Created my account for the same reason. I can’t believe my new expensive players can’t keep loops synced (note: they jump out of sync when master auto switches to another deck). Kinda beats the purpose of having 4 decks.
Remember that as well as simple on/off switching of Quantization, the SC5000 offers no less than five utility options for quantize options - including 4 beats, 1 beat, 1/2 beat, 1/4 beat and even 1/8th beat.
Is there a workaround to the issue of unsynced loops? I could hold out with that a little longer. The really big issue for me is hot cues going out of sync when triggered from within a loop.
I have tested without any sync or quantize on, and still one or more of the decks go out of sync after a while. That should not be possible once the tempo is set (and the beatgrid is not variable). This sounds and feels like a major bug in the tempo clock. Playing with more than two decks (and using loops) is kinda null this way.
@Denon: any ETA on a hotfix or maybe new firmware? This is pretty major.
I have tested more this weekend, including the steps you summarized. Seems the loops going out of quantization / tempo behavior is random. Or at least, i can’t find a definitive trigger that i can reproduce. Suspecting master deck switch and/or imperfect loop size, but i am not sure.
I play house music. Which is as temp consistent as it gets. Sources are digital (no recorded vinyls). So when i set tempo to 123 BPM, i expect everything to stay at 123 BPM consistently for as long as i play it.
Disabling quantize had no effect.
Using auto / manual (in/out 4 bar) loop had no effect.
Disabling (tempo) sync and beat (and tempo) matching manually had no effect.
Every time looped tracks would slowly (or something instantly) go out of sync.
I noticed that (auto) loops show an inconsistent kick / transition on the first beat of the loop. Seems that the end of the loop does not perfectly match the start. It’s audible (as opposed to Traktor, which always loops perfectly/inaudible). Could it be that imperfect length of the loop screws up the tempo?
Also: I can not set master tempo deck manually. When i press the button that isn’t lit, nothing happens. It only switches automatically. Is that normal?
Also also: master tempo seems to be set to the player, not the layer that is playing. I guess that’s normal, but that could also trigger tempo inconsistencies, if there are differences between two layers.
@Sevenkami,
Thanks for taking the time to detail everything out. I’ll have the guys in our labs try to reproduce what you’re seeing.
You SHOULD be able to set the master if a deck is already synced. As for the “player, not layer” master set up - this was a tricky decision but I think the better implementation. For example - this gets people out of a situation where the master is on the not shown layer. This results in sort of a hidden master and none of the focused decks’ sliders would have any control of the tempo. Giving the master to the player means that it’s alway clear where the master is.
There are several situations where master is not tranferrable, such as when a track isn’t synced or if there’s a small loop running.
Could you describe what you’re doing in a bit more detail? ie: Step 1: Sync both players, Step 2: press the master on the non master deck. Step 3: Profit.
Funny. Yesterday i finally got the master button to work. I guess no perfect sync or small loop running were blocking it from switching decks. I am using tempo sync, so that makes sense.
Beat and tempo synced loops went out of sync again last night. Seemed to be triggered by loading / pressing play on a new track of the other layer of the same player as the loop. On load hiccup? Using a non ssd USB drive. Could that be it?
Now that version 1.2 is here, the hot loops themselves are finally quantized. But from within an active loop, the hot cues are still not quantized! They just jump immediately and out of sync. A very irritating kind of behavior and quite set wrecking. If you are in a loop, deactivate it and then go to a hot cue - then it is quantized. I guess that problem just fell through - it should be a simple fix though. Please Denon, get to this soon.
Also for me this happens when I let randomly placed loop play (usually at the end of a track) while I focus on the other decks. At some point it will just jump out of sync. Unplayable.