Finally had a go on Denon SC5000.
I’ve been on Pioneer since 2013, with a controller and Xone 92 in between but I’m generally streaming/DJing live on Pioneer.
Bearing in mind this isn’t the newer SC6000…
I liked:
- The screen was really nice,
- The content and the way Hot Cues were displayed was useful
- I plugged in my Rekordbox 6 USB exported stick and it worked (I had reservations about this)
- I really liked where they safely hide the USB stick slots under where a CD drive would have been. Much safer there.
- Denon have +4 +8 +10 and +16 pitch adjust speed I think - when I’m used to using +6 a lot so I chose 4 which worked nicely.
I think Denon could have improved on (and might have, already, on SC6000):
- The pitch fader on the SC5000 doesn’t feel like it ‘stops’ itself properly - I like to have a definite bite but it kept sliding as if it wanted to move as I had decided where I wanted to stop (my finger moving off would often continue moving the slider past where I wanted)
- The jogwheel was too tight. There might have been a tightness adjuster I just didn’t get into that (maybe that’s only on SC6000).
- Off an analysed rekordbox USB stick it still had to reanalyse every track I loaded but it didn’t take long. It definitely wasn’t happy with Pioneer’s analysis, and the BPM took some time to appear.
- Beatmatching wise, getting the beat ‘in’ was different to what I was used to - but I managed it from going on cold, no practise - just straight on air.
All of these are little things, it wasn’t prohibitive, just a different feeling. I don’t think I sounded like I was mixing on anything different
I didn’t get a chance to explore things fully as this was about doing the performance in the moment but I did notice the menus seemed extensive and next gen. The dual layer thing isn’t for me, I need a third physical deck. It would be amazing if a Media Player went down and you had an extra layer as a backup; I just wouldn’t choose to DJ dual layer.
Are they cool? Really cool! Am I eager to move to Denon? I’m not. It doesn’t improve your performance just the screen basically works a lot nicer - but the Prime 4 would be amazing as a commercial/wedding/mobile DJ (hard drive bay, dual zone sound outputs).
Once you’re DJing on Denon or Pioneer, you’re just DJing moving from one track to the next with more of a focus on the Mixer, and they all basically do the same thing.
I’m yet to try the SC6000, they have a better chance of swaying me but in all honesty for me it’s about turning up to an event and having everything where I know it when performing live.
