Microphone Delay

I’ve just picked up a Denon SC Live 4 and I’m using it on a gig as I type this. I use a microphone and there is a delay coming through the main outputs when I talk. It’s only small, as if it’s running through a DSP but when I monitor in the headphones or booth it’s not there. Before anyone says it, it’s not audio delay from the main speakers back to the DJ box - it sounds like an actual micro delay effect. Any one else had this issue??

I’ve had the same issue on a SC Live 4 too.

We purchased one in Singapore for a ship and experienced the same micro-delay on the mic. We never could never eliminate it and couldn’t take it back due to the ships location.

I don’t have access to it anymore as I’m not in that ship but maybe you could work with the team to help nail down what it is.

Yeah it’s deffo some digital processing on the mic - really weird and it’s not in the headphones on booth! I’ll message someone Denon wise tomorrow!

I still need to get to the bottom of it but it’s been a year now. It’s makes the mic unusable.

Actually found this from @Craig_Ranson

1 Like

It’s a bit like those BT speakers that you can also connect wired. Even wired they suffer from the same latency as when used with BT.

I AM wondering how you conclude it’s not a delay caused by the distance from the speaker to the booth? Are the speakers right next to the booth? And if you say micro-delay, what kind of ms are we talking about? A distance of 10ft already incurs a 10ms delay. Hence the question.

Again, not saying it isn’t DSP induced, after all DSP’s CAN add to signal processing time and thus cause delays, BUT you would think that this would not only apply to the microphone.

I don’t know the SC in particular, but if it’s mic channel is anything like on the Prime 4, it’s just EQ, reverb and volume controls. And ducking obviously, but that only affects the other level(s) or main in this case and not the mic signal. Which makes me wonder what processing signal path is so significantly different that it does not affect all other audio channels but only the mic.

Other question, do you notice a difference when you play from the aux-channel? This is the only other channel on the unit (if I am not mistaken) that is external in the sense that it doesn’t come from a digital source.

My 3 cents as usual.

Hey guys

An update on this - I recorded some audio at a gig of me talking on the mic, both internally on the SD and externally via master out and couldn’t fully show the issue, but myself and others stood next to me could here the doubling. I was going to try and film to show it at home in some way. However, the bad news is I can;t now do this as my SC Live 4 unit along with the SD inside it and a load of my other DJ gear was stolen from my car last week on the way back from a gig!!

So yeah currently massively hacked off and can’t show the issue after all that! To clarify though I used both a prime 4 and a pioneer Rev 7 this week and there was no delay or doubling effect at all with either of those

The Prime 4 mic routing runs differently compared to the newer Live units. Aside from the dedicated Echo EFX no main EFX can be applied and the routing can’t be changed. Same for the Prime Go (that’s why some feature request like Mic EQ couldn’t be added afterward). That could explain the Delay vs No-Delay observation.

Btw I have suggested adding Mic/Aux-Cue/Pfl or Route-Mic/Aux-to-Ch1-mode for the Live 4, which I believe is feasible, due to the more ‘digital’ routing architecture.

I’ve managed to find a rough video of the issue. It doesn’t highlight it as well as it should but there’s a basic understanding of how it sounds.

This was taken around a year ago. They’re asking me to remotely help fix it but I’m stuck. When I was with the unit I tried everything to no avail.

For context I own a Prime 4 and Prime Go and they have three Prime Go units at work (it’s why I pushed for the SC Live 4).

I hope someone from the team has an idea what could cause this for some users and not for others. I can only think there’s a bad batch?

Is that it? Wow, that’s barely anything.

To me that sounds like what you’d expect from hearing yourself on a PA anyway. Presumably on that clip we can hear a voice directly (picked up by the mic on the camera/phone) and the sound from the PA, so the audience would only hear the sound from the PA.

Once the music’s playing, I doubt the DJ would even notice (as they’d only hear the PA).

If there’s no “double sound” on recordings, then there’s no doubling on the output, then there’s no issue (in my opinion).

1 Like

It’s not a very good example at all but it’s been reported by multiple people but doesn’t affect all units. The thing is, there shouldn’t be anything. It’s like a robot sound though the mic which is almost like there’s an effect on and they can’t use the mic through the SC Live 4 at work because of it and are temporarily using another mixer and mic system.

Through the very same PA we’ve had to connect a wireless Sure mic which has stopped the issue. It’s definitely inside the SC Live 4 as the Prime Go does not exhibit this through the same PA system. It sounds much worse in the flesh and is also apparent though the silent disco we do (so it’s not the room).

I never tried to record it so I’m not sure if it appears on the recording.

Up to yet I’ve seen four users on here with this issue.

I wouldn’t say that the mic input on the SC Live4 is unusable. This is not true. Yes, the microphone input on the SC Live4 has a delay, about 50-60ms, this is not a small delay. But you get more delay if you use any average quality wireless microphone. This is not a significant problem. I believe that this delay can be removed by firmware and reduced to the standard 10-20 ms.

For the team on the cruise ship that it’s installed on we tried it and it sounded like you’re taking into a desk fan. It was too robotic sounding as it’s not just a delay but a doubled audio. There is two signals passing though the mic channel. One in real time and the other about 50ms apart. This “ghost” copy is the one that needs removing via firmware. It’s like it’s being injected further along the signal path unnecessarily.

We had complaints so got around it with another mixer and mic. It’s a premium cruise ship and sounded naff for hosting quizzes.

So a user seems to have their SCLIVE2 show a similar symptom of the mic delay/doubled signal but in the headphones since updating to V4.0.

Are they linked? It seems like a similar problem only this time it’s affecting the headphones.

I’ve got a video of an issue as I was planning to use the sc live 4 with a xdj xz for a f2f setup.

If I turn on the aux, you can hear the noticeable delay.

Current setup to test the delay, not actually how we would wire it up for the f2f

Sc live 4 master out to line input 4 on xdj xz.

Master 2 out from xdj xz to aux in on sc live 4

Master out 1 from xdj xz to speakers

In practice, we were thinking of using the sc live 4 master out for speakers because you’d be able to hear double outputs through the xdj outputs.

IMO you’re not hearing a delay, you’re hearing a feedback loop.

The sound is going from the XZ to the SC then back to the XZ ad infinitum.

Yeah you’re probably right. I just did another check this afternoon, and it’s a slight delay, but the user on the xdj will have perfect beatmatching in headphones, but as soon as you hear it on the speakers its off. The setup was xdj master out to aux in on sc live for, and sc live 4 master out to channel 3/4 on xdj so they can cue with my tunes. I;m trying to work out where the delay is at this point

This is it! For those saying it’s like what you hear on a PA system, it’s not that because the delay is instant. It’s essentially a double of the vocal track

For those who followed my theft story, my SC Live 4 has been found and is being returned so once I have it back I will do a side by side with the prime 4+ to show the issue. It’s basically cause the mic is running through the software, there is a software delay or double somewhere in the signal line, like a DSP effect because the EQ is software controlled not hardware controlled. The prime 4 doesn’t have the issue.

1 Like

I just ran into this issue tonight with a local rap artist. It might be ok for making anouncents but using it for anything else is bad. We ended up plugging a djm. I know the SC Live 4 might not be for a more professional scenario, but it would be nice if it could have a fix.

2 Likes

Let me start by saying that if something is wrong with some, but not all units, that should be remedied. Knowing that many, many DJ’s never ever go near a microphone, they would not suffer the same problem.

I am not sure I agree with wireless mics offering such massive delays as someone said. Again, using pro gear this should NOT be an issue.

Clearly, if it is a fault with specific units, they should be repaired or replaced with units that don’t exhibit this behavior. Again, in prosumer gear, it does depend a little on where ‘on the scale’ the manufacturer places it. Trust me when I say that the AT/Pioneer service on a full-on 3000 setup will be massively different from the service on an DDJ-FLX2, simply because one is considered pro-gear, the other consumer stuff.

At the end of the day you want your issues solved. To prevent anything like this happening (and I am not unhappy with first my P4 and now my P4+ mic channels) and give me a ton of extra options, I have been using an external compact mixer since 2016 or so. The mics go through the mixer, as does the output from the controller. As they are mixed in there, there is never any delay issue. Plus better EQ, reverb and/or compression control, phantom power, etc.

I just updated a pdf I have written years ago on the Yamaha AG03/06 mixers that are like the Swiss Army Knives of audio interface/recording/streaming mixers. In 2022 the mk2 series came out. As good as mk1 but with some notable upgrades and new features.

I’ll link it here for those interested.

Sometimes, while perhaps not the most ‘fair’ solution, the better option is to circumvent the problem by changing work- and audio flow.

Yamaha AG-series - Still top choice 2025.pdf (461.5 KB)