First Look: Engine DJ 2.0 Update | Tips and Tricks

hey everyone it's mo jax back in the dj city uk lab today we are taking a look at engine dj 2.0 you'll notice there has been a name change there it's not engine prime anymore it is engine dj 2.0 but that includes the music management software on your computer and engine os the operating system that's embedded inside the prime series hardware there are lots of new things to talk about this could well be the biggest update they've done so far so let's get right to it there's so much to look at here it's kind of hard to prioritize but i'm going to go with the thing that's got me the most hyped and that is engine lighting aka onboard sound switch it's only a few weeks ago that version 2.3 of soundswitch was released and in my video looking at that i was having to really bite my tongue because i was already playing around with engine dj 2.0 and i knew this was coming whilst soundswitch has worked with the denon dj prime series hardware for a long time it's still needed to have a computer running the soundswitch software in order to use it in your performances well now in engine dj 2.0 that restriction is gone there are two ways of working with it if you don't have the soundswitch software at all you can connect wirelessly to a philips hue bridge and use those lights with pre-scripted auto loops this is perfect for those who are playing at home or doing live streams and want some nice synchronized lighting effects without any hassle it's also completely free so if you already own some philips hue lighting in your house it will cost you nothing to use it but if you want to go to another level you use the soundswitch software to set up your venues fixtures and script custom shows for your tracks you can then export all of that information to your drive at the same time as you export your music using the sync manager once your drive is loaded in the hardware i'm using the prime4 here then you have access to either simple or advanced lighting control modes overrides static looks basically everything that you have in the soundswitch software but right there inside your device you can still use philips hue without a sound switch interface but plug one of those in and you have full control over your full map of dmx fixtures it even works with a separate players and mixer setup as long as it's all done on dj kit like the sc6000ms and x1850 i'm using here all of the devices need to be linked via stagelink with the players mapped to the correct channels but with that done all the communication is taken care of automatically after making my video about soundswitch 2.3 i went back and watched my original video about it from 2016. and truth is i was shocked about just how much the product has transformed since then at the time it seemed rather niche and a lot of work to use but now it's no more difficult to add to your setup than regular dj software if i can do it then anyone can and this on-board iteration of it in engine dj 2.0 just takes that simplicity to new heights i absolutely love it another new feature in engine dj 2.0 which will get some djs absolutely salivating is the addition of ableton link if you aren't aware it's a protocol developed by ableton which any developer can integrate into their software or hardware and then allows it to sync with any other ableton link enabled software or hardware either wired or wirelessly so that could mean ableton live ipad drum machines the latest npcs other daws and even dj software i'm using serato dj pro here in the prime series hardware you enable ableton link in the settings then connect to the same network as your other linked devices either through ethernet or wi-fi in my demo i have the sc5000 wired into my network and the laptop running serato is connected via wi-fi then it's as simple as making sure link is turned on everywhere pressing sync and off you go tempo changes can be made by any of the linked devices and others will follow the real beauty of ableton link is that it just works there's no faffing around with midi settings or anything like that and the integration inside engine dj 2.0 is about as straightforward as you could hope for the idea that you can now hook up an npc live to your prime rig and have it perfectly synced at all times seems like quite a big win for djs who like to include live elements into their sets there are a couple more things to mention before we get into the serious back end stuff firstly the new control center and menu system in general is much improved you've seen it in action in this video by now but it's worth noting secondly the hardware all now has a clock on the display synchronized to the correct time zone when the device connects to the internet okay it's only a small thing but i really like it i don't wear a watch and so having the correct time in front of me means i don't have to keep looking at my phone when i need to keep track of the time at events it also means your history playlists have the time tracks were played on them too which is cool and the third thing is that the playlist deck option ideal for dinner music or just background music in general is now available on the prime 2 and prime go as well as on the prime 4 with its dedicated zone output this takes over one deck and plays through any playlist of your choice you have the ability to choose a crossfade time in the settings which although isn't any kind of auto mix functionality does help cut out those bits of dead air between tracks it even works with streaming tracks from services like beat source link as it pre-downloads the next track as soon as one is loaded very smooth so we move on to the biggest thing in engine dj 2.0 which is not so glamorous but very important the entire database code has been rewritten and that brings with it some serious quality of life improvements file analysis is faster searching is faster and the whole way playlist work has been redone previously you had crates which could be reordered and sorted by whatever you wanted bpm title genre etc then you had playlists which could only be reordered manually now you just have playlists and those combine all of the features of the older crates and playlists into one much better streaming tracks are also now far more integrated into the main database too whereas before they were kind of siloed into their own area within the database now when you play a track from say b source link that tracks information is added into the main database on the drive that means you can create new playlists with them in mix them with local music in those playlists and sort them by whatever parameters you like previously the order they were saved in on the streaming service was all you had access to it also means you can add them to your prepare playlist they show up in your histories not having that was a nightmare for me before you can play them in the playlist deck and you can preview them from within playlists without loading to a deck like you could with local files in the past those database improvements also make themselves known in the engine dj desktop software no longer do you see duplicates of your files when you plug in a loaded up drive to it which always annoyed me importing from third-party libraries like serato can be done with one click so switching to engine from other software is a piece of cake metadata from your streaming music isn't pulled back into the main library but when a drive is connected you can work with those files by adding them to playlists viewing the histories and all of that at the moment streaming files aren't highlighted when you drag them around but i'm sure that's a small fix some other things in the desktop software apple m1 chips are now supported the user interface has been cleaned up and you can drag and drop folders into the software and it will retain the folder structure as playlists one big thing that is still missing is smart crates but i know that's on their roadmap so i'll let that pass for now especially as there is so much else new here in engine dj 2.0 to get your teeth into so there you go look at engine dj 2.0 this is a major update not because of the cool new features as good as those are you know sound switch philips hue ableton link all of that is great but the really important thing is the rebuild of the database from scratch this new database is far more fit for purpose than the old one was it felt like they were just kind of plugging new stuff into that one and it was never really that great to begin with now we have a far more solid cohesive way of working with music whether that's local or streaming music inside the software and the hardware all together is it perfect no nothing ever is there's still a few things i'd like to see them add a few tweaks i'd like to see them make but i could say that about every single platform that i work with if you are an engine user go ahead get this downloaded get it installed because honestly it's pretty transformative compared to what we had before a very very solid update indeed thanks for watching today make sure you're subscribed and hit that bell icon down below to get notified anytime there's a new video from myself or the rest of the dj city team i'll see you soon

Channel: DJcityTV

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Rating: 4.9504132 out of 5

Keywords: DJcity, DJcityTV, Mojaxx, Tips and Tricks, DJ, DJs, DJing, DJ Tech, Music Tech, Digital DJing, Turntablism, Turntablist, Turntablists, Club DJ, Radio DJ, Mobile DJ, Tour DJ, Open Format DJ, First Look, Review, Tech Review, DJ Gear, Speaker, Speakers, Active Speaker, Active Speakers, Rokit, Music Producer, Music Producers, Music Studio, Music Studios, Pioneer DJ, Pioneer, Serato, Serato DJ, CDJ-3000, CDJ 3000, Pioneer DJ CDJ-3000, Serato DJ Pro 2.5.7, Integration, Beatsource LINK, Beatport

Id: hNVuKNvzre0

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2021