Introduction

When Denon DJ came out with the original PRIME 4 back in 2019, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that they knocked it out of the park. Upon release, it was the only true standalone four-channel DJ system. The competition has only now just caught up, just in time for Denon DJ to come out with a new iteration.

The PRIME 4+ is a refined and enhanced version of the original. You can think of it as a PRIME 4 MK2, rather than a wholly new product or concept. It’s been refined, rather than redesigned.

This version is the same size and shape as the original PRIME 4. It mostly looks the same, particularly while powered down. It’s made of the same materials, it has the same inputs and outputs, the same controls, knobs, and buttons on the top, and has the same gorgeous 10.1” touch screen with multi-gesture support. The jog wheels are slightly different, with the top surface area being a little larger.

So what’s different about the PRIME 4+? Well, like the other “plus” devices before it, there is the inclusion of Amazon Music. This is something that can’t be added as an over-the-air update due to hardware DRM. In other words, a chip needs to be in there for Amazon Music to work. The other big deal with this new version is the inclusion of real-time stems. Well, eventually.

The public beta for this is going to be open in about 3 months from now, and will initially be coming exclusively to the PRIME 4+. As DJ software has quickly trended towards stems, there has been some question as to whether this would be coming to any standalone hardware. And of course, Denon DJ is just the company to unleash this to the DJing world.

There are a few aesthetic differences, too. Right off the bat, you’ll notice that they’ve toned down the extreme UFO green and blue. If you’re the kinda person who likes the PRIME 4, but found the bright color scheme to be a bit garish, you’ll appreciate this change. Everything is brought up to par with Denon DJ’s current look. The bright RGB pads have been changed to black buttons with a light “line” going through it. They’ve also rubberized the play/pause buttons, which makes them feel really nice. And, I’m happy to say that they’ve changed the top sections next to the screen to a matte finish, rather than fingerprint-scratchy gloss black. Outside of that, it’s the PRIME 4 that we all know and love. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

It’s got tons of music source options: 4 USB inputs, an SD card slot, a 2.5” SATA hard drive bay on the bottom, or you can stream directly from Beatport LINK, Beatsource LINK, SoundCloud GO+, and TIDAL or from your own Dropbox account. It’s also got tons of connectivity options, so you can connect it to any sound system, and even contains a “Zone 2” option where you can play a completely separate playlist in another room.

You get lighting control for DMX and Smart Lighting from Nanoleaf and Philips HUE, and it unlocks Serato DJ Pro and is compatible with VirtualDJ. Just to reiterate, the PRIME 4 is a monster of a device that “does all the things”, and the PRIME 4+ is just an extension of that.

Engine DJ 3.1

The first thing you should do when you get a Denon DJ device is update to the latest version of Engine OS. This ecosystem is constantly getting improved with features, fixes, and updates. Chances are, you aren’t experiencing everything the device has to offer if you haven’t done this. On the PRIME 4+, it’s pretty easy. As long as you’ve connected to your Wi-Fi, it should pop up and tell you when there’s an update. You can run the update straight over the web via that Wi-Fi connection, and it should handle the rest.

A few weeks ago, Engine DJ 3.1 was released, and it was a rather big update. Specifically, it came with a bunch of new FX for Denon DJ devices, including the addition of a new thing called Touch FX

This is an X/Y grid, with on-screen boxes representing time divisions. As you go from left to right, it changes the beat division. Going down to up, you’ll change another parameter (such as a filter). The idea is that you can sweep back and forth with your finger to modify the effect, or to use it as a transition tool between tracks.

There’s also a slider at the bottom of the screen that can be used to adjust a custom parameter. For example, the resonance of the filter

Stems

Suffice it to say, at the time of writing this, it’s definitely an early build. The audio quality of the separated parts reminds me of the rekordbox implementation that came out on day one with the FLX-10. Meaning, it works, but definitely doesn’t sound as good as Serato or Virtual DJ yet. But, I have full faith in InMusic and the Denon DJ team when it comes to this. I look forward to testing it in a future video.

What hardware? Well, it’s hard to say. Separating tracks into individual pieces in realtime like this, without any pre-calculation ahead of time, is computationally expensive. I doubt we’ll see this feature coming to devices like Mixstream Pro or PRIME Go.

But, how cool would it be to see this on the SC6000? This would be a huge step up for Denon DJ over the competition if they can bring it to market first. Being able to remove, combine, and apply effects to individual stems as a function of a standalone DJ player sounds like an exciting development. The real question is, will this feature come to the original PRIME 4? I wish I had an answer for that, because undoubtedly, some of you are wondering whether or not you should upgrade your PRIME 4 in order to “do stems”.

Denon DJ does have a history of sneaking in hardware to their devices (like when they first released the SC5000 player, and later announced that they added Wi-Fi functionality as an over-the-air-update). And they’ve already had to modify the internals somewhat, for Amazon Music functionality. It’s quite possible that there has been a CPU or memory bump, or something else going on behind the scenes that gives the PRIME 4+ adequate horsepower. I just don’t know at this point. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more answers on this later in the year.

First, there’s Active Part & Part Iso. Active Part means you’re literally selecting which Parts of the song are active. They’re all on by default, but what if I want to, say, remove the drums? Just hit the button and, like magic, they’ve disappeared. Part Iso lets you do the same thing, but you can control the volume of the individual Parts. The EQ knobs instead convert into knobs to control these parts. This is pretty neat, but does keep you from using your EQ when this feature is active.

The next feature is called FX Part Select. As you might guess from the name, it lets you select which Part to apply FX to. And I bet it won’t take long for your imagination to run wild with cool ways that this can be used. For instance, applying a slip roll or echo to only the vocals on a track. See the video above for an example.

Finally, there’s Part Instant Doubles. This works just like the regular Instant Doubles feature, which instantly duplicates your track in another track and plays from the same position. Only this time, isolates a specific part in that deck. So, you could bump just the vocals out to its own deck, and then scratch or apply FX only to the vocals.

Track Separation, or “Stems”, currently sounds better on Serato and Virtual DJ than it does within Rekordbox (again, demonstrations in the video above). They are functional in Rekordbox, but nowhere near as clean as the other two, at least as of the writing of this review

Final Thoughts

As it turns out, the first company to truly “best” Denon DJ’s 2019 model is. Denon DJ. And it’s another PRIME 4!

I find this fascinating. This sort of staying power instills confidence in the product, the brand, and its ecosystem. The company is standing behind their product (even doubling down on it) because they know they made something special. I know Denon DJ isn’t perfect, but this makes me want to root for them.

If you’re looking at standalone DJ systems and are willing to spend the money, this is the king of the mountain. The PRIME 4 disappointed almost no one, which is why the 4+ seeks only to modernize the original design and feature set. Whether you’re a club DJ, a mobile DJ, a live-stream DJ, it doesn’t matter. This thing is designed to serve everyone. But it remains to be seen how exclusive the STEMS club is when it comes to Denon DJ gear. And, it also remains to be seen how good that will actually be when it launches.

As a piece of DJ gear, buy with confidence. As for what pieces of Denon DJ gear you should upgrade to this from? I’ll have to get back to ya

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