Todd Oddity
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Todd Oddity
ParticipantDepending on the city, North American rates for regular club residents seem to fall in the 100 – 500 a night range (as Terry said, it varies from one city to the next). To add to that, there isn’t a lot of rhyme or reason to which cities have higher rates and which have lower rates.
My rule of thumb for travelling is that I need to walk away with at least as much as I would doing a show locally (so travel costs, work permit fees (US requires visas for DJs), plus my usual local fee). Running a quick currency conversion, you should be asking at least $250. And if they are willing to fly you in from London twice a month, I don’t think that is an unreasonable ask at all.
Of course, if you already garner that level of demand, you’re going to be able to up those rates pretty quickly! Cha-ching! 😀
ParticipantThe 6000 is lovely kit for mobile work. Everything you could want, and a compact design so it still fits in a 19″ mounted case. I had a Mk1. It served me well.
ParticipantBenfleet, can I assume you are using the HC4500 with a computer currently? If so, a different controller isn’t going to put a lot of extra strain on your computer. Peter is wrong is his description, your computer would currently be doing the work – the HC4500 is just a midi controller when linked to a computer. I think he is mixing up the HC4500 with a CD/media player unit.
Anyway, back on track with your question… I’ve used both types of systems and the biggest change you’ll notice moving from a hardware mixer to a software mixer is the loss of the extra layer of gain control. On a hardware mixer, the software applies gain to a track and then sends out a fully open channel to the mixer. On the mixer you can fine tune your gain some more before doing your thing.
On a software mixer, adjusting that gain dial is directly effecting the setting in the software, there is no additional layer of control. Additionally, anything you do with the faders isn’t being done to the signal, it’s being done inside the software, and only the fully processed master output gets sent to your controller. If your computer is older or slower, you can start to notice latency issues here (however the 4500 is a pretty demanding unit so again, if it was working fine you should still be okay).
As for which is better – many will tell you there is no noticeable difference. I feel there is. Really, it’s personal preference.
ParticipantToo many tracks by the same artist in one mix can lead to it being pulled, but beyond that I can’t say I’ve heard of anything else getting taken down, and I have a fair amount of content up there.
ParticipantTotally theoretical here, but I would think you might be able to hack this type of feature into any 4 channel mixer with a 8 in/8 out soundcard built in (think along the lines of Denon X1600 or Pioneer NXS900). Those return channels can be used for DVS timecode signal, so the pathways are there… With some clever mapping you could route those into a DAW instead…
ParticipantYou already asked about this three weeks ago, but to go over your points:
-no recording to USB
The target demographic for this product aren’t likely to care about this as much so I wouldn’t expect to see this added in the future. If recording a set is needed, expect to invest in some sort of recorder.-Engine 1.5 needs a bit of work on its stability (on laptop mainly but also a bit in standalone)
-some reports that Slicer and Sampler are very unusable in standalone mode (beat grids)
While Denon has a good history on supporting hardware, they have a bit more of a mixed track record on supporting software. Hopefully this changes under new ownership, and as there is obviously much more importance being put into the software side of things this time around.-some reports of unit freezing when in standalone mode
As mentioned above, Denon has a strong history of releasing firmware updates for their products. I would suspect to see such updates pushed out soon.-latency issues (?) – have to set latency at 5 or even 10ms in order not to ‘clog’ usb connection
I’m not seeing such reports, but latency issues do tend to be related more to the laptop side of the equation. This could just be a case of people using laptops that are not powerful enough for what they are trying to accomplish.-Headphones Cues are lit up all the time and lit up too brightly (hard to distinguish which cue is on)
Can’t say I’ve seen anyone complain about this – and there are many products that use dim lit buttons in their non-activated state (makes them easier to find in a dark room).-questionable (at best!) mirroring approach (although screens are not mirrored – lack of consistency by Denon)
I blame us (the world collective of DJs that is) for this one. Denon released the MC6000 and got so much flack for the non-mirrored layout that everything they have released since has been mirrored. Fact is, mirrored is pretty much the universal standard on everything but Pioneer controllers at this time. I don’t like it, I HATE mirrored layouts, but I have to accept it.-unit is too low and not up to ‘standard’ CDJ/turntable hight (important for DVS users)
Controllers are ALL thinner than ‘standard’ height (well, maybe not the SZ or NS7, but everything else). For those that care about things like height, just make sure you are using a case that compensates (this applies to any controller, not just this one).-only 3 effects available in standalone mode AND those effects are not the most commonly used/handy ones unfortunately
I agree, this is an odd decision, but I expect you’ll see a patch for it soon.-too many LEDs everywhere, which are too bright and too many colors – it starts to look a bit tacky (toyish), instead of classy (professional).
With the exception of the jog wheel lights I see no lights on this that aren’t on most controllers, and the jog wheel lights can be reversed (only the marker is on instead of the full ring). Nothing toyish looking at all about this controller.In short, if any of your cons are a deal-breaker, get something else. While issues should be addressed by Denon, you can never assume a company will do anything until they actually do it. Never buy gear based on the hope it might work the way you want it to at some point in the future.
ParticipantNO! Plugging an amp into a powered speaker is a surefire way to blow up the speaker and potentially destroy your amp too.
On the other hand, adding another mixer into your chain might help. I’m not an expert on the SB, but I assume you’ve checked your levels to make sure they are all good. If they are and the speaker is still too quiet, you could try plugging your controller into a mixer (there are lots of threads here on small sound boards that would do the trick), setting levels again, and hoping that helps.
ParticipantI keep a Zoom H1 with me for when I need to record. Very small, very portable, has stereo mics should you wish to record a conversation sometime, plus a line level input so you can record your sets. Has lots of settings to help you save space on your storage when recording, or bump up the quality when needed.
Oh, and it was pretty darn cheap too.
ParticipantI can also throw in a vote for Yamaha, although there are some Behringer models worth looking at too (I’ve owed a few of both). With Yamaha, regardless of the model, you tend to know what you are getting (and it’s good). With Behringer, you have to be much more careful as some of their models work well and offer great value, while others are just plain garbage (I’ve owned two Xenyx 1202USBs and for the money they are excellent).
ParticipantRain, the winky face means he was just teasing you / joking around. There is an ongoing discussion throughout the threads about how “head office” is separate from the forums.
Welcome.
ParticipantBudget option: Get a cheap live board, plug your controller and all live gear into that. You don’t exactly have crossfader control, but if you get a board with faders instead of knobs for channel volume control you can improvise a little.
Just a thought.
ParticipantPick your poison – figure out which software you want to use and the controller question will sort itself out. The NV is Serato based, the S5 is Traktor based.
ParticipantOn the DJM800 plug into the RCA jacks marked Rec Out, not into the master or booth out.
If you don’t have a compatible soundcard on some laptops the mic input jack will also accept a line signal. You could try to connect that with an RCA to mini-jack cable. If that works then you are in business with free software like Audacity.
If that doesn’t work, you could either look at getting a soundcard (doesn’t need to be a DJ card) or what I would personally recommend is buying a pocket recorder. I own the Zoom H1 (https://www.long-mcquade.com/10403/Pro_Audio_Recording/Multi-track_Recorders/Zoom/H1_Handy_Recorder_-_Black.htm) and can plug it into anything I might want to record, then I just copy the mp3 file over to my computer later. It is not an expensive little gadget, and comes in handy all the time.
Participant<let’s not get personal here – text removed by DJ Vintage>
1) You mistake my acceptance of the fact that all companies do this as defending the practice. I’m just being realistic. They all do it – how fast they clean it up is now the best we can hope for.
2) You said a car company would never intentionally release defective product. I showed you two examples of the worlds largest car companies intentionally releasing defect product. The fact one of those companies knew they were killing people in the process was just to hammer home how wrong your statement on that actually was.
3) Claiming there is a 100% defect rate on MCX8000s is ridiculous. There have been some reports of issues with some users, yes. You’ll see reports like that after any major product release from any major manufacturer. There are also reports of users in love with their units and not having any issues, but I guess you forgot about those in your 100% defective count.
4) Preparation software is not the same thing as presentation software. If Engine crashes, you reload it and continue what you were doing, just like when RekordBox crashed, you’d reload it and continue what you were doing. Is it inconvenient and annoying? Absolutely. Will it get fixed? Most likely. Is it a fatal flaw? As you don’t need to use the software to use the hardware, doubtful. Did you really expect them to beta test every song ever recorded? There would simply be no way to even accomplish that! I’ve seen all three of the major software titles have trouble analyzing some songs. Should they have never been released either?
5) Recording: You’re twisting my words a little – if you read my previous comment, I didn’t say a pro user never records, I said a pro would have better ways to record already available to them for when they needed to do it. They wouldn’t need their controller to have a USB record slot. You asked “why on earth they didn’t implement that”. I gave you a plausible reason.
Quite frankly, it sounds as if you’re digging for an excuse to not want to buy this unit. That’s fine, go buy the Pioneer and be happy with your choice – it obviously has more of what you are looking for. Others will buy the Denon and be happy with their choice. Still others will buys mixers and turntables and be happy with their choices too.
And one final note: My favourite quote about computer programmers. It explains so many of the issues we run into these days…
“If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.”
Participant“imagine a car which during testing loses power or simply turns off –> do you think that this car manufacturer would release the car like that and thought: ‘we’ll deal with it later on/after car has been released with a major recall/engine ECU update?’ Nah… Now tell me I’m wrong.”
Okay, you’re wrong. Totally wrong. 😉 I’m going to let you go Google “GM ignition switch” now, read just how long they knew about their cars doing EXACTLY that (turning off while driving) and how many people DIED because of it. Now I’m going to let you go Google “Volkswagen Diesel Emissions” and see the lengths manufactures will go to just to cover up their problems and mistakes. And that was just the auto industry.
Like all major manufacturers, Denon has had bugs in their early releases. They have generally had a pretty good track record of getting patches, updates and fixes out to the public as they are discovered. It does remain to be seen how the new overlords at inMusic respond to such issues, but early indications are pretty good. And you seem to be forgetting, Engine isn’t mission critical software. It never even connects to the controller, so if it crashes, it is an annoyance, not the end of your show, unlike when a CDJ crashes and you’re right up a certain famously feces filled creak without a paddle.
And again for the recording, it’s not a feature professionals are generally looking for in their gear, so it was probably never even on the development radar. I’d be rather annoyed if the unit cost more because someone thought they should build in that kind of functionality. The MCX8000 is targeted at professional working DJs, specifically the mobile side of things, and they generally aren’t looking to record their sets.
The lack of on-board recording won’t stop them from buying this. If recording is something that is important to you, then this product is not what you need. End of story.
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