Midi sync with external hardware

Hello everyone ! I just bought (a month ago) a new Prime 4! I love it, but…:wink:

It is vital to me to be able to sync my PRIME4 (OUT and evt. IN) with external midi hardware (drumboxes, loopers)! Any suggestions ? Specially since the X1800 has the 5pin midi out, I suppose that from the LINK connector, my PRIME 4 sends (even receives) midi tempo information (maybe start-stop too): what kind of adaptor (RJ 45 to 5pin midi OR RJ45 to USB) would solve this sync need?

Or , could the USB (to computer) connector (in the back of the Prime4) be used to send/receive midi data information to external hardware???..

Thanks in advance for sharing your solutions, ideas , proposals etc…

Manu

2 Likes

Hi @MdCplus (Manu), welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately, MIDI is not planned for Prime4. See here:

https://community.enginedj.com/t/will-not-implement-add-midi-time-clock-out/19853

Hi Reese! Thank you for your answer … Still, let me ask again then: what about the LINK port?

“Link Port: Use a standard Ethernet cable to connect this port to a computer. Prime 4 will send time, BPM, and other track data to the compatible Stagelinq lighting and video software over this connection.” Can the midi data sent/received from this port not be used to connect to a drum machine for instance? Thanks again Manu

2 Likes

Don’t know. Something, your computer, would need to convert it to MIDI.

The info that comes from the ethernet is a proprietary protocol (Engine Connect).

ok thanks again Reese for your help…

Perhaps when Engine OS becomes commonplace we may see some hacks.

2 Likes

I’m just thinking out loud here… Just bought the prime 4 and was trying to figure out if I could sync Ableton Live. Now, I know recently Denon announced that Serato is completely compatible with prime 4. Serato already has integration with Ableton Live… so, it seems like there might be a way use Ableton with Prime 4. I need to investigate this a bit more… obviously Serato needs some sort of MIDI sync and if Serato is connected to Ableton, maybe there are some possibilities here :slight_smile:

I believe this solution would require purchasing Serato Pro since I don’t believe it comes with Prime 4.

Here are some links:

As stated in your second link, the Prime 4 unlocks Serato. In other words, you can download and use Serato DJ Pro with the Prime 4 free of charge.

watching this thread - have also been banging on about midi

You could easily sync it with “Ableton link” compatible sequencers or devices.

This means, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Serato/Traktor/Rekordbox6 VJ software like MadMapper, Resolume and many iOS music apps. Also hardware devices like the Akai Force or modern MPC variants.

It’s far more accurate than straight up midi clock ever was.

You could for instance, run Ableton as a middle man and syncronise all your drum machines with that via midi clock

I’m interested to see if the Prime 4 can do more advanced midi support? eg. I currently DJ with an SX2 using Rekordbox and love that I can midi map the controls to do other stuff (eg. control things in Ableton Live or Resolume)

can this be achieved with the Prime4?

1 Like

basically I’m in the position of learning if the Prime 4 (which I’m really impressed with) or the DDJ1000 (which I’m also really impressed with) should be the next step for me…

Ableton Link support is a major positive for me!

1 Like

I think what needs to happen here is Denon needs to open up Engine Connect/StageLinq protocol so we developers can start creating killer apps to compliment it. I’m not sure what the business sense is in keeping it closed and limited to very few “partners” — why wouldn’t they want this to be more accessible to the wider community?

Release some kind of SDK or developer documentation so we can use this. I’ve connected it to my laptop before and using a packet analyzer I can see data is coming in but it’s completely unreadable/unusable without knowing how to decrypt it.

Come on Denon!!!

4 Likes

Hey man, did you ever work out if you can sync hardware with the Prime 4?

Hi guys! Are we still waiting for an MIDI output solution? Been some time now, and the response “we don’t wana do it” still not good enough… I’ve asked thru an email, one of the Denon tech support about this MIDI feature and I’ve been told that I would better get the CD players with the mixer Denon X180090 (which has MIDI out) if I need this feature. Even if we do discuss about the money, we can still argue about the size and a full mixing desk will be defo bigger that the Prime 4, so is not just about spending money. I understand that is a marketing thing, and you wanna make more money, but what about us, the customers? Could we get a real respone, seriously? “We don’t wanna do it” IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! At least if we could get a lil bit of help…

3 Likes

Just bumping this and wondering if anyone has found a solution. I’m going to be playing on a Denon Prime 2 next week and was surprised to see there was no MIDI out on those.

Two words - Ableton Link. It’s been part of the Prime spec for some time now.

1 Like