How To Flexible Beatgrid Streaming Tracks On Engine DJ (Prime 4, SC Live 4, Mixstream Pro Etc) 

We agree, this is a big deal!

100% waited while for this will be buy a unit next year

Ha ha, as you say, perfect timing John!

Glad this helped

Exciting indeed Jason!

Glad to help

Well spotted, wonder how I missed that! Thanks for the correction

Yeah, good point!

Great :)

Glad to help

No worries

We're still holding out for smart playlists though...

@@digitaldjtips Yes, I agree Phil! But I am sure it will come soon as well :)

It's a great and yes, surprising new feature - hot off the press Benny.

Glad you enjoyed it

Glad you think so!

No problem Jo!

Do you find it doesn't work so well automatically with your music on djay Pro AI?

@@digitaldjtips it never guesses the beat grid exactly, I’m always correcting it for every track,, sometimes it’s a bar off, other times it’s slightly off.. But the ability to be able to set the grid in multiple places would be a blessing,, We have been Asking for this feature in the Algoriddim forums for years.. It also struggles to correctly detect when there is a long accapela during a track.. Size 9. “ I am ready” is a perfect example of this

I do not think we will see stems in Engine any time soon, that isn't to say never, though...

What do you like most about it Tom?

It's your lucky day! www.digitaldjtips.com/2022/12/how-to-beatgrid-disco-funk-soul-rock-music/

Sorry to hear that Danny!

@@digitaldjtips lol it’s all good I’m getting better with engine dj and thanks for all the info I love my mixstream pro go!!

You mean in the desktop software? Doubt that will happen as to prep streaming music in desktop then export to USB would need offline streaming, which is not available and probably not likely to come in this way due to licensing issues, sadly.

Yeah Sandisk, may as well go for 3.0.

Sorry to hear that, you should work to get that firmware updated.

We've not tested its built-in analysis recently. There's a chance it makes that call itself, but not sure.

Hopefully they'll add an undo button. I guess companies are happy with their internal checking and beta programmes, just because it's important to me doesn't necessarily mean it'd be important to anyone else!

Not in the foreseeable future, in our view.

I can't even get the b******* to work.. I set anchors and they don't stay in place

Tidal needs to add the BPM to their own Metadata in order for Engine to have the ability to sort. Until this is implemented by Tidal, there is nothing Engine can do

Depending upon the streaming service, this is a limitation of the service, not Engine.

I disagree sorry guys, it is actually on the client side that sorting is done. I understand the metadata being supplied by the streaming service is the best solution for obtaining bpm and key data (and really what is stopping Tidal from just running a few EC2 instances with a commercial license for Mixed In Key and then uploading that metadata with a super basic metadata field update to Engine) BUT look at solutions like Djay Pro, Serato, Traktor where it allows you to analyse entire playlists and then just saves the metadata locally. Engine does save metadata field already in tidal playlists so at least allow us to analyse whole playlists and then the bpm and key issue is solved. More so, and my big gripe is that only local playlists are able to be sorted. This is beyond basic functionality that I refer to as all platforms being able to do. I have countless playlists for every kind of occasion but I don't mix in order, and if I am not even able to sort by title, or artist (this is available tidal metadata so why can't we at least sort by this) let alone bpm or key it makes finding songs incredibly tiresome. Yeah I have become overly reliant on streaming but without going into I have to use some amount of streaming with my biggest client that has 8 venues throughout Asia. If it wasn't for needing local music for soundswitch shows I'd probably go all streaming. I've also been crapped on in the past by people telling me this kind of stuff is too much for the Prime Go or a standalone, and evidently adding something as computationally intensive as flexible Beatgridding isn't harming them one bit. Just ask for more and we'll get it.

@@miyagithedj so yeah, sorry for not tagging but yeah, without seeing the code which I'd happily do for Denon (can't see how they implemented playlists) but it's actually not on the server side for sorting data once it is downloaded. The metadata data is recieved to Engine OS and is stored locally (albeit very temporarily) and sorted on that side. They probably have limited resources and clearly from this update they were fixing some critical functionality I am surprised they even released without (I mean come on.... We can only now change the bpm of Beatgrids, thanks but kind of expected really) so hopefully they will turn to these kinds of problems going forward.

People probably think I am ungrateful but it's not like we have not spent thousands of dollars supporting these companies, and don't forget they are massive companies with plenty of resources. What would you have preferred, the release of the SC Live range or Engine OS being able to have flexible Beatgrids a year ago, or an analysis queue, or stem support, or able to sort playlists, what about smart playlists or smart sorting (sorts playlists based on the current tracks bpm and key)??? Or what about creating their own platform that uploads Beatgrids, cue points and keys with the TidalTrackID (that's the actual key pair field on the meta tag) and takes a running average and let's DJs download perfect key grids, keys and mapped cue points... This to me is what would make Denon a club standard and a give clear market advantage over the "still" kings of the game. Just saying, but I see huge potential in Denon so I want them to succeed not just be the company that pushed Pioneer to be better. I'd pay a small subscription fee if it meant constantly having updates for Engine OS if it meant they stopped trying to push hardware the community didn't ask for. Seriously the Prime range was a genuine response to a genuine need, a good standalone. The SC Live range is just an iteration that Pioneer does to keep the money flowing, it's not bad but it's not what I want from Denon. The SC5000 and SC6000 let alone Prime units were meant to be future proofed. I would happily pay a subscription if it meant the Prime units were able to pay the licenses to integrate natively with Virtual DJ, Serato, Traktor, Rekordbox. These should have been the last players we bought for 5 years!

Yes but since this vid beatgridding has moved on and Djay Pro is again ahead of the pack

No

Yes! It is Lawrence. And in fact, we just published a 100% free tutorial of how to do this in Rekordbox (and all other software, too) - get it here: www.digitaldjtips.com/2022/12/how-to-beatgrid-disco-funk-soul-rock-music/

You should have as long as you've analysed the library in Engine DJ on your desktop first and exported to SD. If not, it will only calculate those things upon first loading of a track.

It does take a bit of getting used to.

Yes you can still do this.

Yes

You couldn't until now (at least, not directly on Engine standalone units)

@@digitaldjtips I get that lol but can this knowledge be transferred to serato and traktor

Fair enough, beatgridding has a huge number of uses though so you may choose to try it one day :)

This was difficult to implement in the past due to everyone having their own files, but now everything is centralised between the big streaming players. It's 2022, AI is a merely a few years away from me asking it to build my own dj program so they need to get their crap together fast if they want market dominance.

I think AI will be beatgridding all tracks very effectively, very soon. The days of us having to do it manually are definitely numbered.

@@digitaldjtips oh man, that would be sweet! Privacy and compensation issues aside (and obvious foresight), I feel like it's a really missed opportunity if all DJ software wasn't using beatgrid, key, loop, and cue info from all those dedicated DJs over the last 15 or so years to train new AI. Maybe the Old skool DJs could share their libraries' metadata for a profit back to these big players haha

You need to update the software to the latest version on your unit.

Hah OK! I get it. Music never was supposed to be stretched by grid edits, but that job would have been done with the "Leading Sync" track. It's just that I hadn't been used to using a sync button yet. Sorry, my bad ! Completely overthinking here...

Glad you figured it out

You can't sync when the beatgrid is not correct

@@Sammy880926 On the video Phil trying to fix the beatgrind in the track Respect. That’s ok if you choose that. But why would you go threw that trouble when you can use the sync button for the next track or use your headphones the old Dj way. Just my thoughts

Beatgridding is necessary for sync to work, and sometimes, the auto beatgridding doesn't work well, hence the need to do this Phil.

Using your headphones "the old DJ way" is perfectly valid too! Some DJs like their tracks gridded so they can think about doing other things (Extra decks, effects etc), and to use auto loops effectively, rather than spending time keeping tracks on beat. It's always your choice.

@@digitaldjtips excellent tutorial... can't thank you enough. this feature has been long overdue. I feel the engine software isn't as accurate with it's beat grid detection compared to pioneer and considering engine's delay effects rely on the beatgrid it's been a major flaw with denon's hardware. I"ve also struggled adjusting engine's beatgrid on a computer but you made those struggles disappear with this walk through. thank you again!

Good luck!

Elsewhere, in a database on your drive.

that's what i figured @@digitaldjtips nontransferable outside of Denon

Yes, agreed.

@@digitaldjtips traktor too. They just got an update too. You should do a video on that too

Yes you can do it with MP3s, and yes, it'll remember what you've done on your USB, so you can then import that back to your laptop master collection

Maybe it is, I don't like to do it that way (including in Serato) as I like perfection, but you could try it on Engine like this?

yes

@@digitaldjtips thank you 🙏🏽

Sync button

@@digitaldjtips I know about that hh, im just searching for a way to alingn the small lines of the beat to each other after beatmatching not the songs itself.

@@digitaldjtips I literally tried everything. Shift + sync etc., etc. The only way im always used to do it is by manually moving them. Hope there a button combo for that

Good point, but it depends on the system you use as to how beatgrids are managed.

Just ignore it

Same with all standalone gear.

Yes, edited grids save

@@digitaldjtips thanks 👍🏼

Yes

Yes, it is on the Prime Go (had to think about what you wrote there for a second Mac!)

@@digitaldjtips ok

Reset

But this looks a lot more easy to use because you can use the jogwheel in combination with the touchscreen.

Rekordbox does not have this on standalone gear, ie XDJ stuff, which is what this is.

@@digitaldjtips it’s true

RB hardware (CDJ, XDJ) is limited and inferior, and it's getting more hilarious with every new EngineOS update. Glad I left the sinking ship. I don't care about 'club standard' I care about good quality, features and pricing :)

It does for us

@@digitaldjtips lol thx for the useless reply

Please?

It can be a bit fiddly, but try our free tutorials! www.digitaldjtips.com/2022/12/how-to-beatgrid-disco-funk-soul-rock-music/