Denon MCX8000 Standalone and Serato DJ Controller

Denon MCX8000 Standalone and Serato DJ Controller

Denon DJ will be showcasing their brand new Denon MCX8000 hybrid DJ controller/player at NAMM 2016 this week.

The Denon MCX8000 looks like a cross between the Numark NV and Pioneer DJ’s XDJ-RX but it has a trick or two up its sleeve. It can reportedly be used completely as a standalone unit or as a professional Serato DJ controller.

Denon DJ’s answer to Rekordbox by Pioneer is called ENGINE and it last saw the light of day back in 2012 which was also when the last Denon media player was released namely the SC3900. ENGINE has now been revamped considerably and accompanies the Denon MCX8000 as the software for managing your media library and preparing it for use with this new hybrid player/controller.

According to the Denon DJ press release, the new Denon MCX8000 and ENGINE software have been designed to make full use of all the functionality on the unit both in standalone mode and when used with Serato DJ. In other words there will be no ‘dead functions’ that only work in 1 of the 2 modes. An example of this is the Slip and Censor buttons which are based on Serato features but work with ENGINE too.

Feature List

Click to enlarge

Here’s a summary of the main features you can look forward to on the Denon MCX8000:

• Two high-resolution displays to show the playing tracks (they seem similar to the Numark NV)
• Can run in standalone mode, playing tracks from 2 USB inputs using Denon DJ Engine without a laptop
• Works with Serato DJ (included) –the screens will show the waveforms, browser, etc from Serato.
• Can switch effortlessly (on-the-fly) between standalone and controller mode
• Four channel mixer with two microphone inputs
• 3 Instant Effects for Engine playback or to apply to the line inputs
• Velocity-sensitive performance pads (for cues, rolls, slicer, samples)
• Ethernet Stage LinQ – Control new generation lighting and video from the Denon MCX8000
• Serato DVS expansion support (two switchable Phono/Line inputs on the back of the unit)
• Professional Inputs/Output: Booth Out (1 pair XLR), Master Out (1 pair balanced XLR, 1 pair of unbalanced RCA), 4 RCA line inputs, and an extra USB port for plugging in another controller (essentially a 1-port USB hub)

Opinion

The recently released Denon DJ MC4000 impressed us immensely when we reviewed the DJ Controller and aside from its impressive build quality and ergonomics the pricing we thought was very competitive.

Hopefully the Denon MCX8000 can be as competitively priced when it lands in South Africa. Globally it is set to retail at $ 1299 and from the images and video it looks like a genuine heavyweight competitor for the Pioneer XDJ-RX. We know the build quality will be good and the features list is very impressive so the real decider will be with the ENGINE software. Pioneer DJ have made massive strides with Rekordbox, in fact to the point where it has become a fully-featured DJ software program too, so ENGINE will need to be good if the Denon MCX8000 is going to compete as a standalone player.

We’re expecting nothing less than awesome! Watch this space. We’ve been told stock should be landing around April/May this year and you can bet we’ll be waiting to test it out.

DENON DJ in South Africa