omg...I MUST be OLD

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SpinCin

DJ Extraordinaire
ODJT Supporter
Mar 15, 2008
307
252
Chicago
www.angelswithanedge.com
For the LIFE of me - I JUST don't understand and can't figure out Engine DJ.
I bought a Denon Prime Go. I love my mc4000 and Denon in general.
Have used Virtual DJ since 2011. Maybe that's why I don't get it.
Have watched some vids....just not sinking in.....
 
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Start by using DJ Engine PRIME to properly analyze and prepare your music collection first. It should be rather intuitive. The associated data needs to be present for each of your tracks in order to access all the hardware functionality. If you don't do this ahead of time it will get bogged down with doing it for every track you load into a deck.

There's a lot more going on with the DJ Engine software than other DJ player applications. On the plus side - you can build as you go. If you've got an upcoming teen gig - then just start by adding the music you'll need for that and come back later to deal with other broader parts of the collection as needed.
 
I got to say it's amazing how we get to do things now and when I first started in 81. What will someone invent next?
 
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When I first started in 81 you had to have records to play, a mixer, turntables, amp to power the speakers you used. Without those things you couldn't be a DJ. Now things are light years away from those things. I know some may still have those things as a reminder of back in the day. It's much easier to become a DJ today. Weather the person just getting started will turn out to be good or not depends on how much they are willing to learn, practice their craft and look at ways to improve over time.
 
When I first started in 81 you had to have records to play, a mixer, turntables, amp to power the speakers you used. Without those things you couldn't be a DJ. Now things are light years away from those things. I know some may still have those things as a reminder of back in the day. It's much easier to become a DJ today. Weather the person just getting started will turn out to be good or not depends on how much they are willing to learn, practice their craft and look at ways to improve over time.
What is the weather like in New Jersey today
 
When I first came back there was no such thing as a DJ using a computer to DJ with. There was no such thing as a controller or a DJ having all their music on a HD or loaded on their computer. Active speakers weren't the thing that I know of in 2000 when I came back. I was using a dual CD player with CDs to load into the CD draws to play the CD. You just used a button to get to the track you wanted to play. You carried CD books to put the CDs in. I had 4 CD books I carried to events.

Now things have changed for me. I use a controller with a laptop, all my music on a portable HD, VDJ and active speakers. No more carrying CD books anymore to events. I haven't used a CDs in many years to do an event. Now what you mostly see are DJs using a computer to DJ with. I remember the first time I saw a DJ using a computer tower with a monitor to DJ with and I was amazed at the great job the DJ did. Now it's a DJ using a laptop. No more using a tower.
 
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There was no such thing as a controller or a DJ having all their music on a HD or loaded on their computer. Active speakers weren't the thing that I know of in 2000 when I came back.
I think I got introduced to MP3 in 1998. By then the patents were being fully enforced and new applications were emerging from the technology. I saw the writing on the wall in 1985 (LaserDisc) while I was still 100% vinyl and knew big changes would be coming. By 1998 a neighbor of mine working in IT who also worked for me as a DJ showed me a 20MB hard drive filled with thousands of songs in MP3 format, The capacity of the drive (and note that it is 'Mega' not 'Giga') almost exceeded my mobile CD collections and occupied 1/600th of the space. I was fully CD by that time with 5 mobile systems. Seeing what musicians were doing in studio with McIntosh and live with MIDI was truly eye opening as well.

There were a lot of new intermediate products along the way, but the DJ sector is a small ancillary market, so it took a long time before reliable memory buffers and instant start in CD players made it to market. I decided to stay predominantly CD until all those same kinks and PC stability for DJ applications caught up. It was a very long road from Vinyl to the fully emulating and threading PC applications available today.

I was fortunate to have imagined in 1985 some kind of higher-tech future while examining all the curious capability in LaserDiscs. I thought to myself that if this LaserdDisc could contain 5 languages, and 3 alternate endings for the movie - then why couldn't all the data I use (BPM, Key, Intro, Outro, Pitch, Tempo, etc) also be stored on a disc and interpreted by some smart mixing disc player? Today it's a multi-functional computer rather than a dedicated player - but, even without AI it was clear by the 1980's that "mobile DJ" was not a guaranteed future.

To some extent, there's benefit having had to self-learn the technology at the same time that it was still developing. I bought my very first "state of the art" personal computer in 1987 - IBM compatible, DOS, with 20MB hard drive, 3.5" 720Kb floppy disc, 15" Monochrome monitor, & Dot Matrix printer, at a price of about $5,000.00 (36 equal monthly payments on my Amex card.) It was a business machine (nothing music related) and it was then that this field solidified for me as a business which needed to be operated as such.

Adjusted for inflation $5,000 in 1987 would be an investment of $23,800 today, and that purchase was simply for a piece of office equipment. It illustrates that even at this very modest level, any business no matter how small requires some meaningful investment. Thankfully, technology gets cheaper as manufacturing processes improve and innovation advances. The point is - that to succeed at anything you have to be able to speculate on a realistic future (or lack thereof) for whatever it is you are doing. For me, that first PC gave me indexing, information, and documents capabilities that moved my DJ work into a much more serious business sphere, and made me focus on skills that would survive the technology rather than getting bogged down in the "bling" that so quickly changes.
 
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Cranking back around.....
Engine DJ PRIME is what doesn't make any sense to me. Clicking all over the place to try and find my files.
And have been reading about all kinds of issues with the latest update. SERIOUSLY thinking of dumping the Prime Go......
 
Cranking back around.....
Engine DJ PRIME is what doesn't make any sense to me. Clicking all over the place to try and find my files.
And have been reading about all kinds of issues with the latest update. SERIOUSLY thinking of dumping the Prime Go......
Let me suggest that you get a DJ software program that will work with Prime instead of getting rid of it.
 
Cranking back around.....
Engine DJ PRIME is what doesn't make any sense to me. Clicking all over the place to try and find my files.
And have been reading about all kinds of issues with the latest update. SERIOUSLY thinking of dumping the Prime Go......
Sounds like your issues may be related to your file and folder structure.

There may be some issues with new product, but it is unlikely that this far into the game Denon would so seriously miss the mark as to justify dumping the line.
 
I don't really think it is the actual controller. There have been software issues and I am sure that Denon will fix/adjust whatever...
LOTS of people love the Denon Prime products, have had absolutely no issues and are happy with them. Denon DJ is moving more towards stand alone DJ systems. That's ok. I am selling the Prime GO and moving on.........