I am a professional wedding DJ and in the last years I defended the living hell out of Denon players when all the comparisons started.
Now I’m just fed up and I will gradually sell all my gear.
I’m using the Prime 4 and the Prime GO (1st iterations, each), as the players itself work flawlessly. Engine DJ on the other hand is a complete train wreck. It’s basically unusable, to a point where I nearly lost all my sh*t while at a gig last weekend. I don’t know where I should start, but maybe Denon fix your damn wifi-sync? I’m pretty reliant on Spotify, so I have to manually buy most of my tracks when clients are requesting some new songs they want to hear (I live in Germany, and Apple Music, Amazon and other services sometimes don’t offer every niche song). So, wifi-sync is very detrimental to my operation. (I also use a dedicated wifi-router for a mobile local network, with inbuilt 5G and every other fancy stuff). It’s just outright bad (and no, I tried many setups, different routers, different DMX-wireless receivers, PoE antennas, stuff which scans the wifi networks, everything…).
Maybe also fix the whole way how devices and USB-sticks are synced? The amount of clutter, duplicates, different CUE points etc. is so confusing. I have a library of some 5000 tracks - nothing fancy, but why does it consume 200 gigs of space? (obvs stems take some space, but not 200 gigs!?!?!?!)
Also, generally the whole stability with Engine DJ: I have a perfectly functioning Sandisk USB stick. No dead sectors, no nothing. My Primes can’t read them anymore since some 6 weeks - Engine DJ does. It’s just so bad… If Denon would actually care about their services, then I would try to count all my blessings, but they simply don’t care.
Have you tried to clean your collection? (library optimization under settings) . I tend to use it daily to keep the size of the collection in check.
And, as a Dutch user I’m pretty depended of Tidal . There aren’t many tracks which are on Spotify but not on Tidal. (Even the most niche dutch local dialect record labels put their stuff on Tidal now)
I have the direct comparison to a friend of mine. Pioneer has issues, but the basics (filesharing, usb-sync, etc.) work flawlessly. With the XDJs you can even put one Deck into MIDI-Mode, connect your PC via USB and then let the music directly be played via Rekordbox - all while the other Deck is in standalone mode. This alone saves so much time. If you could at least use the Ethernet-Port as a direct file transfer, to connect to a mobile network - but Denon rather wants to sell their 10 € month soundswitch gimmick.
So much so that I can confidently say that Engine DJ is riddled with bugs. I was one of the first people to pre-order the Prime 4 - Denon is free to check my claim. I experienced every iteration, version and update from the get-go. Some basic things are still flawed, like they are on day one.
I can’t count the number of occasions where I went to the record store, looked really hard for, sometimes even ordered, a CD which contained a track that was requested at a wedding. Later iTunes Store made thing super easy. 1 euro for a track at an event which delivered me around 500 euros!
Don’t rely on wifi or 5G. I play at numerous locations where 5G or wifi coverage is non-existant. I won’t risk playing at a 500 euro gig (wedding), when I am not 200% sure I will fulfill all expectations. You can have the best DJ software on the market, if internet connectivity lets you down, you’ll have to rely on your own collection…
2 things I can never work out with these shouty rants. First thing is why not just leave? Why waste time and energy to log onto a forum just to write all this, especially when you’ve only ever contributed to the forum twice before… all seems a bit bonkers to me.
Final thing is, why are they always angled as if these are some kind of universal problem with the ecosystem when it’s clearly an issue with a particular users workflow. If any of this stuff was inherent to Engine as a whole, the noise caused by it would be unreal, the forum and other social media sites would be flooded with issues.
In all honesty the thing that radiates out above the trivial and petty pieces of evidence which scream “I didn’t read the manual” is that the opening post claims “I’m a professional wedding DJ” when actually someone’s coming across as spoilt brat, in my opinion.
Also, “I’m a wedding DJ” and “I’m heavily reliant on Spotify” simply cancel each other out… it’s like someone saying “I’m a professional builder of luxury houses” and “I’m heavily reliant on Lego”
There’s also the hilarious part, where the auto-scripts in the forum advise that this user has been away from the forum for 11 months. If you’d asked for help sooner, you might not have gotten yourself into this pickle.
I had a few suggestions which sprang to mind but reading between the lines of the original post there’s this overlaying pompous attitude coming through, which, previously used to be predominantly witnessed from a couple of Italian members, of “dont anybody make any suggestions of help, coz I’ll tell you that it won’t be that’s and I’ve already tried everything you’re about to suggest and you’d be wrong anyway.
So, you’re off to bug and hardware issue pioneer are you? Toddle pip, off you go.
There are some heavy logical fallacies in your response. I am not HEAVILY reliant on Spotify. I’m just not using any of the inbuilt streaming services, as they don’t really offer more value to me - so “physically” buying my songs is important. Your tools don’t specify how professional you are - it’s the way you use them, cope with problems and know alternatives while failures occur. Also, comparing Legos in a proper construction site to using Spotify would insult a lot of DJs. It’s a perfectly nice combination. Use it. Don’t be gatekeeped by this guy. You can also use the sync button as a professional DJ.
I normally don’t post on this forum, because of exactly this attitude: “YoU hAvEn’t pOstEd iN a WhiLe, sO yOu shOulDn’t HaVe a cLaim tO cRitIciSe”. This is also a logical fallacy, as it also gatekeeps the living hell out of people who are introvert.
Your response isn’t really a mature one and shouldn’t suit the attitude members in this forum could expect.
Obviously, you could argue that my rant isn’t of much value either, but it’s more about finding people who suffer with me, than to flame all of you guys and this whole company - there is a reason I initially bought this setup.
Leaving would be giving up, letting some decision makers and greedy managers get away with unfulfilled promises. Where is your in-hardware Stem rendering in your Prime 4 +? They promised it. Apart from the hardware changes and a bit more beef under the hood, there wasn’t a reason to make a new one. Now with every update I feel like they secretly slow down my Primes, make them less reliable and let me go insane - especially when there are seemingly only 12 year olds in this forum who reply.
Again, these are merely your opinions and not a globally accepted status quo, if devices were purposefully being slowed down there would be an outcry, yet there isn’t, there’s just you making wild claims.
You also said in your OP that you are leaving, so which is it, leaving or not leaving?
What unfulfilled promises are there? Please dont say ‘on device’ Stems because that situation was made clear to anyone who bothered to take notice.
The biggest thing about the ecosystem I’m worried about is, is that the HQ of Inmusic is in the USA. And now Microsoft are starting to shutting down EU-users by presidential decree I’m worried we might be facing the same issues at some point.
Even though I’m quite few lines down in the poem* I do use my Prime4 on Pride and LGBTIQ-events.
(* - First They Came – by Pastor Martin Niemöller)
500 € for a gig back then were quite the amount! I hope you charge at least 3 times the amount today - don’t let yourself be undervalued
I have to friendly disagree with your 2nd point, or at least give you a twist on it: I’m not reliant on 5G - it’s a nice addition to make my life easier. Clients at German weddings get crazy drunk. There are situations where I skip the transition and immediately play the request. Otherwise, I risk a bad review or even a spilled drink. Having 5G and a proper USB-less and easy file transfer isn’t the reason my life works, but rather an addition to make it easier. An addition which worked some updates ago.
OK fair enough you didn’t use that word, but you DID say that you relied on it - which is what people are responding to. As a “professional” you should NOT be using Spotify to provide music at gigs. There’s a reason why Spotify withdrew from the DJ market several years ago.
It’s akin to claiming you’re a professional DJ then saying you rip music from YouTube.
THEN PLEASE TRY TO SYNC YOUR WHOLE LIBRARY + STEMS TO A DIFFERENT COMPUTER. DO IT NOW. My god, you are a chokehold on this whole forum. Embarrassing the least.
