Hello all, this post is part feature request to the Denon DJ team and part question to everyone who uses the auto bpm detection on the x1850.
I tend to dj a lot of reggae which I do using a combination of an sc6000M player and turntables playing regular vinyl (using external phono pre-amps). Since the FX module on the x1850 respond to the mixer’s detected BPM, I try to ensure that the mixer has the right data. With my media player this is no problem since it sends this data with the prepared track over Ethernet. With my records however, I need to rely on the auto bpm detection of the mixer. Unfortunately, with reggae at least, the x1850 running ver 1.7 of the firmware tends to incorrectly identify the bpm of the audio on the analog inputs, generally doubling the actual value. So on a typical roots reggae track that was recorded at 70 bpm in 4/4, the x1850 reads it as 140 BPM.
My request for a future firmware update: can we get a BPM half-time toggle like there is in engine dj? Perhaps a key combination could be used to set the auto-bpm detection to divide its sensed value by 2. Alternatively or in addition to, how about some additional work on the algorithm to better detect the BPM of songs in the 65 - 75 bpm range? Engine DJ also consistently gets bpm wrong with this type of music.
My question to all the djs using the analog inputs on the x1850: do you also have this problem and what do you do about it? Do you tap out the tempo for each track? Leave it at double time and forgo the use of the 3/4 time division with the BPM effect module? Is there an external clock solution ?
Your thoughts on this are appreciated!