Hi, I’m new to Engine OS and came to the forum to ask a couple of questions. I have read through the existing posts that are somewhat related, but couldn’t find answers. My questions are all related to software and workflow, but I cannot post in the Software section as the “new topic” button is greyed out. I assume this is because I am a new user, but can find nothing on the user guides on what I need to do in order to be able to post into those forums?
Can anyone point me in the right direction please?
I think it may be best if I give a little background first. I love most EDM club music and briefly had some decks back in the days when vinyl was your only option. I gave that up after a few years because I struggled to develop the necessary skills and muscle memory to DJ effectively (I am absolutely not a “natural” DJ). In the first Covid lockdown I treated myself to a DDJ 400 and fell in love with DJ’ing for pleasure and could while away countless hours building, practicing and playing sets. Being tied to a computer was proving a little restrictive, so after reading many reviews on the Mixstream Pro, I thought it perfectly met my requirements (Rekordbox import being key) and decided to purchase one. I migrated my Rekordbox library with 8,000+ tracks, 100+ sets with approx 12 saved loops/cue points per set. I love the look and feel of the Mixstream Pro, the hardware is amazing and I like everything about it. My challenges are with certain aspects of the Engine OS software, where I would appreciate guidance and how to best navigate.
None of the challenges I am experiencing are new and have all been documented somewhere on the forum. The main areas impacting me personally -
Locked Beat Grids that cannot be amended
No auto leveling of the audio volume (I didn’t even know Rekordbox was doing this)
Not being able to label cues via the hardware
As I mentioned, I am by no means a natural DJ, but I take great enjoyment from spending several hours working out how to best mix just two or three tracks. I will spend this time tweaking the beat grids and tend to use quite a lot of que points, which I label with brief instructions for myself. I also tend to mix a lot at the break and the drop, so I often use Sync (please temper your ire) to free me up to focus on other areas that I enjoy more than beat matching (though I can beat match perfectly well by ear thanks to cutting my teeth on vinyl). Because of this, my setlists that were working very well on Rekordbox now often surprise me in Engine OS because it unexpectedly is out of time and/or is noticeably louder/quieter. I have no way (that I am aware of) of fixing these issues so that it doesn’t happen next time round. As I mentioned, I often label cue points (e.g. “filter in slowly”), which makes creating new sets more challenging, but this is a relatively minor gripe.
Ultimately, I have found that using Engine OS (compared to Rekordbox) has somewhat sucked the joy out DJ’ing for me. I do love the hardware and Engine OS does 95% of what I want perfectly. I do really want to get over this speed bump and I am very open to taking a different approach if it overcomes my issues.
Locked Beat Grids that cannot be amended - Do I need to ditch the Rekordbox import all together and start from scratch within Engine OS and recreate my sets and cue points? Sounds painful, but I am willing to put the time in if it is worthwhile?
No auto levelling of the audio volume - I believe there is nothing native in Engine OS for this, so do I need to look at external third party tools for that?
Not being able to label cues via the hardware - I tend to spend a lot of time doing this and do a lot of stopping and starting (and using beatjump on Rekordbox) as I am finding my way around a set and make the labels as I go. I cannot do this on the hardware and I struggle to replicate this in the desktop version of Engine OS without the controller, as I cannot get the same “feel” for how things are working. What is the best solution here? Pen and paper and transcribe on desktop later?
Apologies for the long post, but I am keen to begin enjoying the potential that the Mixstream Pro and Engine OS clearly has, so I am interested in what advice people who may have been in a similar position can offer.
@Reese: Thanks for the clarification. At what trust level can I post into those two sections? Also, is this captured anywhere in the new user guidance? Everything I read advised as a new member I had access to all fundamental functions such as reply, posting a new topic etc. I couldn’t find out why I couldn’t post into the hardware or software sections, and I imagine the vast majority of new members are joining to post a question in one or the other? I spent a couple of frustrating hours trying to problem solve this without finding any answer, hence posting here in the only section I appear to have permission to post into.
@NoiseRiser: Thanks for the response. I don’t think I explained the issues in enough detail initially.
Locked Beat Grids: The issue I am having is that the beat grid is not locked in either the desktop version of Rekordbox or the desktop version of Engine OS. The issue only presents itself in the hardware based console version of Engine OS on the Mixstream Pro. I am encountering this in about 10-20% of my tracks (I suspect it is those tracks that I have manually tweaked in Rekordbox - so 10-20% sounds about right). From reading other posts on the forum, this is a known bug apparently caused when importing a Rekordbox collection into Engine OS? It is quite a frustrating issue for me, so is a possible solution to scrap the import all together and build from the ground up in Engine OS? Would that fix this locked beat grid bug?
Audio Auto Levelling: OK, so no auto levelling. I keep coming across tracks where I drop mix into them only for the volume to be much lower than the other track which kills the energy of the mix. Is there an option to manually set and save the levels in Engine OS so I can mitigate this issue? If not, what is the best approach to address this?
Customising of Cues: Just to confirm re the labelling of cues. I also use colour coding for types of cues (e.g. sixteen bar outros are blue, thirty two bar outros are green). Is both the labelling and colour definition of cues only possible from within the desktop version of Engine OS? If that is the case, is the recommended workflow -
Create your new set in the hardware based console version of Engine OS adding cues and making notes on paper as to what comments need to be associated to what cues and what colour they should be.
Sync console version of Engine OS (on USB) with Desktop version of Engine OS to import new set with cue points (not yet colour coded and without labels)
Add required colours and labels to cue points in desktop Engine OS
Sync Desktop version of Engine OS with console version of Engine OS (on USB)
Play new set on hardware with required colour codes cue points with labels
So, the beatgrid seems to be locked by rekordbox but does not allow You to move it on mixstream… very strange.
Maybe delete the tracks from usb and re-analyse them in Engine Dj and then export again. I didn’t come across this bug and I use rekordbox and Engine dj very often.
As for auto gain. This function as said - does not exist on the hardware devices. It is done by dj software.
Engine dj is not a dj software, but a library management software.
For adjusting the input levels of the tracks there are gain knobs - the good old way as djs were doing it for decades.
Yes, label and custom colors are set in desktop program.
If You build Your playlist from rekordbox import, You can set all things up before exporting to usb a stick.
If You want to use tracks from usb stick, just plug it in to the computer, open engine dj, navigate to the usb stick content, adjust it there.
Or adjust in engine dj and then sync to usb.
I hope this helps
I think your member status is correct. Could you provide a screenshot where it goes wrong? Perhaps you forgot to go into a subcategory of either software or hardware. You can’t start a topic in the root category.
Let me preface my comments by saying that I play on a Prime Go but manage my collection in Rekordbox. I export the collection to USB and put the USB in the Prime Go.
Beat grids shifting
This is something I have experienced when plugging my Rekordbox USB into the Prime Go. The only solution I’ve found is to manually adjust the beat grids on the Prime Go by pressing Shift+Vinyl.
Auto gain
I have the same issue with track gain due to the lack of a pre-fade level indicator and the limited VU meters on the Prime Go. My solution has been to run all my tracks through a program called Platinum Notes. It analyses the tracks and will change the volume so there is less difference between tracks.
Cue points
In order to label my cue points I label them when setting them in Rekordbox, and the labels are still present when the USB is used on my Prime Go.
On the subject of not being able to post in other sections. I’ve just noticed that I don’t have permission to post there either, but I’ve been using this forum for a long time. How odd!
@Reese That’s it, I wasn’t in the subcategory! I was thrown off by the fact that I wanted to post in the Software section and there is only one subcategory. Thank you for your help.
When I try to manually adjust the beat grids in the console as @JasonSkye suggests, I get the following issue, where nothing I do moves the grids at all? I took a quick video to show this -
As I mentioned, this only happens for about 10-20% of my tracks. I can manually adjust the beat grids within the Mixstream Pro on the other 80% of tracks.
I did check the forums out first and saw that suggestion previously come up and tried it (specifically reanalysis) several times on the affected tracks, but it did not fix the issue.
Running the tracks through Platinum Notes is one of the first things I do, this is my full workflow:
1. Download tracks as *.FLAC
2. Put the tracks to be tagged in the folder 1. Unprocessed
3. Run the files through Platinum Notes (using template Official -9.5db)
4. Move the original files to an archive folder
5. Convert the FLACs to AIFF in foobar
6. Delete the FLACs
7. Open the Platinum Notes processed files in Mixed in Key
8. Analyse the files, the Key will be written to the Key tag
9. Open MP3Tag
10. Convert > Tag - Filename
a. Renames the files to make it easier for One Tagger to find them
b. Also removed the _pn suffix
11. Wipe Genre, set Comments to "Waves" (so my intelligent playlists in Rekordbox will pick them up)
12. Run through One Tagger
a. Mark energy level with stars low, medium, high
b. Add subgenre in Genre field
13. Now add the files to Rekordbox and unselect key detection before analysing
14. Check the BPMs are correct
15. Add cue points
16. Lock beat grids
17. Export to USB
It’s very weird that the beat grid isn’t changing on the Mixstream - have you tried adjusting it when the track is stopped?
