How many of you use a Prime unit for Weddings (specifically Receptions)? I’ve used a Prime Go for Ceremonies, but I had a Prime 4 back in the day I was going to use for Receptioons, but the play button would randomly stop responding on one of the decks and the only “fix” was a reboot of the unit. I’m looking to get back into using a standalone. I’m wondering if this is a common issue or if things have improved with the 4+ and/or firmware updates, etc…
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I have used my Prime Go + for a few wedding receptions and the only issue is random glitches when loading a deck and the bug where the prep list stops working after a point.
I don’t have a Prime4, I do have 2 SC6000’s. From time to time I had to reboot them. Thinking of this I have a few thoughts I want to share:
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Using SC6000’s means you have 2 dual layer devices, which in turn means a crash of one SC6000 is not a showstopper. It gives extra redundancy over a Prime 4. In my case a SC6000 was never a showstopper. This wasn’t an argument when I bought the SC6000s however.
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Thinking about gear failures makes me think of my Traktor S4 controller I had in the past. I can count the number of ‘show-stopping’ crashes of my laptop/S4 combo on one hand. Ofcourse I did have to do reboots far more often for the initial setup of this Traktor rig at gig. But I didn’t keep statistics of it, it’s just a feeling that this was a tad more reliable than Engine. I also can’t comment on Pioneer all-in-ones as I didn’t use them.
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honestly, I had needles break, even killing the record it was playing, I had CDs stutter, I have seen twin CD players go up in smoke during a gig, I have seen mixers with broken faders, I have seen speakers fail, I have seen power generators go haywire and kill equipment, water seep into connectors, people tripping over cables. At my current residency the owner even refuses to maintain his dust-filled amplifiers, resulting in 5 audio drops during a night, every night…. Every kind of equipment fails, even analog. Sometimes due to lack of maintenance, sometimes due to human error, sometimes due to bad luck… Regarding my SC6000 setup: I generally feel that my digital-media gear fails me much less then my cd/vinyl gear: CDs would get worn out after a few years of heavy use and start to skip, often bailing on me after even 20 seconds of playtime, just as I was packing away the previous CD in it’s sleeve, in peaktime hours
… Unpleasantly skipping CDs where standard on every gig, you were glad if that was the only thing that went wrong… -
if reliability is paramount, you need redundancy, period. I used to bring a small slappa with 20 self burnt CDs with a compilation of my most played tracks (by statistics of my DJ software) to gigs. Suppose my Traktor setup would fail, I would always be able to play from the provided CD players. These days you also have USB or bluetooth (or even line) mixers which allow you to connect your laptop and continue in a rudimentary way. Some of these are rackmount, some compact enough to throw into your backpack…. Or, if you have an all-in-one which has a hardwired line-in, you could continue with your laptop connected to this line-in. Again, no idea how a Prime 4 behaves here, neither the Pioneer all-in-one range, so test this when you buy… I also haven’t got the need for it as I use 2 SC6000s, but would consider it if I used a Prime 4 at places where no other gear is provided.
All-in-all you have to ask yourself how dependent you want to be on single points of failures in your setup, and how much this may cost you…
my 2 dollars (2 cents corrected for inflation) 
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I have a Prime 4+ and the only playback problem i have had these 2 years is that maybe 3-4 times the effects have stopped working and a reboot was needed. Knock on woods this has not happened for about 8 months now, but now i jinxed it 
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I use it for weddings and had the same bug a few times already. I think it was when I downloaded a track to a deck and while downloading I decided to load another track to this deck to overwrite it while the first track was still downloading in the background.
After switching back to all offline and prepared tracks from SSD this never happened again.
I don’t own a Prime Go+ but I am really awed by the concept of standalone systems like the one I currently own, Prime2, I always feel like the Prime Go + would have been a revolution especially if it had a Hard Disk Bay to internally contain the Music. If Denon could have done that, this would have been the IT in DJaying, especially now that Battery powered systems are picking Momentum. So far My Denon Prime 2 has been solid, never failing.
There’s no need for a drive bay. There’s an SD card slot. You can readily buy SD cards up to 2 TB these days.
If you do feel you need a drive bay, you can always rig something up in a case and plug into the USB port. You can use a USB hub as well.
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Yes this. I use a 512gb SD card for prepping, messing around etc then a Samsung 1tb T7 SSD for gigs as its faster. No need for an internal drive bay.
Yeah, -1 on the drive bay See, when using a drive bay you have to drag that big flightcase with your controller to your computer, with an SD card or USB drive you just take that USB drive to your computer….
I usually do the other way around - get my laptop to the decks.
My decks are usually only unpacked from their cases at gigs, so that would mean carrying the laptop to the gig…
But hey, whatever floats our boats
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Yes, of course, but still, this is easier to get a laptop to the case, than the case to the laptop
For my part, I use the P4+ for all types of events. Before that, I was already using a Prime 4 that I bought in July 2019, and it never let me down.
I bought the 4+ in October 2023 because I thought to myself: the Prime 4 is a little over 4 years old, it will surely start to show signs of weakness, so maybe it’s time to cover my back in case of problems, so I bought the P4+. Before the P4, I used the MCX8000 and before that the CDJ2000 and a DJM800 (I was looking for a lighter and less bulky setup). I also had a vinyl setup (SL1200MK5 + Rane 62 and Rane MP2015, which I used with Serato).
Personally, I’m very happy to have owned the P4 (I sold it last fall) and to have used the P4+, as well as the dedicated PGO for wedding ceremonies or as a backup if I had a problem with the P4 or 4+, knowing that when I first got the P4, I never imagined that the player would receive so many feature updates (more or less useful for me), but it’s a joy. With each major update that includes new features, I rediscover my players.
If you use high-quality storage media, correctly encoded files with clean ID tags in each audio file, album cover images no larger than 600x600 pixels, and you don’t overload your dedicated media with audio files and don’t exceed 1TB of storage space, then you will have a stable, high-performance, and smooth player. Keep in mind that major updates are not necessarily compatible with each other, so before performing them, read the update notes before blindly updating (the notes can be very important for the proper functioning of your device). In my case, it works very, very well!
For my part, I use a 512GB Samsung PRO 860 Series internal SSD with almost 10,000 audio files, or 98 GB, a 500GB EVO 870 external backup, and a 128GB Sandisk Extreme Pro USB key dedicated to important moments at weddings, including: the bride and groom’s entrance, the opening dance, music for the champagne fountain/wedding cake, and the bride and groom’s essentials.
For the Prime GO, I use a Sony M Tough 128GB UHS-II V60 U3 SD card.
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My Prime 4 has that Sata drive and some SSD installed (I don’t even remember the size, probably 512GB) and in the end I stick with SD cards, have plenty of them and never had issues, neither with my Denon gear, nor with my cameras. The built-in reader in my Macbook Pro is a godsend and supports UHS-II, though I use classic UHS-I Sandisk cards for my Engine library (which I constantly update or change, hence I am too lazy to directly connect my P4 with the laptop).
Small devices like the Go or Mixstreams don’t need a dedicated Sata-drive, would be overkill and tricky in terms of internal space. For the flagship products it should absolutely stay, great as internal backup or for your core library that you can always rely on if something with your other media goes wrong.
I did countless gigs with my Prime 4 on weddings, parties, company events, with my Live 4 sitting ready in its bag as backup - never needed, never had a total crash. The Live 4 shines for my Skarmask outdoor sets, as it is much lighter, more compact, and works with 12VDC powerbanks. Once I have some battery powered Apelabs fixtures, some nice video are already planned.
4-5 years ago I never thought about doing 6-8hrs gig without a laptop screen (Serato DJ, in my case). Both my devices would support it (which I appreciate), and I’m one of the lucky ones who got a P’n’T license for $19, but I just don’t need it anymore. Long standalone sets, at least with the decently sized 10.1” screen of the Prime 4 (or the SC6000 decks), are comfortable to do, especially since they added the performance library.
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I have a Prime 4 + which I have used at many events. Although I generally have USB sticks for gigs, I have found the Prime 4 + very useful to handle on-the-fly requests using its streaming capability. Beatsource, SoundCloud or Amazon Music are ususally sufficient for this. Alternatively, I can deploy Serato DJ Pro on my MacBook, which allows me to use Spotify for the same purpose. This versatility has saved me countless hours not having to actually download music before each and every event. The Prime 4 + has been useful for my club gigs and for general audience gigs (like weddings). There have been no issues with buttons or controls thus far.
I’d work on the principle that everything can fail, nothing is perfect, nothing can ever claim to never go wrong.
Chose whatever works best for your work style and DJing workflow - then get 2 of them for redundancy, unless you’re just bedroom’ing , streaming out from said bedroom, or playing for a non-geographic radio station , in which case, save your pennies
As others have said, the Prime SCs dual layer abilities can be treated as a redundancy option for sure.
Don’t think I’d be comfortable taking two controllers to a gig though, part of the reason for getting the Prime Go+ was to make a compact setup that requires as little equipment as possible. I also don’t fancy spending another £900 on something that may never be used.
Saying that the Prime Go+ is quite buggy to use and no night I’ve worked with it has been trouble free, however I’m reasonably confident it’s not going to crash out on me.
Brings the dilemma of whether I keep updating it in the future or leave as is, but the glitching tracks and prep list stopping working do impact my gigs somewhat.
That’s ok then - don’t take a redundancy option or … have a pre-mix “ministry of sound” style megamix on your phone, ready to play - tacky as heck but, gets through the night