OK - so after a lot of debate and playing with the various options, I purchased the HD2500.
First gig on Saturday night.
Immediate thought - I bought the wrong flightcase for it.
It is housed with my Citronic 10:4 and my old Citronic CD3 (just in case!) and the box is far too heavy.
Used 3 cds all night. (Why do I not have Reach by S Club 7 as a wav file??)
Thoughts .... FANTASTIC .... FANTASTIC ... FANTASTIC....
Did I mention it's fantastic??
My initial concerns were gone with 5 minutes. It is a seriously good unit.
I'm not a mixer, so a lot of the functions I will never use, but as a basic HD controller (which is all I want) it is excellant.
The sound quality is superb (even on old 128 mp3s)
It is the most responsive unit I have ever used. (Not being a Denon user previously)
One bug though : (serious grumble coming)
Why does the software not spot issues with files and/or drives??
I have put a lot of time and effort into checking all my old mp3 files (legally downloaded of course) are ok with the Denon DJ Music Manager software on my PC.
Plug them into the HD2500 and some of them are either unrecognised or it cannot open them.
Yet the software opens them fine????? This I think is a serious oversight on the part of the software.
For example - I have 2 hard drives. I have created the database fine on both of them, plug them in to the HD2500 , one of them is not recognised because it is NTFS not FAT32.
WHY DID THE SOFTWARE NOT TELL ME THIS???
I have a few old mp3 tracks that the software recognises and opens fine - the HD2500 doesnt open them.
WHY DOES THE SOFTWARE NOT TELL ME THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.
The software is written solely for the HD2500 - why do they operate differently?? Surely the software must know what a file (or a drive) must or must not contain to be openable by the HD2500?
This grumble aside though, seriously, this is a great product that will make a DJs life so much easier. No more rushing around trying to find that track on a CD.
Oh - and one other little comment (not really a moan, just a suggestion) - can we have some kind of indicator as to which side the keyboard is on, that is present at all times?? The big KB symbol in the middle of the screen comes and goes depending on what the player is doing. I would be happier with it permanently there.....
Full Version: First Gig With Hd2500
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QUOTE(Dale King @ May 9 2007, 12:29 PM) 
OK - so after a lot of debate and playing with the various options, I purchased the HD2500.
Thoughts .... FANTASTIC .... FANTASTIC ... FANTASTIC....
Did I mention it's fantastic??
My initial concerns were gone with 5 minutes. It is a seriously good unit.
I'm not a mixer, so a lot of the functions I will never use, but as a basic HD controller (which is all I want) it is excellant.
The sound quality is superb (even on old 128 mp3s)
It is the most responsive unit I have ever used. (Not being a Denon user previously)
Dale, I think that the problem you're going to have is...running out of positive descriptive words for your DN-HD2500. If you're using "Fantastic" now, you're gonna have to invent some amazing new words for it, when the forthcoming firmware release arrives - and...it's not only a firmware release, there's a software release too. (subtle difference, but ones for the DN-HD2500 itself, and the other for the PC software - both will not only be adjusting some of the existing features, but will have some excellent new features too) - and of course, they're free.
I cant give you a date for the release, as some of its inclusions are still being finalized, but you'll be able to remove most of the captial text in your post above.
I typed up a reply to a different post about mp3 files which wont play (at the moment:ads:) in another thread recently, I've included that explanation here....quoted below.
QUOTE
MP3 files can be said to have 3 main sections - the big musical data section, the ID3 tags (just a bit of text really) and the all-important file header. The file header contains the data which tells the playback device all sorts of info about the MP3 file itself. If this vitally important part of the mp3 becomes corrupt, then the file can produce unexpected results on the playback device. Just on the Denon? No, of course not, it's been going on for years. Have a look at how many MP3 header repair utilities have been around for years and years. Google info
And what causes corrupt file headers? Whilst its possible for any file on any storage medium to become corrupt for all the usual static electricity, and drop-out type issues on any storage medium eg: hard disc, cd-rom errors etc, the main culprit for corrupt mp3 file header info is PC programs.
Any PC program which you point at your music file (say a music CD, or a track on your hard drive) and you let that program manipulate and save the file, has to (re)calculate and save the file, together with the file header. If the PC software gets the calculations wrong, the header can become corrupt.
For example: Lets say that you rip a CD to hard drive with Program 1 and save the file, you then point program 2 at the file which program 1 created and program 2 removes any beginning and ending silent bits from (tops'n'tails) the track and saves it. Next you point program 3 at the file(s) to normalize them all to the same volume levels and re-save each track. Finally, you point program 4 at all the tracks, to tag and/or rename some of the tags, and this re-saves the files again.
Perhaps the 4 steps mentioned above are more than some people put their tracks through, but at the NADJ show the other week, I was talking to a guy whos upgraded to a 2500 and has previously processed all the files on his existing external drives with 6 programs in total - the 4 above, and 2 additional programs/steps - 1 program which allows him to adjust the equalisation, and another program which removes clicks and pops and rumble from tracks which he's loaded in from vinyl and cassette tapes - obviously he doesnt run this last "clean-up" program on CD ripped files.
Now perhaps its all too easy to say that avoiding having your mp3s saved with corrupt file headers is as easy as avoiding cheap or free music software, but even the well-known Exact Audio Copy used to corrupt headers when used with the LAME VBR encoder - so even the big name software houses can accidently turn decent file headers into corrupt ones, causing unexpected behaviour on many hardware or software based players.
QUOTE
Oh - and one other little comment (not really a moan, just a suggestion) - can we have some kind of indicator as to which side the keyboard is on, that is present at all times?? The big KB symbol in the middle of the screen comes and goes depending on what the player is doing. I would be happier with it permanently there.....
The KB symbol is there it just moves.... from the middle ish (right deck) to the left side (left deck) when you hit the Tab key......
Thanks Gary - you too are FANTASTIC.... hehehe
I await the update... string search???
Marky - I dont think it is, i think it disappears altogether when a track is playing - but I'll check later.
I await the update... string search???
Marky - I dont think it is, i think it disappears altogether when a track is playing - but I'll check later.
Just to clarify things for me:
With a FAT32 formatted drive, and music in just .wav format, are there any software issues at the moment?
(This is the way I intend to operate it.)
With a FAT32 formatted drive, and music in just .wav format, are there any software issues at the moment?
(This is the way I intend to operate it.)
QUOTE(Andy Westcott @ May 9 2007, 06:03 PM)
Just to clarify things for me:
With a FAT32 formatted drive, and music in just .wav format, are there any software issues at the moment?
(This is the way I intend to operate it.)
With a FAT32 formatted drive, and music in just .wav format, are there any software issues at the moment?
(This is the way I intend to operate it.)
The only issue that I've heard of from a user, using exclusively WAV files was the 50,000 file limit per drive (he had thousands of jingles and beats/breaks/scratch sound type files). Obviously, you'd need a seriously meaty drive to hold 50,000 real songs in WAV format.
Remember too, that on the DN-HD2500 you can tag WAV files, when ripping your tunes with a suitable WAV TAG enabled ripper - eg: Audiograbber (free). This means that you can search by more than just Artist name/song title etc - you can search by Genre, Album name, year, BPM etc.
My only issue with .wav was that you have to manually alter every single tag you want to edit. Programs like Tag & Rename and the like DO NOT edit the .wav tags, as there is no 100% standard format.
That is why I have decided to convert everything I have ripped as a .wav to a 320 mp3, just so that I can edit the tags easier.
I am however, keeping the .wav files on a separate hard-drive, just in case Denon come up with something....
That is why I have decided to convert everything I have ripped as a .wav to a 320 mp3, just so that I can edit the tags easier.
I am however, keeping the .wav files on a separate hard-drive, just in case Denon come up with something....
QUOTE(Dale King @ May 10 2007, 09:07 AM)
I am however, keeping the .wav files on a separate hard-drive, just in case Denon come up with something....
That's a shrewd move, I would say.
When you say that you're finding tags on WAVs are difficult to edit, do you mean "in bulk"? eg: not able to point at an entire directory/group of tracks and force say, the genre tag to read "R'n'B" eg: multiple file changes in one action?
If you're ripping original CDs through Audiograbber, then all the tags are added automatically - as audiograbber looks up the cd details on the internet, and populates the tags that way, regardless of whether the files are going to be ripped to wav or a compressed format.
Yes, basically it's the "multiple" editing.
For example - one set of albums i have all ready ripped has inverted commas around the track title ("its a kind of magic").
As an mp3 i can delete these in one action. As a .wav, I cant.
For example - one set of albums i have all ready ripped has inverted commas around the track title ("its a kind of magic").
As an mp3 i can delete these in one action. As a .wav, I cant.
QUOTE(Dale King @ May 10 2007, 02:13 PM)
Yes, basically it's the "multiple" editing.
For example - one set of albums i have all ready ripped has inverted commas around the track title ("its a kind of magic").
As an mp3 i can delete these in one action. As a .wav, I cant.
So, you're able to edit the tags on the WAV files one at a time, but not en masse/in bulk/in multiples.
Personally, I'd be tempted to stay with WAV and just suffer the typing for the moment - thats just because I really want WAV - as my mid-term plans over the next few years involve getting digital amps etc and I dont want to start the music chain off with compressed files.
There might be another way (just a hunch at the moment), I'll try it out in the next day or two and see what results I get. Are there any other common typos which alot (alot alot) of your tags are suffering from?
Gary - if I may interject with another quick question:
When searching, do you search the actual file names, or do you need some kind of tagging?
To clarify, if I had a .wav file called... I dunno... Donna Summer - I Feel Love, for example, is this how it would appear on the screen?
When searching, do you search the actual file names, or do you need some kind of tagging?
To clarify, if I had a .wav file called... I dunno... Donna Summer - I Feel Love, for example, is this how it would appear on the screen?
You can search the file names or the Tag info...
Thankyou. 
How about long file names?
There will be a limit to the number of characters the file name may contain - anyone know what it is?
How about long file names?
There will be a limit to the number of characters the file name may contain - anyone know what it is?
QUOTE(Andy Westcott @ May 10 2007, 08:19 PM)
How about long file names?
There will be a limit to the number of characters the file name may contain - anyone know what it is?
If it's FAT32 format then I believe the max length of a filename is 255 characters.
There will be a limit to the number of characters the file name may contain - anyone know what it is?
QUOTE
There will be a limit to the number of characters the file name may contain
So how many people have got Rod Stewart's hit 'You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings' then ?
Now, now, Mr Harris. 
Some software allows only a small number of characters - DOS for an example only allows 8.
Even though the system operates with FAT32, that doesn't necessarily mean the software will support 255 characters - take the playlist maximum of 99 entries for a good example of an odd software limitation. If it only supports, say, 32 or even 64 characters, we'd need to watch the file names.
With unwieldy artist names and odd song titles, it is surprising how quickly you can get through the characters. And don't forget, any folder names need to be included in the total.
Some software allows only a small number of characters - DOS for an example only allows 8.
Even though the system operates with FAT32, that doesn't necessarily mean the software will support 255 characters - take the playlist maximum of 99 entries for a good example of an odd software limitation. If it only supports, say, 32 or even 64 characters, we'd need to watch the file names.
With unwieldy artist names and odd song titles, it is surprising how quickly you can get through the characters. And don't forget, any folder names need to be included in the total.
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