One of the omissions evident at last year’s launch of Denon’s first fixed-platter CDJ-style media player, the Denon DJ SC2900, was the lack of a “Hybrid Midi mode”. The company has now announced that this mode – as featured on the company’s motorised media player, the SC3900 – has been ported to its SC2900 fixed platter media player as well. Hybrid Mode allows the DJ to use the players with timecode systems (Traktor Scratch, Serato Scratch Live) in relative mode without any additional CD or Flash-drive based timecode, while simultaneously using all the other controls on the player, Midi mapped to the software.
This gives the advantage of not needing a separate controller (such as Denon’s own DN-HC1000S) for the Midi functions, so resulting in a cleaner, more functional, simpler set-up. Denon has made Serato and Traktor mapping files available, but the keys and knobs surrounding the platter and transport controls are of course freely available to Midi map as your creativity desires.
It’s worth noting that you’ll still need a Serato or Traktor-enabled sound card or mixer to use it with these systems, as something in your workflow has to interpret the timecode signal. The new functionality is delivered via a firmware update, so if you own a Denon SC2900, you can get the new firmware here.
Do you own or are you thinking of buying Denon’s SC2900 media players? Will the availability of this functionality on the SC2900 as well as the SC3900 sway you in either direction? Please share your thoughts in the comments.