Engine OS laptop vs controller {beatgrid}

General Area
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Hi everyone, I’m new to Denon. My question is about beatgrid analysis accuracy. I’ve only tried a few tracks on my USB that the controller itself analyzed, and I’m seeing that the beatgrids are totally off.

Before this, I was pretty sure that Engine OS was really good at detecting track structure, and I’ve personally seen on my computer how well tracks get aligned after analysis.

But right now, I don’t have a way to test how tracks will look on the controller after being analyzed on a computer.

So my question is: Is there a difference in how Engine OS analyzes tracks on a computer versus on the controller itself?

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Hi @Michail_Mancinskij ! Welcome to the community dude! :clinking_beer_mugs:

The only time i used Engine devices to do an on-device analysis was in 2017 when the SC5000s first came out. Since then, I have relied on Engine DJ due to speed, accuracy, and control. Even Engine DJ has flaws in its strategy.

I’ll write it in pseudo code/process:

  • For each file imported
    • If file supports metadata and the BPM value is present
      • Use the present BPM value along with detecting the first beat to set the beat grid.
    • Else (think WAV files), analyze the track using the BPM detection algorithm and set the beat grid accordingly.

Why does it work this way?

  • Speed. Engine wants to get you from importing songs to tearing the roof off as fast as possible. This isn’t always the best case because the BPM value in the metadata isn’t always correct and this is for a lot of reasons. An example of this is that the BPM value in the metadata only supports whole integers, not fractions (known as floating point in computer science terms) and some songs are not exactly 120BPM, but rather 120.03BPM, and that means the blind trust that Engine puts in the BPM value will lay the beat grid incorrectly.

What do we do about it?

  • The only recourse we have is to ask Engine DJ to “Reanalzye” the songs. This will cause it to ignore the BPM value in the metadata and use its internal algorithm to determine the BPM. This will get you closer to a perfect beat grid, but not always as the beat detection code isn’t ever going to be perfect.

Hope this helps =)

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