While my experience with the MCX-8000 has been generally positive. I run into random problems when I take the unit out on the road. All of which stem from the following drop out issues (I only listed issues that happen more than 3 times)
-8000 freezing, while still sending Serato DJ audio, but does not communicate with with my Mac
-8000 completely crashing, causing me to restart the unit entirely.
-(This only happens when I play at venues with carpets) People (including myself) with static on them and touching my unit and the unit crashing)
The only thing I can think of to solve this issue is buying a new USB cable for the unit. I already purchased Chroma cables but Iām curious what people have done to rectify some of the more common crash issues (since I know the top two are fairly common)
Thanks guys.
(For what its worth this is my laptop:
MBP Retina (Mid 2015, 15ā) 2.2Ghz 15gb memory)
ChromaCables have those little static dongles on both ends, so if youāre still getting drops after that switch then you have a much larger grounding issue at play. Next step would be to test the power supplies for each unit.
I had one venue where as soon as I would touch the fog machine, all my DJ gear would lock up. I tried all kinds of things but in the end it was the power that was an issue (I even got random shocks off touching parts of the stage). Beautiful club, but old and not properly maintained, so my solution was to refuse to play there anymore. Helped that the owner was a giant arse.
I honestly feel like its the venues I play at tagged with how much power the MCX-8000 actually needs to function properly.
When I go out and use my unit, we have this 6-8 piece LED wall, tops bottoms, another DJ unit all together with connections, a sound unit, and then me.
So I strongly feel its how our roadies utilize the power is one issue, along with the venues.
I am yet to run into issues at home yet every time I go out on the road, I have issues.
Venue specific faults and āworks fine at homeā issues can be difficult to narrow down.
A plug in mains tester plug is something that we have in the UK which is Ā£10 (ha ha that about $10 then) and it simply has three lights on it which tell us whether the wall socket is wired correctly, has any loose wires, reversed wires, wires touching the earth wire etc. Once youāve tested the wall socket, plug in an extention lead and plug the tester into that to make sure thatās ok too - and so on
Iām guessing there would be a version if this tester in every country
The 8000 is grounded, so is your mac/pc which should become ācommonā as soon as you plug your usb cable in. I recommend to look at your amps. As the only other equipment thatās connected to the 8000 is the amps, ensure that your amps are properly grounded or lift ground from the amps & all xlr cables are good. But as ToddOddity already said, it just takes one piece of equipment to cause such issues as they all share the power. This might just have to be a process of elimination. Connect everything up at home, then disconnect one by one
@ToddOddity They just came in the mail today and Iām just going to use them all the time now. I donāt think its my current USB cables since I only have problems on the road, but I donāt want to mess with this nonsense anymore.
I had a gig on a boat in Chelsea Piers and my equipment failed due to boat wiring and my boss (since he was MC at the party) flipped out on me, despite knowing that this was an issue and I TOLD HIM about it.
So the power surged, locked up all of my gear five minutes before I was supposed to play the kids montage video (I use Serato+MixEmergency) and the splitter the company uses prioritized the audio to the 1st output (which was the TVās audio and not our system-which I didnāt). It took me 10 minutes to come to that conclusion but I had to completely unhook and rewire their setup. I canāt have, nor do I have time for that.
@DJ_Boothe I bought 5 of those today. 2 for me, and the other three Iām donating to the company I get the most work at. They have so many problems and aināt nobody got time for that. I donāt mind going to a venue 20 minutes earlier than the call time required just to check outlets. I forgot those existed. Iām tempted to say its an essential for mobile guys to have.
@crazycraig Yeah, I agree here. Itās going to be a pain working for the one company Iām at since I would have to check it EVERY TIME (including surge protectors) but Itās at the point where my back is against the wall here. Iām trying to keep working for them and I donāt want them to not call me back because of their own equipment messing my stuff up. Itās kind of annoying, but this is where I am.
Iām at the conclusion where a majority of the MCX-8000ās issues probably have to due with itās need to be on clean outlets without issues. I tested some outlets in my house that I knew had issues, and was able to recreate the aforementioned problems each time.
Denon says its āfew and far betweenā but it may just have to be that not all outlets are created equal. Itās not even a bash on Denon since it not their fault on this one. Itās a going theroy though. Iām working 4 parties this weekend (Saturday-Sunday) and they are all at different venues so Iām going to have plenty of opportunities in trying this out.
I was thinking power is an issue as well. I purchased a ups with voltage regulation and will be playing a few gigs with this setup. Iāll post back if that works.
I Have absolutely had the controller freak out when there were dips in power. I couldnāt run a Honda generator in the eco mode for example.
How is a boat powered?
You need to be very careful using your gear with inverters. Never use your gear with modified sine wave inverters!! They will kill caps & damaged transformers in power supplies in no time at all. Iād actually wouldnāt even trust a pure sine wave inverter with my gear, itās just not worth the risk.
Just came home from working three (!!!) gigs today. With a couple of unit modifications. And honestly some new things I learned about the MCX during that.
I bought 5 outlet testings. 2 of which I kept, and three I donated to my company.
At each gig, before plugging in my stuff, I used the tester to make sure everything wire wise was working out.
If I saw that a plug wasnāt working, I just taped it off. Kids at these parties are notorious of plugging in things into any open socket. Personally I never charge my phone in the wall anymore nor in my surge protector/MCX USB hubs. I keep three power bricks with me at all times.
Anyway.
I ran into zero power issues about switching to the DJTT Chroma cables. However, we auditioned a DJ today and he used instant doubles with his MBP and he ran into a lot of screen communication issues. Iām definitely sure that the PC/MBP you are using matters a lot with this unit.
When I use my VJ unit (MBP 2015 maxed out), I ran into the ācommon problemsā. Screen continues after you press stop (that is the only problem I have been able to replicate consistently). That is probably a firmware thing.
Iām rambling on but basically
Outlet testers are lit
If you MBP/PC is not up to snuff, youāll run into problems.
if Serato is not updated, you will definitely run into problems.
The later two are working theories. The MCX definitely however needs clean power to function.
Iāve had USB Distortion issues with MCX8000. Itās really strange. At home, no issues ever. When I go out, randomly crackling distorted audio. Iād setup test, everything works. I come back, turn on the system and disctorted crackling audio. Here is a list of what Iām using:
MCX8000
2014 MBP Maxed out 40% of HD free
Monster Power Conditioner
Chroma Cables
NO HUBs
Crackling distorted audio is usually created by latency. This is where the lappy canāt process everything itās thinking about, in the time given (eg: the lappy may be trying to do 500 things a second, when itās only able to complete 450 of them in that secondā¦ give it an additional 30 milliseconds on the audio buffer and It can manage it.
Remember to that hot lappys canāt process as much data / as quickly as a old lappy (processors slow down their cores to allow cooling) - hence all the queries of āeverything starts off ok at the beginning of the evening but an hour or two inā¦ā
With this in mind, are the gigs environments hotter than home ā¦ in relation to the tests your doing where everything runs at home but not at a venue? A lappy drawing in hot moist air wonāt cool as efficiently as a lappy drawing in hot air. (And no, donāt run fans or acooling lad off of a USB port on the lappy youāre trying to coolā¦ use amajns powered one or one running off of its own power supply)
The latency issue is something that both windows and Mac users can suffer from.
Some users just wham the latency down to impossibly low levels thinking that an i7 will always be quad core (not all of them are) and that 1ms latency is what they can get away with.
I think the days of controllers and lappys may have been just a begrudged default move but that standalone units like Prime will replace all the midi and latency issues.
Iām not sure this is a laptop issue. I purchased this unit in December of 2014; just over 2 years old. It is solely used for DJ performance. It is always clean and everything is solid state. All apps are off, systems is optimized and all proceedures suggested by Denonās Support Page are followed.
I should not, I do not have these issues when using Traktor or VDJ. I also do not have these issues with my DDJ-SX, We-Go 3 or my Denon MC6000. NO ISSUES AT ALL. This issue is solely with the MCX8000. No DJ Software needs a quadcore 2.5ghz to process two audio files. If it does, itās poorly written.
I do hope to resolve the issue because I like the unit. If I can resolve it, Iām returning it to Denon. In my state, I have the right. Three performances and all had audio issues. I had a gig last night and I pulled out the DDJ-SX; NO PROBLEMS with it.
So, we need to establish what differences there are between your lappy and that of those who are using Serato and the 8000 without problems.
If your lappy offers more than one USB port, try labelling the ports and seeing if the issues that you e pertinence are any different in different USB ports.
Are you using a USB hub?
You mentioned that traktor and VDJ give you no issues ā¦ did you mean ā¦ āwith the 8000ā?
What OS at you using? Some Apple users have reported audio issues on latest Mac OS
