Following the release of the Prime 4 standalone 4-channel DJ controller, Denon DJ are releasing a series of tutorial videos that will provide you with in-depth tricks and tips surrounding all of the quality performance features that the Prime 4 has to offer. The 14-part series is essential for any Prime 4 owner giving you a wealth of useful functionalities for you to utilise in your sets and performances. The first video in this series runs through all of the excellent features on the Prime 4 and offers a quick insight into getting set up so you can start playing.
Tutorial Part 1 - First Steps With Prime 4
Here you will find the first instalment in Denon DJs Prime 4 Standalone DJ System 14-part Tutorial video series, taking a more in-depth look into its features.
| Tutorial Part One – First Steps with Prime 4 |
A fully featured professional 4-channel mixer section gives you multi-assignable inputs, expressive EQ control, sweep FX and filters, a smooth crossfader, cueing and headphone controls. The transport control section offers a familiar performance section with play, cue, sync, and looping controls in a standardised layout that is easy to navigate for any DJ.
The Denon DJ Prime 4 is a 4-channel standalone professional DJ console that comes equipped with a 10-inch multi-gesture touch screen, an independent zone output, and an intuitive layout; that provides you with the ultimate functionalities for your creative performance workflow. The 10-inch multi-gesture touch screen is the perfect interface for navigating through your digital music library allowing you to search and load tracks, view waveforms, and provides you with essential track data for your workflow.
Two 6-inch touch capacitive jog wheels and long-throw pitch fader are perfect for all DJ mixing styles. For the creative performers, eight RGB backlit performance pads per deck provide you with various trigger modes including Hot Cues, Loops, Slip Rolls, and a Beat Slicer. Thanks to the independent zone output you can send music to a separate room, while dual microphone controls give you the ability to be prepared for any performance situation. A bank of powerful professional quality DJ effects means you can get super creative with your mix transitions.
To set up the Prime 4 DJ controller, you’ll need to connect the AC adapter and power up the unit. For audio playback simply connect your preferred speakers to your preferred audio connection on the rear of the unit. For your convenience, both XLR and RCA outputs are provided. You can raise the touch screen giving you a comfortable viewing position while you play, but please ensure that the metal support is locked in place. Loading your digital music files into Prime 4 provides you with a wealth of input options. There are two USB inputs at the top of the controller and a further two USB inputs on the rear of the unit. There is also an SD card input at the top of the controller while the underside gives you an input for a SATA drive bay allowing you to connect to a multitude of inputs if needed.
Tutorial Part 2 - Getting Your Music into Prime 4
In this second tutorial, you will learn how to import and load tracks into the DJ console; this simple process is thoroughly explained giving you all of the details you need.
| Getting Your Tracks Into Prime 4 Video |
Denon DJ’s proprietary music analysis and management software is Engine Prime. Engine Prime will synchronise with your iTunes collection; this includes playlists and subfolders so you can easily integrate your music library with the Prime 4. You can also import your Serato DJ, Traktor Pro, and Rekordbox playlists into the DJ System, all of your hot cues and loops will automatically be detected and stored allowing you to use your tracks that have been analysed and prepared in other DJ applications.
The quickest way to analyse your tracks is to insert a USB drive into the controller’s USB ports; then you’ll need to press and hold the ‘menu’ button found in the centre of the mixer just above the level meters. The screen will display a settings menu, tap ‘source’ and choose the drive that contains your music files. Tap the ‘root folder’ icon which is displayed on the left side of the screen and select the folder your tunes are stored in. Select the track you’d like and swipe it to the right; you’ll then be asked which deck you’d like to load the track into.
Once loaded into one of the 4 decks a track will automatically be analysed by Engine Prime, this will give you essential track information such as beat grid information, BPM, musical key, and track meta-data; this will be done in only a few seconds thanks to Prime 4’s speedy onboard computer. The track can be played and cue’d instantly and after internally analysing a track it will be written directly to the media source, so you won’t need to analyse the track again.
If you’re using a USB that contains Rekordbox DJ playlists, then the Prime 4 will automatically detect this. After you’ve inserted it an on-screen prompt will ask you if you’d like to import your tracks. Press ‘yes’ and then the Engine Prime will analyse your Rekordbox tracks within seconds, giving you all of the essential information you need, as well as hot cue and loop data so you can mix with confidence.
Tutorial Part 3 - Load, Play and Mix Basics
To get playing on the Prime 4, load your media source into the console. If there is no media source connected, then the Prime 4 will automatically load its music collection information. Once loaded, and the media source’s library has been established, you will notice the left-hand side of the touchscreen provides you with a number of navigational tools. In order, the left-hand side icons offer crates, playlists, a prepare folder, a root folder, and a search icon, that once clicked, allows you to use a QWERTY keyboard to search for a specific track.
| Load, Play and Mix Basics |
Tap the desired crate, music folder, or playlist and swipe your finger to find your tracks. Once you’ve found a track you would like to load simply swipe it to the right. Prime will then show an on-screen prompt asking you which deck you’d like to assign the track to. Decks 1 & 2 are the inside mixer channels, whereas decks 3 & 4 are the outer mixer channels.
When loaded into deck 1, ensure the master volume control is turned up, but be careful not to go too heavy to start with, you don’t want to blow your speakers. Tap the green play/pause button to start the track and slowly raise deck 1’s up-fader to hear the music; press the play/pause button again to pause the music. While the track is playing, you can return to the track start position and trigger it by pressing the cue button.
Now load a track into deck 2, press the menu button in the centre of the mixer to access your media, choose a track and swipe right and select deck 2. Using the long pitch fader on deck 2, match the track’s BPM to deck 1’s BPM, this ensures you’ll be perfectly synchronised. Now choose your mix point and blend the two together using deck 2’s up-fader on the mixer.
Track navigation and loading can be done directly from the mixer without needing to use the touchscreen; this is done via the controls found at the top centre of the mixer, just above the VU level meters. You have a menu button, a scroll encoder, two load buttons, backwards and forwards controls. When in library mode you can use the backwards and forwards controls to enter and exit media folders and playlists, once in the desired folder/playlist you can use the scroll encoder to search through your music collection.
When you’ve found a track, press the encoder in, and rotate left or right to select a deck, for this example we are loading into deck 3. You can also load a track in using the load buttons underneath the controller, ensure you’ve got deck 3 selected using the controls next to the jog wheel. When deck 3 is selected, the left load button will turn orange, if deck 1 is selected the load button will light up in blue; the same goes for decks 2 & 4.
The Prime 4’s touchscreen can be configured to show either two or four decks of waveform information. To go from a four deck to a two-deck on-screen setup, press and hold a shift button, and press deck 3 or 4; an on-screen prompt will then ask if you want to remove decks 3 & 4, select OK. Alternatively, press and hold the menu button, enter the utility menu, and set deck 3 & 4 to off, press menu again to return to the main screen.
Tutorial Part 4 - Touchscreen Operation & Overview
When all four decks have tracks loaded in, the Prime 4’s touchscreen will display waveform information for all four decks. Pinching the waveforms will allow you to zoom in and out. All tracks will respond and will allow you to obtain the most comfortable view available. Tapping the lower panel (where the BPM and track key information is) will switch the track time from time duration to time remaining; this allows you to get a sense of when a track will finish playing.
| Touchscreen Operation & Overview |
An active track’s timeline can be scrolled or tapped allowing you to needle drop to a new position in a song. For this function to work properly you need to ensure the needle lock function is set to off in the preferences; this is done via the preferences tab in the settings menu. The overview waveform display will always show the active tracks.
Tapping the library icon at the bottom of the screen lets you quickly get to the library menu. In the library menu, you can search through crates and playlists, as well as sort your tracks by different categories when you tap the sort icon at the top right of the screen; the triangle icon lets you switch the top to bottom ordering for instantly getting to the bottom of your library.
Tapping the prepared folder icon lets you view your prepared tracks, a list of tracks you want to play next; to send a track to the prepared folder simply swipe it to the left of the screen instead of the right. Tapping the main search icon at the bottom of the screen brings up a QWERTY keyboard allowing you to rapidly search through your tracks, if necessary you can connect a full-size USB keyboard to the Prime 4 via the USB ports on the rear of the unit.
Tutorial Part 5 - Mixer Functionality
The mixer section has four main channel faders to switch the decks to the engine USB input use the switches found on the front of the controller; you can also switch them to a line input which allows you to connect media players and turntables to the controller and use the mixer as a standalone mixer. At the rear of the controller you can switch inputs 3 and 4 from line to phono depending on the audio device you have connected.
| Mixer Functionality |
The Prime 4 crossfader can be assigned to a channel fader by using the controls found directly underneath the faders; they can be assigned to the left or right sides of the crossfader while the ‘Thru’ setting means the crossfader will not affect a channel. The crossfader can be set to play a track for you automatically, this is done with the ‘Fader Start Left’ and ‘Fader Start Right’ switches found on the front panel. All channels come equipped with low, mid, and high EQ controls; the EQs come with a full kill function which is activated when an EQ control is turned entirely left and works to eliminate a frequency band from your track.
The level of a track can be controlled using the gain knob found above the EQ controls. The LED VU level meters you allow you to see when you’re driving a signal too loud, when the meters are green and white it indicates a decent level while the blue LED shows when you’re driving a track too loudly. Please be mindful not to drive levels hard and continually into the blue LED area as this can damage the mixer. The ‘Master Output’ knob works to control the volume going to the main audio outputs. The LED VU level meters in the centre of the mixer indicates the volume of the main audio output; again you should drive the volume too hard so lower the master output when you see the blue LEDs light up here.
The central mixer section gives you full control of the three sweep effects and filter contour. Just select the sweep FX you want to use using the buttons above the crossfader and pan the sweep FX control left and right to hear the effect take action. The sweep FX are positioned in a post-fader position giving you even more creative possibilities. Each channel fader can also be individually assigned to the two main effects banks, select send 1 or 2 found above the gain controls on each channel. Headphone cueing for each channel is achieved by using the cue buttons, controls for headphone volume and master/cue mix can be found in the centre of the mixer allows you to quickly audition your tracks before mixing. A headphone split control works to send the master output to one ear cup while the cue track is sent to the other headphone. EQ, filter, effects, and headphone controls can all be finely tuned in the preferences menu.
Tutorial Part 6 - Basic Looping & Track Sync
To automatically loop a section of a playing track you can use the auto loop encoder. Turning the encoder allows you to set the length of a loop anywhere between 1/64 of a beat to 64 bars. You can find the auto-loop length information next to the track title on the display.
| Basic Looping & Track Sync |
To activate auto-loop simply press the encoder once, to disarm the loop press the encoder again. You can alter the loop length while a loop is activated by turning the encoder as well as nudge the loop backwards or forwards by holding shift and turning the loop encoder. When nudging the loop it will move according to loop length.
If you wish to manually activate a loop you can use the loop ‘In/Out’ buttons, tapping the ‘In’ button will set a loop start point and pressing the ‘Out’ button will set the loop end point and activate the loop. Pressing the ‘Out’ button will disarm any loops as will pressing the encoder. The sensitivity of the looping controls will depend on the user settings in the preferences menu. In the preferences menu, you can adjust the cue/loop quantisation and the default loop size, as well as activate smart loops, and move cue to loop in functions.
To automatically synchronise two tracks together tap the ‘Sync’ button on the currently playing track and then tap the ‘Sync’ button on the track you wish to synchronise. This will automatically synchronise the tracks BPM and, if playing, will ensure the tracks are perfectly beat-matched together. If a track is accidentally nudged out of sync the ‘Sync’ button will flash blue, tapping the button will then reset the tracks beatgrid, so it is perfectly synchronised again.
In the preferences menu, you can adjust the synchronise settings. The sync mode can be set to ‘Bar’ so the tracks will always synchronise to four beats, ‘Beat’ where it will synchronise to every beat and ‘Tempo’ where the sync function will disregard beat and bar information and will only synchronise tracks BPMs. To cancel sync on any deck, press and hold shift while tapping the ‘Sync’ button.
Tutorial Part 7 - Performance Pads
Prime 4’s performance pads offer creative control over playback of your music. Pressing the ‘Hot Cue’ button allows the pads to trigger and jump to different sections of your tracks. The hot cues can be added before your performance in the Engine Prime software, or live as you perform, by tapping one of the eight pads at the desired point. The cue point will be added in timing response according to the quantise settings you have in the user preferences. Quantising can be momentarily turned off for non-quantised performances; this can be done by tapping the central arrow found at the bottom of the touchscreen and then tapping the quantise button. To delete a hot cue, hold shift and then the pad you wish to delete.
| Prime 4 - Performance Pads |
The ‘Loop’ function allows the pads to save and recall loops; each pad can hold any length loop up to 64 beats. Simply tap a pad to enter the loop start point and then again for the loop out point. The pad will blink to show that a loop is active, press again to release the loop, this will be indicated with a static pad light. You can also transfer an auto-loop selection to a save pad by pressing an un-used loop region pad. To delete a saved loop, hold shift and then tap the pad you wish to delete. A secondary press of the loop mode lets you access the ‘Auto-Loop’ function. This provides you with a selection of pre-defined loop length options.
The ‘Roll’ function offers a selection of pre-defined beat trigger phrases. The green pads represent straight timing while the purple pads represent triplet timed beat rolls. When activating the beat rolls your track will go into auto-slip mode playback so you won’t go out of time.
Pressing the ‘Slicer’ button once enters the slicer mode which cuts the playing track into single beats; this slicer mode follows the track continuously. Sliced beats can be triggered per pad and the repeat timing is halved or doubled by pressing the parameter buttons. Pressing the slicer button again gives you a ‘Slicer Loop’ function which has all of the slicer performance functionality but will engage a two bar repeated loop in the timeline.
Tutorial Part 8 - Beat Grid Editing
In addition to the Engine Prime software, beat grid editing can be performed on the Prime 4 DJ console. To access this, press and hold the grid edit button; this button will flash to indicate the grid editor is activated.
| Beat Grid Editing |
Tap the forward and backwards buttons to move the beat grid in individual beats. Hold shift and tap the forwards and back buttons to half or double the BPM of a track. The entire beat grid can be moved in fine tune increments by gently rotating the jog wheel. When you’re happy with the adjustments, tap the flashing edit grid button again. If you would like to reset back to the unedited state, hold shift, and tap the edit grid button. Similar beat grid editing can be done using the touch screen by tapping the relevant adjustment focus icons.
Tutorial Part 9 - Zone Output and Mic Channels
While the party is kicking off in the main room, you can send a continuous independent playlist to a separate room. To do this, connect the separate room’s PA system to the ‘Zone Output’ on the rear of the Prime 4. Channel four of the DJ console will be feeding the zone output, now simply press the ‘Zone Assign’ button, and press continue when the on-screen prompt shows up. Now you can select a full crate or playlist of tracks to play through the zone output. Once you have selected a playlist, tap the ‘Send to Zone’ button at the top of the screen, and hit channel four’s play button to start the playlist. Songs will play back to back continuously throughout the playlist.
| Zone Output and Mic Channels |
The zone output level as well as high-frequency and low-frequency EQ can be set independently of the main mix. If no zone assign playlist is set as dedicated, the Prime 4 defaults to mirroring the main master signal to the zone output. This effectively allows you to play the main mix into two separate rooms. Just underneath the zone output EQ, and level controls are the booth output controls. These allow you to adjust the level and EQ of a booth monitor speaker.
The Prime 4 DJ console comes equipped with two dedicated microphone channels. Connect your microphone to either of the combo ¼-inch TRS Jack/XLR inputs on the rear of the unit. You can control the volume, alongside low, mid, and high-frequency EQ on microphone channel one, as well as volume, low and high-frequency EQ on channel two. You can add an echo effect to either of the mic channels by tapping the echo effect button next to the mic controls; you can then adjust the dry/wet amount for both with the dedicated rotary control. You can tap the relevant on/off buttons to instantly turn the mic channels on and off. Microphone settings can be further adjusted in the mixer utility section of the settings menu.
Tutorial Part 10 - Exploring Prime 4's DJ Effects
Prime 4 features 14 high-quality DJ effects which have been sourced directly from the X1800 DJ mixer. To assign any of the four mixer channels to one of the available effects, tap the FX selection buttons at the top of the mixer.
| Exploring Prime 4's DJ Effects |
FX bank one control is on the left of the unit, while FX bank two is found at the right. Each effect has its own unique combination of adjustable parameters, which can be activated by tapping the on buttons, and adjusted by rotating the parameter encoders; for example, we get an insight into the Filter LFO, Phaser, Beat Break, and Echo effects.
Tutorial Part 11 - Jog Wheels and Pitch Shifting
The Prime 4’s touch capacitive jog wheels allow you to control pitch adjustments, track cueing, and scratching techniques. Press the ‘Vinyl’ button to enable both pitch adjustments using the side of the jog wheel, and back cue scratching operation when touching the top surface. Turning vinyl mode off puts the jog wheels into pitch adjustment operation, touching both the top surface and the side of the jog wheels will allow you to adjust the position of a track finely.
| Jog Wheels and Pitch Shifting |
The centre screen of the jog wheel shows the currently playing track artwork along with loop settings. The outer LED ring can be changed to your preferred colour by heading to the menu, selecting preferences, and then scrolling down to ‘Deck Colours’. Tap the deck to adjust the deck colour and choose any of the colours shown on the screen, press menu again to return to the main screen.
Move the pitch fader up or down to adjust a track's tempo, you can also adjust the pitch range between 4% and 100% by holding shift and tapping the pitch bend buttons. The pitch bend buttons also work to nudge a track forwards or backwards when pressed solo. You can also apply extreme track tempo changes with the musical key locked. In this example, we hold shift and tap the pitch bend buttons to change the pitch fader to give a plus/minus 50% range. Prime 4’s time stretching algorithm maintains audio integrity at all frequencies in your tracks; this allows you to get super slow or ultra-fast without changing the musical key of a song.
Exclusively, to a standalone DJ system, Prime 4 brings on-board musical key shifting. To change a track's key in real-time, just tap the screen key indicator at the bottom of the screen, then adjust the musical key as you wish using the controls at the top of the screen; you can adjust the key of a track in semitone increments, tap done to confirm the key change. To quickly reset the musical key to its original state hold shift and press the blinking key lock button. To instantly match the musical key from one track to another, press and hold the ‘Key Lock’ button on the track you wish to change, and it will automatically match the key of the currently playing track; pressing the key lock button again will reset any key changes you have applied.
Tutorial Part 12 - Connections and Hardware Adjustments
The rear of the Prime 4 features the main audio and network connections. Two microphones are connected via the dual combo XLR/¼-inch TRS Jack inputs. You can connect external audio devices and media players such as CDJs, turntables, MP3 players, and smartphones to the Prime 4 via the RCA/Phono inputs which can be switched between Line and Phono level.
| Connections and Hardware Adjustments |
The master output allows you to choose between balanced stereo XLR outputs or unbalanced RCA outputs, which can be switched to either mono or stereo. Both the booth and zone outputs make use of stereo XLR outputs allowing you to easily connect to a booth monitor speaker, as well as a PA system in another room.
Incidentally, all of the XLR connectors as standard are high-quality Neutrik connectors. The link output allows you to connect to external computer and network devices, and carries Denon DJ StagelinQ protocol to communicate with audiovisual and lighting control solutions such as SoundSwitch, Resolume, and TimeCode software.
The USB-B connection is made for firmware update procedures and allows you to control Serato DJ Pro as well as Virtual DJ applications. USB 3 and 4 inputs are for connecting additional USB devices enabling you to expand your music libraries further.
Tutorial Part 13 - Touchscreen Library Management
It’s possible to create on-the-fly playlists and crates just using the Prime 4’s touchscreen. First you need to create and populate a playlist. To do this tap the library tab from the main screen and then the pen edit icon, an option will appear to add a new playlist or crate. Tap create playlist and then name it in the following dialogue prompt and press create.
| Touchscreen Library Management |
Exit from edit mode and then choose a folder to source tracks from, tap the pen edit icon and then select the tracks you’d like to add into the playlist. Once finished go to your playlist tab and select the new playlist then press and hold on any track to drag all the previously selected tracks into the new playlist.
Tracks can also be arranged in any order within a playlist, again press the pen icon, press and hold a track the slide up or down to slide the track into a new position, once done exit edit mode. Tracks and folder types can also be sorted into different information fields. Tap the sort by icon and select whichever sort field you require, for example sort by BPM, once done the tracks will appear in BPM order from top to bottom.
To reverse this or any sort order just tap the triangle flip icon. Also in edit mode any crate or playlist can be moved or reordered. Crates can be individually dragged into other crates to create sub-crates. A sub-crate can be dragged out of a parent crate by pressing and holding, and then dragging it to the top right of the folder panel, this reinstates the sub-crate back into the parent create listing.
Thank you for watching the above tutorials and be sure to sign up to our social media pages where we'll be sure to let you know when the next instalment is out!
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