Denon DJ LC6000 Review – Hands-On Deep Dive

Product Featured

Model: Denon DJ LC6000
Release Price: $699 (contact by livechat, phone or email for ETA)
Released: April 2021

This Denon LC6000 review was produced by David Michael, from The Passionate DJ Podcast.

Introducing the Denon DJ LC6000: Performance Expansion Controller (Transcript)

The LC6000 is a device that’s rather simple on the surface, but when you start to dig a little deeper, you begin to truly understand how versatile a device it really is.

I tried to decide the best way to describe it, but I couldn’t choose, so I’ll leave it up to you:

  • Single Deck Modular DJ Controller
  • Dedicated Secondary Layer Controller
  • SC6000 without the screen and CPU
  • Unmotorized RANE Twelve

Let’s just say, there are a number of ways to use the LC6000 and we’re going to explore several of them in this review. In simple terms, it’s a DJ controller that can be used either to control decks in a Denon PRIME setup or within your favorite DJ software. Unless your favorite DJ software is Traktor.

While there have been rumors of Traktor support as of the making of this video, that hasn’t been made a reality. However, if you’re a user of Serato, Virtual DJ, or Algoriddim’s DJay Pro, you’re in luck! A single LC6000 offers full control over a single deck or “layer” if you will, and you basically get to decide how it fits into your setup. Unlike all-in-one DJ controllers or standalone DJ systems like the Denon PRIME 4, the LC is a modular DJ controller, it’s meant to be one piece of a larger puzzle.

So let’s take Prime 4 as an example, as of Engine v2.1, you can add one (or two) LC6000s to either side and use them to control decks 3 and 4. All it takes is one USB cable, connecting each player straight to the controller and you’re all set. You don’t need extra screens when you already have a lovely display on the PRIME 4, capable of showing 4 decks worth of information, so why pay for them? What we actually want is tactile control over those extra decks, without having to share inputs with multiple layers.

Example uses and setups

As Denon clearly establishes, LC6000 can be used as a “layer controller” alongside a set of SC5000 or 6000 players. You could use it with a pair, or, you could combine it with one of the full-size players to complete your setup.

Technically, you only need one screen and one CPU for dual-deck play in a Denon setup, making this is a perfectly functional setup that saves money over a pair of multiplayer. I’ve mentioned before that you can use the LC6000 to expand control of your PRIME 4, which makes a huge amount of sense (especially for home use), but let’s not forget that these are just DJ controllers, and they are capable of controlling your DJ software, and as an example, you could have a setup with two decks controlled solely by the LC’s, and a Serato-enabled mixer.

Another option is to go all out with four decks: If you’re using Serato anyways, perhaps you don’t want to pay for what essentially amounts to four computers with some SC6000s, you just want some nice chunky jog-wheels and some sensible controls. The great thing about modular controllers is their “modularity”, this means that perhaps you already have a four-channel controller that you like such as the Pioneer DDJ-1000 or the newer DDJ-FLX6 and you’d just like to be able to put hands on decks 3 and 4, this allows you to do that while leaving the computing and displaying duties up to your laptop.

Now, the LC6000 is also compatible with Virtual DJ and Algoriddim’s DJay Pro. That second one is interesting because they offer a mobile version which begs the question: can you connect the LC6000s to an iPad or iPhone and use them to DJ? the answer is: YES!, you absolutely can. This is the beauty of the Algoriddim software, and the fact that it has a mobile port: you can truly use the LCs in any way you want, including by connecting it to a mobile device.

Experiments

So first, since they recently added support for the Prime Standalone system, I wondered if maybe it might work with the Prime Go, so I plugged it in and I connected the LC 6000 to its single USB, waited for it to power up, and unfortunately didn’t work. This probably wouldn’t be a typical use case for one of these, but it was worth a shot.

So similarly, I thought I might try connecting it to a Numark Mixstream Pro, which is the only non-Denon engine OS standalone, but unfortunately, once again, no response, and if you think about it, this sort of makes sense because after all, these are two-channel devices which already have jog wheels so that’s what you are controlling and nothing else, but I suppose in the case of the Prime Go it would be nice to have access to those big chunky SC 6000 style jog wheels when you’re playing at home.

I also tested whether it would work with a powered USB hub and yes, that’s basically what you’re doing when you connect to one of these players. I even tested it with a non Powered Hub and that worked fine too, I was even able to connect the mixer audio through the same hub and charge my Nintendo Switch and surprisingly, the LC6000 just kept going. Now I really don’t recommend pushing it this way, if you have a really complex setup full of USB components, you probably should power either the hub, that device, or both.

Now the LC 6000 ships with a power adapter in case you do need it, particularly for that case where you’re using it with a mobile device, you don’t really want to rely on your iPhone to power itself and this controller. This is an extremely flexible device, but I do have one complaint and that’s the lack of tractor support and I keep hoping for this to arrive. But for the moment, I’ll just have to keep hoping.

Who This Controller is For

So single deck modular DJ controller at its core, how and where you use it is kind of up to you. This isn’t the first time a device like this has been created, and indeed, the Rane Twelve MKII isn’t that much different. It’s just the turntable version of this. But if you’re not a scratch DJ or that turntable style of cueing isn’t really your jam, this might be more up your alley. This is such a versatile device and I think many DJs will find it to be so handy is such a nice thing to add to their setup because it can be used for so many different things and different scenarios. So for instance, you might not know a whole bunch of DJs that use an engine or that’s powered setup that maintains an engine library use it Denon prime setup, but you probably do if you know a few DJs know a few that use Serato and these can act as Serato controllers.

That’s just one example of a way that you could get a lot more use out of these than just using them one way and there are a lot of reasons that DJs are going to want these. The fact that Denon is offering a single deck controller like this with the full-size experience as far as the jog wheel and all that stuff, everything is the premium experience that you expect from the rest of the prime setup, the vantage point is that you don’t need to pay for all the extra parts you can save about half the cost and that’s a pretty great proposition.

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