I have the same problem. The recording is too low.
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Can you post a video of your unit during recording so we can see the levels please?
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Ok . Thanks . I will post it next week
What unit are you using? Do you have your channel meters at a good level (around +3db should be fine)?
You should aim to have your channel gains set a bit higher and your master out a bit lower to ensure enough volume for the recording. Also bear in mind the recording shouldn’t be your finished output, load it into Audacity and normalise it up to finished output level. Audacity is free and the process takes less than a minute.
Ah, here we are again with yet another user complaining about the low recording level.
It’s frustrating that Denon are well aware of the complaints, yet they refuse to address the numerous requests for a level increase, or some kind of user adjustment (as is provided on typical recording equipment).
Instead, they seem to assume that their users cannot be trusted to set a level themselves.
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Here there are also some external options in the community.
Stop being lazy and adjust it in audacity, it’s free and takes 2 minutes.
Why are you attacking PK and calling him lazy?
Why?? Is it because he’s right and that bothers you??
The recording level on the Prime 4 is flawed and that’s the real truth here.
Now there’s nothing wrong with Audacity if you have the free time or trying to make a promo demo or a club remix of your favorite song or editing a night work to give to a client at a later date. Yes.
I do a lot of live recordings so I need the recording levels to be at reference level without any further need for additional post editing.
*Ignoring what needs to be fixed is not an acceptable solution.
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I don’t understand what you mean by ‘recording live’ ?, are you saying you’re recording your set to a piece of media then just handing it over unchecked to someone? … I have no shares in Audacity or any other company aside from the one I work for, but there are plenty of other programs that can do the same job (GarageBand, Ableton etc). At the very least you should be loading your recording to a computer to check EQ levels, sound quality so at that point it’s just crazy not to load it to an editing program to normalise.
Literally every single guide for posting or sharing your mixes includes this step as post production, you wouldn’t hand a track you had produced over with no editing or a RAW photograph from a camera so why would this be any different?
STU that reply was not for you. I was responded to molombian’s repliy to PK.
It should be attached to molombian??
If it isn’t let me know I’ll edit it. 
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No sorry i can see that, and their comment was unnecessary. We can discuss it without throwing insults.
I was only replying as id been promoting use of Audacity above.
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@STU-C No, it should not be necessary to check EQ and sound quality on the recording. Those things are fine. I know - I’ve made recordings on the Prime 4. The only issue is the level.
If I make a recording on any other device, it gives me the ability to monitor the incoming signal and set an appropriate level - as recording devices should.
You mention cameras, well I’ve been using digital cameras since the very early days, and taken many hundreds of pictures. There’s been no need to post process any of those. They’re just fine, straight from the camera. Everything from cheap point & shoot digicams to high end DSLRs. The camera does what the camera should.
Every single recording I’ve made on the Prime 4 since 2020 has been transferred to my PC and had the level boosted with third party software. No laziness there.
The point is - we shouldn’t have to be doing that. The level should be adjustable, or at the very least higher than it currently is. As has been mentioned before, Denon used a similarly low level on a previous product. Users complained. Denon then corrected this by adding a means of adjusting the level. Then did it before, they can do it again.
Come off it, that is just nonsense… any photographer knows that as soon as the lighting in a scene is outside of flat, midday light, there needs to be post processing done on a file, that is why every single pro photographer shoots a RAW image and post processes it, the same for video, shoot in log format then apply corrections to ensure maximum data is captured.
Do you think id have been able to capture any of this straight out of camera?
As far as the sound goes, even with Serato’s ability to increase the recording output, the file still needs running through a post process to ensure you’re delivering the best final product, and that is why every single guide for recording and publishing a DJ mix includes that step.
I feel you’re just being purposefully obtuse about this now for the sake of disagreeing.
Where did I claim to be a pro photographer? Are you a pro photographer? What about all those millions of people taking photos with their phones and uploading them straight to social media?
Again you mention guides for publishing DJ mixes. This isn’t about publishing DJ mixes. It’s about the inability to check and set an appropriate level before the recording even starts.
I’m sure you know that. I’m by no means the only complaining about it, so it’s not just me “being obtuse”.
Im not saying anyone is or isn’t a pro photographer, im merely using the example that the best results are achieved by shooting a RAW image (that i referenced in my original post) and editing it before output. Jpegs are sub-par in comparison and will rarely deliver the final output needed for the ‘best results’.
My Mastersounds mixer has a record out that is much lower than the normal outputs and can’t be adjusted, are we also saying Andy Rigby-Jones has got it wrong? or is it perhaps that way for a reason?
It also is an appropriate level, purely by the fact that you can normalise the mix and make it sound extremely good, which i also provided evidence of with my test mix where ive included the before and after for comparison. Before is recorded low but retains all the data, normailsed mix sounds fantastic.
JPEGs are also what the vast majority use, without even thinking about processing them before sharing etc.
MP3s are also “sub-par” compared to other formats, but it’s ubiquitous and most people are quite happy with it.
…and that’s a record OUTPUT, not a built in recording function - and of course it’s lower than the master outputs. That’s standard. Typically record outs would be -10dBu and masters out +4dBV.
So i don’t get what the issue is here with it capturing the mix at a lower level? As stated several times previously this recording isn’t there to be the final output, in exactly the same way the record out on a mixer isn’t there to provide final output, its meant to be a flat file that captures all data.
This conversation clearly isn’t going anywhere so you do you and ignore what is seen as industry standard practise for handling these files, and ill spend 3 minutes in a piece of free software to get the best results possible for output.
Really? I don’t remember seeing that in the manual.
I also don’t believe that it’s “industry standard” to not provide a means of setting a level on audio recording equipment. In fact the opposite - every other piece of recording equipment I’ve used, past and present, has a way of adjusting the input signal.
Remember, I’m not the only one complaining about this. Are you seriously trying to tell all of the people who’ve been complaining about this limitation since release that they’re wrong???
It takes 2 minutes to adjust and normalize a track in audacity. The low volume is in place as a measure to ensure there is no clipping. You get all these features and you still bitch and complain and want more and more and more and more and more and more and more. And more.
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There are no “features” for the recording function. That’s the problem.
You cannot deny that other recording products offer a means of monitoring the input signal and a means of adjust the recording level - as standard. Even other products made by Denon and inMusic.
That’s why Denon implemented a limiter on the master output I believe. They could do exactly the same on the record signal. Raise the level, add limiter. Problem solved.
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