The promise of full software interoperability edges ever closer with the latest firmware. The Denon DJ SC5000 Prime player got made to play nice with Serato DJ with the last firmware upgrade, and while not full plug and play, Traktor NML playlists can now be imported into Engine Prime software and played on the SC5000 Prime, complete with loops and hot cues successfully making the journey too.

There’s a few useful updates to the player too (yay instant doubles). Here’s the full skinny:

DENON DJ® PREMIERES INCREDIBLE NEW V1.2 UPDATE FOR SC5000 AND ENGINE PRIME, DELIVERING UNEQUALED DJ EXPERIENCE

Newest version enables direct import of NI Traktor playlists, instant-doubles, enhanced BPM analysis, custom music organization and the ability to transfer significantly larger libraries across Prime network.

Cumberland RI, USA (June 18, 2018)—Denon DJ, a leading manufacturer of premium DJ products and solutions, today announced that it has released their new V1.2 firmware update for the SC5000 Prime media player and Engine Prime music management system. The new V1.2 release adds dramatically greater capability and flexibility to an already cutting-edge system, delivering a DJ experience unequaled in its ability to quickly import, access and organize music in any way imaginable.

Highlights of the new V1.2 Update are as follows:

• Import Native Instruments Traktor playlists, songs, loops & cuepoints

Giving a “laptop free, Traktor experience,” this new feature makes the user’s painstakingly curated NI Traktor collection directly accessible within Engine Prime v1.2. A quick and easy Traktor NML export makes it simple to elegantly place Traktor playlists, songs, hot cues and loops at the DJs fingertips in readiness for selected collection export to the SC5000.

• Instant Double tracks between & within SC5000 players

A favored and essential performance feature for turntablists and scratch DJs, the new ‘instant doubles’ feature duplicates the current playing track at an identical timeline position on a 2nd networked player, or same unit’s 2nd layer

• Enhanced BPM analysis range & downbeat detection

This brings a wider range of tempo (BPM) tracks and music genres into an enhanced analysis environment (from hip-hop to drum ‘n bass) in one selectable range. Improved downbeat detection makes sure Engine Prime catches the first downbeat of a DJ’s songs even more accurately.

• Increased Playlist management options

The DJ’s music collection can be organized and exported for playing on the SC5000 with more customizable arrangement, navigation and workflow options for not only playlists, but crates too.

• Larger Drives/Collections across network

DJs can pack significantly larger music collections without limits, now accessing their content quickly and more efficiently across a group of networked SC5000s.

• Immediate Track Cue/Play on analyze

DJs can now perform instant cue-plus-play operations, in addition to the SC5000’s ability to analyze any track’s metadata inside the unit.

“This V1.2 SC5000 and Engine Prime update has added multi-layered creative and professional performance options for our #PrimeTribe DJs,” said Paul Dakeyne, Director of Creative and Brand Marketing for Denon DJ. He added, “ The ability to directly import Native Instruments Traktor playlists, ‘instant-double’ tracks effortlessly, the enhanced BPM capabilities and music library organization options create exciting new possibilities of workflow and performance for Prime DJs.”

NOT FULL TRAKTOR THOUGH

It’s important to remember that the SC5000 and X1800 Primes are not Traktor certified. I suppose that I should imply a “yet” there as it’s something that has been talked about since the first rumblings of the units. But the divide has been bridged (albeit a rope bridge) and via a bit of file jiggery-pokery, you should be able to get Traktor and Engine Prime talking successfully. What we really want, like Serato DJ Pro, is to plug our laptops into the Prime hardware and Traktor Pro just work.

As for the other updates — these are the kind of things we like to see released on a regular basis. Our recent experiences within Engine Prime have been much better, but there’s still room for improvement. But it seems that improvement is happening.

You can grab the firmware update for PC and Mac from the Denon DJ site, and the 1.2 Engine Prime desktop update (scroll down and fill in a pointless email box).

30 second review — after enabling it in preferences, Engine Prime imports my oh so tiny Traktor library just fine. Let’s see what happens when our Dan tries to do the same with his somewhat more advanced Traktor setup, especially when writing it to USB or SD card.