My Denon Prime 4 Journey

[Excalibur]

Well Wayne, I'm hoping that something didn't go fizz inside mine last week. To cut a long description short, I normally feed the Prime into a spare channel on the VMS5. It has previously been brilliant, and capable of hitting the required levels with the prime faders halfway, similar on VMS, and plenty left everywhere.

Last time out, for some reason, I couldn't get the output high enough on the prime, and ended up with everything round to eleven, and likewise on the VMS. Haven't tried since, might have a play tomorrow, if it's a wet day.

[Imagine]

Well Wayne, I'm hoping that something didn't go fizz inside mine last week. To cut a long description short, I normally feed the Prime into a spare channel on the VMS5. It has previously been brilliant, and capable of hitting the required levels with the prime faders halfway, similar on VMS, and plenty left everywhere.

Last time out, for some reason, I couldn't get the output high enough on the prime, and ended up with everything round to eleven, and likewise on the VMS. Haven't tried since, might have a play tomorrow, if it's a wet day.

Curiously, the last time out with mine I found the master way higher than it normally is to sound loud enough.
I put it down to tiredness and flat hearing aid batteries at the time....but you may be onto something there.

BTW, it's been stored at home all week and it's been flawless on the touch-screen side of things. It's DEFINITELY an atmospheric thing and something to watch for over the colder months.

[Benny Smyth]

I'm finding this very interesting. I had part the garage converted into a home studio so I can work in peace. As a result of that, my gear has naturally been pushed closer to the garage door.

I've personally not experienced anything like this yet, but now I'm getting paranoid enough to start moving the controller into the studio, just in case...

[Benny Smyth]

I need to do a one year review of owning a Prime 4.

Realistically, I am never getting round to doing this, so here's a quick version:

- On the night itself, I love it. Could very well be one of the most fun playout systems that I have had in a very long time (the previous holder of that honour was a pair of the Numark iCDX - a fun CDJ, but was the absolute drizzling wotsits). Would still love to have auto gain, but I'm now used to being without it. Linking to Dropbox is never memorised, and requires me to log in every time for some reason, but it's very rare that I use Dropbox anyway. The integration with Tidal has been a God send, and has prevented me on more than one occasion from purchasing songs that will only ever be used for this wedding. It looks sexy, lets me do what I want to do, but also challenges me - I've been snapped out of autopilot a couple of times either because it can't do what I used to do in the way I used to do it, or it allows me to do something different. I like that.

I travel with my Prime 4 in the flightcase, and I personally don't have any problems with it. For most of my gigs, the framework is the Liteconsole XPRS and two plinths. I bang a plinth on the moving heads flightcase, the other plinth on the Liteconsole flight case, and everything else on a RocknRoller RT18. Three sets of wheels, nice & easy!

From this aspect, I have zero regrets purchasing it.

- At home, when it comes to prep work and updating Engine DJ, I absolutely hate it! It just feels clunky and I know it's still a young system, but I dread the days when I need to prep or add new music. I want to type a long paragraph about this, but it still won't convey how much I hate this aspect of owning a Prime 4.

- Soundswitch (because, by extension, it's part of my Prime 4 journey, so I say that it's relevant) is...fine. I started creating custom shows for quite a few songs last year when I first got it, but then life happened (if you know, you know), so the majority of my library has had their lightshows determined by Soundswitch. For the most part, you can see what it's trying to do and it's...fine. The problem is that it also has some really odd moments, like using a strobe on the first four beats of a drop - not the build up, but the drop. So far, I have only seen one song that works with, and that's Chris Brown's Yeah X3. For that song, it actually looks really good, but for everything else so far, it's just crap. I'd love for there to be a way to say to Soundswitch "I'm gonna leave you to decide what you wanna do with this song, but don't use strobe!" Oh, and launching autoloops from either the Prime 4 or the Control One just doesn't work. Press the button...nothing happens and I still can't work out what I am doing wrong.

- Speaking of the Soundswitch Control One, it is both great and terrible. The reason it's great is because I no longer have to have launch my static looks (first dance, etc.) from the Prime 4 touchscreen. Previously, doing so meant that I had both lighting and decks squeezed into just over 10 inches of screen - far too busy for my liking. Saying that, you can have up to 32 static looks, but - unlike the screen on the Prime 4 - you have to memorise which button on the Control One corresponds to which look, unless you want add a sticker to each button. Granted, I don't have 32 static looks, but even with the 7 or 8 that I do have, I often find myself looking at the Control One wondering "wait...which button is it again?"

Your mileage may vary.

[Imagine]

I'm finding this very interesting. I had part the garage converted into a home studio so I can work in peace. As a result of that, my gear has naturally been pushed closer to the garage door.

I've personally not experienced anything like this yet, but now I'm getting paranoid enough to start moving the controller into the studio, just in case...

It happened to me again this past weekend. P4 had been stored at home all week and worked flawlessly. Loaded it into the van for Saturday afternoon's kids party (it was in a cold van for around 4 hours), and BANG. Touch screen non-responsive....again. It thankfully came up 10 mins later but that's not the point.

Realistically, I am never getting round to doing this, so here's a quick version:

Would still love to have auto gain, but I'm now used to being without it. Linking to Dropbox is never memorised, and requires me to log in every time for some reason, but it's very rare that I use Dropbox anyway. The integration with Tidal has been a God send, and has prevented me on more than one occasion from purchasing songs that will only ever be used for this wedding. It looks sexy, lets me do what I want to do, but also challenges me - I've been snapped out of autopilot a couple of times either because it can't do what I used to do in the way I used to do it, or it allows me to do something different. I like that.

I got round the auto-gain thing by spending a fortune on Platinum notes. It's sorted those problems but I know where you're coming from! And the Tidal thing is absolutely AWESOME. It's bailed me out on more than a couple of occasions over the past year!

- At home, when it comes to prep work and updating Engine DJ, I absolutely hate it! It just feels clunky and I know it's still a young system, but I dread the days when I need to prep or add new music. I want to type a long paragraph about this, but it still won't convey how much I hate this aspect of owning a Prime 4.

The synchronisation process is absolute PANTS. My last new HDD took in excess of 12 hours to synchronise from the laptop to the Prime HDD. As an ex software developer, I really don't know or understand why they wrote their own database engine behind the scenes. There are plenty of free and mature systems on the market which would have done the job so much quicker and better.

- Soundswitch (because, by extension, it's part of my Prime 4 journey, so I say that it's relevant) is...fine. I started creating custom shows for quite a few songs last year when I first got it, but then life happened (if you know, you know), so the majority of my library has had their lightshows determined by Soundswitch. For the most part, you can see what it's trying to do and it's...fine. The problem is that it also has some really odd moments, like using a strobe on the first four beats of a drop - not the build up, but the drop. So far, I have only seen one song that works with, and that's Chris Brown's Yeah X3. For that song, it actually looks really good, but for everything else so far, it's just crap. I'd love for there to be a way to say to Soundswitch "I'm gonna leave you to decide what you wanna do with this song, but don't use strobe!" Oh, and launching autoloops from either the Prime 4 or the Control One just doesn't work. Press the button...nothing happens and I still can't work out what I am doing wrong.

I know where you're coming from here. I use the default programming because I haven't had the time to do the individual tracks (it's on my massive to-do list). I find the inbuilt programs to be OK so long as you very fixtures between being Primary, Secondary and Tertiary (the former is more wash, the latter have more "movement").

As for the strobing, that can be disabled!

- Speaking of the Soundswitch Control One, it is both great and terrible. The reason it's great is because I no longer have to have launch my static looks (first dance, etc.) from the Prime 4 touchscreen. Previously, doing so meant that I had both lighting and decks squeezed into just over 10 inches of screen - far too busy for my liking. Saying that, you can have up to 32 static looks, but - unlike the screen on the Prime 4 - you have to memorise which button on the Control One corresponds to which look, unless you want add a sticker to each button. Granted, I don't have 32 static looks, but even with the 7 or 8 that I do have, I often find myself looking at the Control One wondering "wait...which button is it again?"

Your mileage may vary.

Yup - I have a Control One (somewhere...I don't actually know where I left it last). It's been used a couple of times. My biggest gripe with it is that you can't actually label the buttons as you mention. Everything I ever did fell off (they have some sort of non-stick surface on the thing that even SuperGlue's allergic to!). I WILL dig it out again because we now own one of those Cricut thingy's so the chances of cutting some sort of meaningful overlay are a lot more likely.

I feel they're missing a massive sales opportunity here in not offering some sort of "keyboard overlay" which folks can write on and place between the buttons.

My main concern at the moment is the non-responsive touchscreen when it's been stored cold.
I put mine away after Saturdays' party (fully flight cased), went and fetched it home today and ....yup....non responsive until it warmed up (around 30-45 minutes). Since then...flawless again. It's DEFINITELY a climatic thing.

None of my other kit suffers this problem. The storage unit is dry and well insulated. And yet the Prime seems to complain each and every times it's been stored there.

My plan for the winter months is to put it back into it's soft-shell case where it's small enough to travel in the heated cab of the van - a theory I'll be testing on Thursday. Not ideal and adds about 10 mins to the setup time but if it works.....

[Excalibur]

Well Wayne, I'm hoping that something didn't go fizz inside mine last week. To cut a long description short, I normally feed the Prime into a spare channel on the VMS5. It has previously been brilliant, and capable of hitting the required levels with the prime faders halfway, similar on VMS, and plenty left everywhere.

Last time out, for some reason, I couldn't get the output high enough on the prime, and ended up with everything round to eleven, and likewise on the VMS. Haven't tried since, might have a play tomorrow, if it's a wet day.

My name is Peter, and I'm a
There are a lot of knobs on the Prime. One of them is a master volume control. 'nuff said.

It happened to me again this past weekend. P4 had been stored at home all week and worked flawlessly. Loaded it into the van for Saturday afternoon's kids party (it was in a cold van for around 4 hours), and BANG. Touch screen non-responsive....again. It thankfully came up 10 mins later but that's not the point.

Ouch mate. The subject of cold storage/warm venues is all over Facebook. Some folk claim to never have a problem, others are struggling.
Mine usually travels in the cabin, in a soft case. It lends itself to that. Good luck.

[Imagine]

My name is Peter, and I'm a
There are a lot of knobs on the Prime. One of them is a master volume control. 'nuff said.


Ouch mate. The subject of cold storage/warm venues is all over Facebook. Some folk claim to never have a problem, others are struggling.
Mine usually travels in the cabin, in a soft case. It lends itself to that. Good luck.

D'ya know what? I've been doing a LOT of thinking today.

I absolutely LOVE the P4 and everything it offers. Plus...there's more to come software-wise as it matures.

BUT...my P4 is only just liftable in its flight case. Add to this that if it's in the back of the disco-bus for more than an hour on a cold day it's unusable for at least 45 minutes (yup...I timed it and I don't HAVE that much time between unloading and starting normally)...I feel we need to part company. I really can't be doing with the "will it...won't it" thing. I NEED things to work.

For the Christmas party season, I'm back to using the MCX7000 because it doesn't care how cold or damp it is...it just works every single time. It'll be backed up with a Behringer CMD Studio which works nicely with VDJ and again...works when it's a been a bit chilly.

I'll be selling the P4 with the 2u rack mount flight case in the New Year. Don't worry though....the plan is to replace it with the PrimeGo which I can easily store at home and transport in the cab of the van where it'll be gently warmed before it's needed.

[Benny Smyth]

Touch wood (and I know that by typing this, I will jinx it), but I'm still not having this issue as of yet. I hope that luck continues...

I've made the decision to purchase a Prime Go for my backup. It's time to retire Traktor from my arsenal once and for all. As a business decision, I cannot justify buying one because for what I do, it makes no sense. But I want one, and just like the Bose S1 Pro, I suspect that a large chunk of it's usage will be in my back garden while I'm relaxing and having a few whiskeys.

[Excalibur]

I'll be selling the P4 with the 2u rack mount flight case in the New Year. Don't worry though....the plan is to replace it with the PrimeGo which I can easily store at home and transport in the cab of the van where it'll be gently warmed before it's needed.

I see where you're going/coming from, but a word of caution. It's not a Prime 4. It's not really even a Prime 2. I don't envisage it as a main playout, I couldn't use it thus, as I believe you need to structure your music differently to the way I do. It does offer great benefits, but a main playout? Hmmm?
( Don't worry Wayne, the 24 hour helpdesk for Prime GO users is operational, and very reasonable rates ).

But I want one, and just like the Bose S1 Pro, I suspect that a large chunk of it's usage will be in my back garden while I'm relaxing and having a few whiskeys.

Benny, as a backup/adjunct, it's awesome. I suspect you will find many more uses for it.

[Benny Smyth]

I've made the decision to purchase a Prime Go for my backup.

Benny, as a backup/adjunct, it's awesome. I suspect you will find many more uses for it.

This afternoon, my new Prime Go landed and I can't quite decide what I think of it. I have just had a bit of a play with it using Tidal while I sync Engine DJ onto an SD card, so I'm going to reserve judgement for now.

It does almost everything that the Prime 4 does, but makes it a lot more difficult to do it. My initial impressions is that Denon have tried to give the Go too much, and everything I've done so far feels like a compromise - "Yeah, I can still do that, but I have to press this, followed by that whilst standing on my left leg and tapping my head with my right index finger." I think it would be a better controller if some features were taken away.

It's a very curious controller, and I am looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.