My Denon prime 4+ review (long post)

TL:DR i love it. Just have some issues/questions

I have owned the prime 4+ for almost a year, before that i owned a pioneer rev1. I currently am a bedroom dj with some stuff on youtube. (DJ FF06B5) i switched decks because i thought 4 channels was more suited for my style of playing and i was bang on.

Hardware Lets get one thing out of the way, i love the deck. If i had to make a complaint it would be that the sliders feel a bit cheaper/flimsy compared to pioneer decks i have tested at stores. Very small issue and when handled with care is not noticeable. Love the album artwork on the deck, a huge help for me! Being able to switch view style with a press of two buttons from 2 decks to 4 is such a smart option! I am very heavy into the loop function and it does not disappoint. I love the loop knob and can not live without. It just naturally works so well.
The sweep fx are awesome! I dont use the fx up top as much but if i had to say something, i wish switching fx was a faster process. It just feels slightly laggy when dialing through them. As for the on board os it has done wonders. I use the sync feature quite a bit(live or die by that feature i find) . I do wish since its a stand alone system firstly that i could do more in it without my pc. Like when i hold my finger on a track to bring up info, i wish i could customize from that menu. Like hold shift and add notes, or add stars, instead it just seems like i can only look at the information. One thing i notice is sometimes when i load a new track i hear a slight drop in audio, almost like the system is being over taxed. I will point out at the start i did use just a usb stick but with recording and going through my tracks it was slow and sometimes stopped recording because i was asking too much from the usb. I ended up getting an ssd which i highly recommend doing. Scrolling through music is a lot faster although not perfectly smooth but oh well. The main complaint i have with it that i originally bought the deck with an Amazon subscription thinking i would not need to buy music. Boy was I wrong. I found the amazon was slow to load/scroll. I would take 15-20 seconds to download the song, then another 10-15 to analyze. Does not really work with my style of playing. Also there is a 2 track limit at once for amazon which is crazy on such a beautiful 4 channel deck! Oh well, 700 bucks later and my music collection is getting better and is really the only way to go. I have not tried apple yet.

Also i really enjoy the fact that if you pinch your fingers on the audiograph you can zoom in or out. The only issue i have with this is you have to do It within a single audiograph, even though it zooms in on all the graphs. What i would prefer is that tou just pinch the audio part in general to make that happen. When i have 4 graphs, songs on the side and decks on top, it makes those graphs really small and difficult to pinch. Small complaint.

Engine os

I love the program, for the most part it is easy. Let me just say adding stems was a game changer, thank you programmers for that!!! The main and only real issue i have had is with with 6 of the 8 aiff files i have had, they do not seem to analyze properly. I ended up getting them in wav and it makes them perfectly every time. Only issue with wav is that there is no cover art. Now i could learn to properly make a beat grid for the tracks, that is something i ■■■■ at. I really bought this product for the plug and play in every aspect.

To wrap it up, i love the deck. 9.5/10 My complaints are small and for the most part are because of my short comings. If you have interest in my mixes for reference or just general curiosity look me up on youtube under DJ FF06B5. I really love loops and this system seems perfect for me so far, that being said i do not have any experiences with any other equipment really. Thank you for reading and i look forward to your insights!

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I’ve got thousands of AIFF files and never had an issue with them.

Where are you sourcing these files, or are you converting them yourself in Audacity or somewhere?

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Same for me!

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Usually getting them from beatport and just analyze them on pc in engine os. Judging by your two responses and the lack of anyone else having this issue, that tells me i just had bad luck plus I really should learn to beat grid and make it a non issue. Thanks for reading man!!

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I use AIFF, almost exclusively. Early on, I thought maybe the format would matter and did a comparison and found no difference with analysis. It would be interesting to know if someone has done a formal comparison.

Engine DJ is said to use the BPM stored in the ID3 tag as a guideline for analysis. Maybe in those AIFF files it is incorrect? When you convert them to WAV there are no ID3 tags. You could run a test by deleting it from the AIFF file to see if that makes a difference. Also, I believe when you reanalyze, Denon DJ will step up and figure the beats per minute out itself.

Now, if you’re playing classic tracks, only djay Pro fluid beatgrids will get those right most of the time. My choice is to warp them in Ableton Live and sometimes add a few light production touches such as EQ, compression and added beat track.

By the way, if you want to save some money on lossless files check 7Digital, Qobuz and Bandcamp. Also, although TraxSource is priced comparable to Beatport and Beatsource for lossless formats, they typically have much better sales. No one vendor has everything. Availability also depends very much on your choice of genre.

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Thanks man. I had no idea the bpm was encoded already. When you start talking about ableton and djay pro all i realize is that i am clearly in over my head. I should also say is when i add songs to thebos, injust hit create stems, i never thought to re analyze Also thank you for the sites suggestions. I love French house and I have been finding it tough to get some tracks. Always open to more sites. Thank you so much!

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Great, I’ve already subscribed to your channel… mine is DJRENEMARTIN in case anyone wants to subscribe hehe, all the help we give each other is good, I invite you all reciprocally we can help each other, in a world where it matters more how many followers you have than how you choose your music and make your mixes…

Let’s support each other!!! You can also use Fuviclan, which is very good in the French genre…

I upload my mixes to Mixcloud and SoundCloud, YouTube gives me a lot of problems with copyright and I can’t find a way to upload good sets…if anyone knows how, please share it, lol.

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If you tell us a few problem tracks Chad, people can then try to replicate it.

Mine mainly struggles when tracks dont start with a solid downbeat, so either a beat break or an interlude.

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I subscribed brother. Also Looking at that FuvicIan site. some good information, thank you!

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Its been a while but one I remember that really ■■■■■■ me off cause its an awesome track was felix da housecat - jack u (jfk mstrkrft edit) off of beatport. Now i should point out i never reanalyzed the trqck and just clicked create stems so it could be my negligence. It also has a bit of a vocal intro. I just tried it again but reanaylzed it and it nailed it. So it is my fault no doubts. That is great news, back to aiff and cover arts!!!

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