Teased for a while and officially “announced” on the Serato DJ blog yesterday, Denon DJ has announced two standalone all-in-one units – the SC Live 2 and SC Live 4. These two units probably replace the forever out-of-stock (perhaps due to chip/parts shortages?) Prime 4 and Prime 2 units.
Those original Prime units were first announced back in January 2019, and DJTT has had a hard time sourcing Prime 4 units for many, many months – giving the impression that they’re potentially discontinuing the product. The Prime 2 has more widely been confirmed as discontinued, but neither were ever confirmed by InMusic.
They’re largely very similar to the original Prime units (specs and images below) but one stand-out difference is that these units rock built-in speakers. Jury is obviously still out on how they actually sound – but we could see it being nice for on-the-go / in-the-park-with-friends situations.
The following specs and images all are via the official Serato DJ blog “The Drop” – which posted about these units because they’re now HID compatible with the latest update to Serato DJ Pro.
Denon DJ SC Live 4
- 7” touchscreen display
- 8 Performance Pads per deck letting you control Serato DJ Pro Pad Modes
- 6” capacitive-touch jog wheels that display track information
- Built-in speaker monitors with dedicated volume control
- Dedicated BPM and Sweep FX sections
- Dual microphone connectivity
- XLR and RCA master outputs
Denon DJ SC Live 2
- 7” touchscreen display
- 4 Performance Pads per deck letting you control Serato DJ Pro Pad Modes
- 6” capacitive-touch jog wheels
- Built-in speaker monitors with dedicated volume control
- Dedicated BPM and Sweep FX sections
- XLR and RCA master outputs
Leaked but still not posted about on DJTT
Sometimes it’s hard to write about product leaks. There’s drama, politics, and ultimately a feeling of being manipulated by product marketing and development teams at various companies. I couldn’t help but spot this exchange on LinkedIn between Mark Settle (owner/founder/head writer/editor-in-cheif of the now-defunt DJ Worx) and Ross Goodwin (former product manager for Denon DJ and Numark before that) last week which clearly encapsulates some of the buzz around this product:
Roughly half the time with products like this, they are leaked because someone added them to a DJ shop (like our own DJ gear store) and sets the “go public” date wrong or something like that. DJ gear stores want to have pages ready before the launch of the product to make sure they get that extra few seconds of SEO advantage when products do go live.
Just as often, products leak “mysteriously” – a screenshot suddenly shows up on Reddit or Instagram and spreads naturally. As an outsider, it gets pretty hard to track those leaks down to their source – but it stands to reason that some of those leaks are 100% intentional marketing efforts. I’ve always loved Mark Settle’s article on this exact concept – read it here.
We love DJ gear, but the marketing cycle around them has become predictable and stale. Maybe let’s all just agree to make smart, intelligently-designed gear and show it being used in unique and fun ways and drop any pretense of products being “gamechangers” that merit a ton of secrecy?
