certain gigs, they are great.

However trying to use them I found as a party/wedding dj primarily and a club/bar dj secondarily the following issues.

Down time.

When I'm on VDJ and it's quiet, I can move my playlists around.

If I've found a certain song goes down better right now I can move it to my prime time slot and demote another song to warm up or after party.

If I've noticed some songs don't have genre, I can fix it etc.

So I spend a productive hour at the beginning of most gigs, sorting my music out. Whilst the party is warming up.

I can't do that with engine.

Secondly, screen real estate, the prime 4 has a lovely big bright screen. same with the go but smaller.

however the do not compare to a 14" /15/17" laptop screen for working.

I can dump songs into side list, move them around in my event list, dump stuff into automix whilst I'm not using it - loads of flexibility in the way I see the music for the event, which again you can't do with engine.

If you tend to have 2 -3 main playlist and play those, with some genre folders, engine will work for you.

If you like DJing on the fly, from your whole collection, then Engine is not for you, or at least not as easy to do as VDJ is.
 
Yeah that pretty much sums it up.

In VDJ I keep the Automix window for tracks I will play at some point and the sidelist for customer requests.

There is the "prep" section in engine but it's not as flexible and you have to completely change screens to see it. You also can't "randomize" the order of a playlist or sort it easily either.

The killer for me though is that if you are running a continuous playlist engine Lighting doesn't work at all, so you need to be at the controller the whole night where with VDJ you can just click the automix button and disappear during breaks etc. and ShowXpress keeps going receiving data from O2SL.

As I said it's fine for the odd gig with difficult access etc. but I couldn't use Engine as a permanent solution at all.
 
"continuous playlist engine Lighting doesn't work at all,"

Really? So what does it do, nothing ?

You can work around that by using a pre-rec mix, like the serato boys do, but not ideal.
 
I also ironically love DJing with engine. It's a more "pure" experience.

but that's only when there are no requests/customers/brides etc to stop that flow.
 
Yes, it's fine in one of the pub gigs I do which is mainly EDM and I can generally use the same playlist I've built up over the past couple of years.

And yes, if you use a continuous playlist all the lights go off.