A quick recap for you — inMusic snapped up Denon DJ, and along with some other things put out the humungous MCX8000 übertroller, complete with 4 channels of Serato DJ and 2 channels of Engine standalone capability. Then came the Prime series, including the lush SC5000 Prime player. This needed a new version of Engine, suitably called Engine Prime. “Hang on a sec” said the MCX8000 owners — “what about us? Can’t we use Engine Prime?”. Well, no you couldn’t, and thus began a persistent stream of torch burning MCXers demanding that they get some love too. After some pressing, we got a response that basically said “it’s coming”. The timeline wasn’t exactly specified (it was over a year ago now), leaving said MCXers with feelings of rejection, as their expensive übertroller was left out of the Prime Club. Boo.
But now, the MCXers can rejoice, for Denon DJ has heard your collective cries. Today, the MCX8000 firmware gets a beta bump to v2, and with it comes the ability to use Engine Prime as your USB library manager. There’s other stuff too, and it’s outlined below:
MCX8000 Firmware v2.0 Release Notes
- Added support for Engine Prime prepared USB drives
- Added Mic 1 attenuation control utility menu option (0dB to -20dB)
- Added Mic 2 attenuation control utility menu option (0dB to -20dB)
- Added Talk Over level utility menu option (-20db to -40dB)
- Added Talk Over resume type utility menu option (fast, normal)
- Added Booth Receive mic signal utility menu option (on, off)
- Added Beat Grid support for Engine Prime prepared USB drives
- Added Beat Grid slide feature
- Added Quantize feature
- Added Quantize options 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1-beat and off for setting/triggering hotcues and loops
- Added Beat Sync feature
- Added 12 o’clock platter LED reset for cues
- Added BPM sorting when browsing songs through BPM Filter
- Fixed issue where <unknown> was displayed for track name in crates & playlists with over 500 tracks
- Fixed issue where device would not register as MIDI device on certain Mac OS systems
- Fixed issue where pitch fader was not reported in the SysEx initialization message
- Various additional bug fixes and stability improvements
Primed but not Prime
Just to be clear about this — the v2 update allows MCX8000 owners to ditch the now elderly vanilla Engine and update the the new and developing Engine Prime. Essentially it means that you can share your USB devices between MCXs and Sc5000 Primes.
It doesn’t however give your MCX8000 a Prime badge. You don’t get four channels of standalone, as this is a hardware limitation. The SC5000 Prime has some serious processing grunt under the bonnet which allows all the Prime magic to happen on two layers. The MCX8000 however doesn’t have that, so even if they somehow programmed four channels of standalone, it probably wouldn’t perform anywhere near what you’d want from such a machine.
Ultimately, MCX8000 owners need to accept that they don’t have a Prime unit, but Denon DJ has committed resource to wedge the door open to the Prime ecosystem — and it’s free to you too. Fingers crossed for an MCX8000 Prime.
GRABBING THE BETA
If you’re an MCX8000 user and don’t mind being a guinea pig for the beta firmware, you can grab it over at the Denon DJ Forum. You’ll need to sign up to get it and agree to the terms, which are largely that you actively take part, and don’t talk about it outside of the Denon DJ forum.
Denon DJ should be commended for listening and (more importantly) acting on feedback. This is encouraging.
it took them 2 years to get a, hopefully, working version of their flagship controller’s firmware… NOTHING about that is encouraging, and they damn sure aint getting commended for it.
I was trying to be positive. Oh well.
Positivity did not force inMusic to do this but angry user comments, unfortunately.
We appreciate the delay is frustrating, this was a total re-write of the OS in many ways to bring the new functionality and support. This was a lengthy undertaking, however a promise was a promise and we have delivered :) Although we are sorry it took longer than expected.
I really appreciate the rewrite and feel it’s a good basis that can bring it inline with the more expensive Prime players.
Hopefully new features could be added on a six monthly basis. We don’t need too much but feel a little refinement of Engine would help it focus more on the future.
Well done guys.
ANNNNNND another 2 months, and nothing has been delivered yet….
a BETA is not a working product
We have worked with our 500 strong team of beta testers from the community, to greatly improve the software, adding many improvements beyond this original build. We have provided them with an open dialog, responded and acted upon almost all if not all of the requests raised by them. A great deal of thought and effort has gone into this to ensure it can take advantage of as many of the prime benefits as possible. We want to do this right not as a mad rush.
over 2 years too late bruv… keep replying, and keep seeing how little those of us got burned care until something IS RELEASED that works the way it was advertised to work when we bought it.
shill
Thanks for the effort, even if it’s a but late, I still welcome it very much! Now all I need is Traktor HID support for the MCX8000 ! :)
To be fair, perhaps they could have just delivered the “working” Engine sooner – but instead they chose to really update the firmware to have Prime compatibility, amongst other new features like beat grids for Engine, etc
To little to late my next setup will be Pioneer and I will never purchase Denon again.
I don’t care if it’s “Prime”, I just want it to work as advertised when released years ago.
Apart from price, I am not sure if an uberbig MCX8000 Prime would offer any advantage over the SC500 Prime series. I really think Denon should loose the MCX8000 and focus on an MC7000MK2 instead. :)
Lose the 8000? You can’t be serious. We’ve been waiting for a functional library software since it’s release. What sort of message do you think that would send to potential customers? That would hurt the company seriously!! Also price actually plays a very big part, you are comparing one (dual layer) 5000 to a 8000 that has 2 proper standalone decks with a full on 4-ch mixer. Even if you only use one 5000 with it’s dual layer, you still need a mixer for it to be functional (which is extra cost). The 7000 doesn’t even play usb media, so how exactly would that fit in with the Prime ecosystem?
All criticism aside at least Denon released something that brings the MCX8000 in line with the features as promised during introduction. Time will tell if this is little too late or enough to satisfy existing users. The Denon Conversion Utility (yes tooting my own horn) allows users of the MCX8000 to convert folders/playlists of their Rekordbox/Traktor collection without duplicate labor for setting cues/loops/beatgrid and keys.
Never too late for this. But thats one helluva wait. They promised to do it and they did.
Sold mine a while back.
Will keep an eye out for the MCX8000Prime/MK2
I honestly never thought this day would come!! It took long enough, but I’m really happy to see it wasn’t just all talk. If engine prime doesn’t crash on me & I can adjust the beat grids to ensure my unit can do a proper loop – then I’m over the moon. The mic att level is a fantastic (and needed) add! I’m pretty sure we already had the option to isolate the mic signal from the booth, so I’m not too sure what’s different with that now. The new Quantize feature will hopefully allow us to actually be able to use the slicer now which is a very welcome addition. I never wanted a full on Prime update, I’ve always just wanted a fully functional unit, the way I expected it to work when I bought it. Here’s holding both thumbs. Thanks Denon for actually doing it!
That’s cool for the MCX8000 owners, I am happy with my MC7000. Just waiting for an official Denon Prime all in one controller to take on the DDJ-1000 with Serato support and the look of the Prime series. Come on Denon, let’s do this!
Umm….how would that contender be any different from your MC7000? If you say screens and standalone FX’s – that’s MCX8000
A working quantized slicer. Working loops. Working beat grids. Attenuation on the mic. StageLinq now working with active partners… the MCX is finally coming though. It’s a damn shame those headphone cue buttons got past quality control but now we are finally reaching its full potential.
I’m ecstatic that the functionality has improved and is now where it should have been on launch day. It’s a total beast of a controller let down only by the inadequate functionality in it’s current firmware.
I just hope it doesn’t stop there with the firmware updates. I wouldn’t want much more adding as this V2.0 firmware addresses almost all concerns I had but it would be interesting to see what can be technically squeezed out of it. Recording to thumb drive like the RX or Stanton SCS4.DJ? Add a few more FX with a shift+twist? Pitch play? External keyboard support like the HD2500?
I think 99% of what users wants/gripes have been fixed with this update. Have a (belated) beer on me Denon!
It’s a pretty common process and a great way to quickly flush out potential issues
Anyone test this yet?
Working great so far in standalone mode with Engine Prime.
Stability has improved tremendously over the several hours of testing with no freezes or lockups.
Great job.