So I’ve been in touch with InMusicBrands who are Denon DJ’s parent company. Here is part of their response…
"The issue is starting to look like there is a hardware fault with the unit and in that instances it may be best for you to return the unit back to the place of purchase to organise a warranty return.
I will be showing the videos and link you have sent over so far to my collegues for further investigating and we hope to get the bottom of this issue as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for your detailed reponse and continued support in our products. "
I would take that with a grain of salt. Most of the issues I see look like they can be fixed by filtering or by the mapping away of it in the software.
Let’s just say that if the platter is supposed to only control the layer that you are on then how come it seems like it’s dictating to both? The solution would be is to ensure that the other layer/deck ignores the platter, right? But we’re using sync so now the software has to take into account both layers/decks, it can no longer ignore some things. And there is where the rabbit hole lays.
Hardware issues are noticeable on the face, when you see them you will know.
Software issues are dictation problems.
Too bad I can’t connect this to my computer as controller yet. I could see a lot of things, probably do a lot of things too.
I tend to agree that it looks like its a software issue but by going for the swap out, I can hopefully eliminate faulty hardware as the cause. If the artefacts present again, then either Denon have a faulty batch of SC5000M’s floating about or it’s gotta be a software issue.
Unfortunately, what I’ve experienced is not easy to recreate reliably and document.
Once I have the new unit, I’ll spend a couple of hours mixing with it to see how it behaves and let you all know how I get on.
Doubtful. I would ask for a specific explaination of the hardware fault and how they’ve determined this before sending units back. Sounds like just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks, or at least get people to stop posting so much while their units are in-transit. There are too many having the subtle speed problem. The reason I’m not experiencing it is probably due to not using sync.
I never noticed either till I started using the sync.
I preped a drive that I’ll be using for giging on the M. The crate for the drive was made with the Traktor import feature in engine prime.
I found issues with sync usually if when I load a track for the first time and has been analyzed by the deck. (this would fall in the hard to repeat category since the deck analyzes the track once so must use a fresh track every time to repeat).
I also find that it’s better to set you pitchfader range to +/- 20% for the sync to work more properly.
So, I swapped over my player today. Got a brand new unit, no quibbles. Got it home. Set it up and had the damn thing speed up when dropping in a tune using hot cue 1 within about 5 mins of turning it on!
Thanks to your help, we’ve been able to reproduce the playback speed fluctuations. We are working towards a solution now and will provide update as soon as the root cause has been identified, addressed and fully tested. Again to confirm, all speed fluctuations are firmware and not hardware related so, a forthcoming update will resolve this.
Note: We have not been able to reproduce the momentary fluctuations with sync turned off. Just putting this out there in case you need an immediate workaround.
Thank you for all of the helpful details and our apologies for the troubles.
I assume you’re talking only about the subtle fluctuations that have to do with sync you’ve been able to reproduce. Have you yet been able to reproduce the M motor speed change that requires you to return to zero pitch? Vince said you hadn’t been able to previously. This is a more catastrophic issue and predates this subtle variety you appear to be talking about that occurs only with sync.
Awesome, thank you for the communication! That makes me a little more comfortable with the setup. Fingers crossed that the fix makes it into the next update which I assume will be in the March/Prime4 ballpark. I wouldn’t feel entirely confident playing out with these until then.
For what its worth Ive noticed tonight mixing on my laptop using Prime (no controller, Sc5000 etc) just Prime and my laptop ,there is still a sync issue, BPM changes temporarliy when trying stuff with sync on, not as erratically but enough to cause a disturbance!
So without any players being involved does this not suggest its purely a PE issue, not hardware?
Our Dev Team is still at it, but we have no ETA to give to our users and the gen. public @Option-D. You are in the right place for up to date information, so keep checking!
90 days on, can we have an idea when new firmware will be ready? It would be great if you guys could roll out an update quarterly so we know when to expect stuff. Not expecting every fix / change to be in there, but it would be more encouraging than not hearing anything or getting an eta for months at a time. If you carry on keeping end users in the dark, they might start jumping ship! Just saying!
Also, someone posted about a beta program. How do I take part? I’ve one SC5000M and an X1800. Happy to pitch in.
