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I spoke to you about it when I returned from Plasma in London, the event that was chosen by Denon for the official launch of the new DN-S3500 CD Player. Now the DN-S3500 is here before me in the studio and the first thing that I have to do is thank Cristian, the new product manager at Audioequipment (the Italian distributor for Denon) for that regarding DJ products, because he sent me this player so I could tell you about it. Please allow me to quote a short anecdote before commencing. I remember back in ’94, where for the first time I was playing records, when I bent down behind the console I found a ‘thing’ on a rack. Asking what it was, the clubs technical expert told me that it was a double CD player for DJ’s and if I remember correctly it was the DN-2000. It was already a Denon player. I won’t tell you how the first few mixing trials went and what the first reactions were, back then it really was something innovative. Now things have changed, technology has taken giant steps and the CD players are nowadays present in all of the clubs, sometimes, sadly, even taking the places of normal decks. The 3500 proposes itself as the leading model in the table top vinyl controllable style CD player line from Denon. A characteristic that places it in pole position is without doubt the direct drive of the motor. Coming with the player is the rotating table that should be placed on the central small shaft just like on real decks, the respective slipmat and a transparent 7” with one smooth side and one rough one, two record stoppers and an adaptor for those who wish to use pieces of vinyl with a bigger hole in the middle (not supplied). Closing off the list of stuff offered is the multi-lingual manual (including Italian) and a1 metre long RCA stereo lead. The installation is quick and simple, insert the rotating table, the slipmat and the record and all that is needed is for you to insert the stopper and then you are ready to go. The DN-S3500 reads audio CD’s and CD’s containing mp3 files of variable bit rates or even constant right up to 320 kpbs. The search for the mp3 track on the CD can be done by name or file. Let’s look at the basic functions that also include the two Play/Pause and Cue keys positioned one on top of the other on the left hand side of the player, both in rubber measuring 25x25mm, the Quick Jump key (forward or back) for the fast search inside the singular tracks if you keep them pressed down, it can even be used for jumping a number of seconds (set are 10, 20, 30 and 60 sec.) every time that you press it. For searching for a track on the CD you have to use the Track Search / Parameters button; pushing it down whilst you turn it also it jumps past 10 tracks. The pitch control (with a 10 cm fader) has a big 6 different operating ranges: +/- 4, 10, 16, 24, 50 and 100%. There are also present two switches for the pitch bend, positioned underneath the pitch control. The function for keeping the tone unaltered at various speeds (known better as Master Tempo) in the Denon products is called the ‘Key Adjust’ and guarantees that you will not hear any variations whilst operating in the +/- 5/6% range. Very important also is to point out that this function in the scratch, if activated, doesn’t influence in any way the function which is quite the opposite to what happens when using other similar products of different makes that, maintaining the intonation even during the scratch, doesn’t allow you to change the tone of the vinyl even whilst you are scratching. Other buttons are the Title/ID3 (which shows you any eventual writing of info on the tracks) and Cont/Single/Relay for setting the reproduction mode (continue, single track) and the block of track change (Play Lock) during the reproduction. These two buttons are slightly set in, round and metallic, like the Time and Memo/Reset that can be found on the others side. These last ones are used respectively for varying the visualisation of the timing of the track on the display or for memorising the Cue Point, or even (keeping pressed down the Memo when there are no tracks being reproduced) we can set up the DN-S3500 in any way that suits us best. Oh yes, think about the fact that we can set up the player in such a way that the Cue points come about like most of the other DJ CD players, by pressing Play at the desired moment, or even like we do with the other types of players (like the Pioneer, for example) where you press Cue at the desired point. We can then activate or turn off the Auto Cue, vary the speed of the rotating table (33 or 45), set up the default range for the pitch control, verify the installed operating system, vary the seconds (10, 20, 30 and 60) of the Quick Jump keys, etc, etc.. Talking about the Cue point, Denon declare that the DN-S3500 is capable of memorizing up to 5000 different Cue points, divided into 10 banks of 500. When we insert a CD into the player with a track that we have previously memorized a Cue point, on the display there appears the word ‘Memo’ which tells us that we can recall the memory that was set. The memorized information can be exchanged between Denon players by using the mini-jack connection that can be found at the back of the player. The available effects in the DN-S3500 are 3: filter, flanger and echo. Every effect has a dedicated button for its activation and once activated has various parameters that can be selected by using the button that can be found on the right hand side of the vinyl as well as the wet/dry dose that can be applied through the Effects button which can be found on the other side. The filter has three different set ups: low pass, mid pass and high frequency pass. When we apply the filter effect the ‘Effects’ button does the job of the cut-off whilst the ‘Parameters’ one lets you change between filters. Instead if we apply the echo effect the dry/wet button allows us to manage the feedback and delay right up to a maximum lever that corresponds to the ‘echo/loop’ that on a sound level can be translated as being an infinite repetition of the point at which we have set our maximum value. We can change tracks or even CD whilst the ‘echo/loop’ is active thus having an automatic fade out effect that starts from the moment that we press play on the new track. The Parameters button is used instead to set up the metric division of the echo. Let’s move over to the functions regarding the emulation of vinyl. The rotating table can be set up in three operating modes: scratch for the track that is being reproduced, scratch for a sample that has been recorded on the internal sampler or pitch bend. Working in this last mode we can activate a system of Cue points to the frame, that classic CD player type, that moves across the frame selected through the rotating table. The mode selection is applied by using the ‘Platter Source’ key. For the scratch we have the simulation of the transformer technique, called FWD and activated through a comfortable lever that can be found on the left hand side just above the rotating table, just above the slot where you insert the CD we find the three Brake, Dump and Reverse keys. Once you push the first of these you emulate a real record deck coming to a stop, if through the Parameters button you set up a time you can manage exactly how long it will take to stop once you have pushed the Play/Pause key. The Dump key activates the reverse effect on the track that is being read, it still however continues to read the track in a forward way. The Reverse key reproduces the track itself in reverse, the rotating table itself even starts to move backwards. My technical trial on the DN-S3500 keeps coming out with nice surprises, I keep discovering interesting functions that are very useful to the DJ’s, just like the presence of two different loops (A1 and A2) with their changeable lengths that can be done though the trim function. The set up of the start point of the two loops comes about by simply pressing the key at the desired moment whilst the finishing point can be set up by pushing the loop-out key that carries the letter ‘B’. To vary the length of the loop, or to reset the loop-out point, we can press the ‘B Trim’ key and work directly through the vinyl to go and find the right frame; the pressure of the loop in key (A1 or A2) confirms the set up. Once you have set up the start point of the loop they can be used also as a hot start (additional Cue points). To cancel memorized loops and set up new ones all you have to do is press the ‘Flip’ key. This very same key, if held down and then left again, allows you to set up the reproduction of the loop: continue or even one shot (that is interrupted when we let go of the trigger key). Apart from the loop that is also often present in many other makes of players, the DN-S3500 also offers a true and proper sampler that allows you to record a portion of a song (maximum 15 seconds) and then reproduce it, even at the same time as a CD is being played. On the contrary to the loop, the memorized sample in the sampler will remain in the memory even when the CD has been removed from the player. This will allow you, for example, to reproduce a loop through the integrated sampler of a sampled base and then change, without and interruptions at all, the CD that is being played on which there can be mastered some scratching effects, voices or even songs; all this can be done by using just one player. From scratching to doing mash-ups or even remixing in real time, right up to just reproducing a simple jingle, the possible applications are numerous, as many as your fantasy calls for. The memorized sample also enjoys some independent management for its volume and pitch parameters, it can be cut, reproduced, looped or even scratched whilst the player is reproducing the track on CD. Exceptional!!! We can also sample audio effects from the internal effects: whilst we are recoding the sample we can apply a filter, for example, and then reproduce the filtered sample when the moment is right. For the ‘heavy handers’, the turntablists and for those who can’t just stand around twiddling their thumbs this is a very interesting function indeed. A powerful and versatile machine that thanks to the possibilities of being upgraded in its operating system can get even better in the future. Amongst the things that can also be improved I feel like I have to mention: a drop-out (interruption in the reproduction of audio) when you do a backspin (by spinning rapidly the table backwards) and the excessive sensibility of the rotating table when you are in the scratch mode (vinyl style) where there occurs pitch bending (pushing) forwards. Well guys, until next month; I hope that I will have enough time to get together my report from the Winter Namm in Anaheim California that will be taking place during the second half of January. If not, it will be in the month after. Thanks as always to the attention that you gave me and I will remind you that I can be contacted at federico@alarmusic.com.
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