Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4 Mk3 DJ Controller

Product Information

Onto the main event, those large motorised haptic drive jog wheels. These 5” capacitive units are much larger than jog wheels found on previous NI controllers and thats no bad thing. They are responsive, feel great under the finger and sport a stylish fading LED needle indicator around the brim. This however isn’t the reason why everyone is talking about them. That would be because now, they move. Spinning platters on controllers isn’t a completely new concept, Numark have had moving units on the NS7 for years and Denon recently introduced a motorised version of their SC5000 media player. Traktor Pro 3 – the supplied software – is very good at lots of things (loops and effects to name two, plus the new Elastique timestretch engine sounds awesome). It has been proven at the highest level. As such, while it wasn’t the explosive experience they were hoping for, it certainly was something interesting. Something I expect will become much more compelling as time goes on if it isn’t already the case now. The S4 MK3 very much runs with the spinning jog wheel crowd as it utilizes a blatant yet subtle motorized jog wheels platter on its face.

Many of you asked the DJ experts in our online store some great questions about the new S4. We tried to answer them all here in a simple, understandable way: It is easy to forget how popular the Kontrol S4 Mk1 and then Mk2 were, and how Traktor led the way in innovative controller DJing all those years ago. The Traktor Kontrol S4 Mk3 reminds you (literally) with a jolt. This article explains how to switch between the LINE and PHONO levels on the input channels of TRAKTOR audio interfaces equipped with this feature. The PHONO signal level is required when connecting a turntable as part of a TRAKTOR Scratch Timecode vinyl setup or as an external audio source (Live Input) from a vinyl record playing. If you’re one of the many people that have become a huge fan of the Traktor DJ product line, there’s probably a lot of different reasons why you have!

The Final Word

That said, this is in many ways the perfect serious hobbyist controller, a DJ solution that isn’t scared to be different, but that remains an awesome amount of fun to use. Beyond the sound card, Traktor Pro 3’s internal mixing also got an update. All mixing on Traktor controllers happens inside the computer (digital summing), so in the new software version, NI rolled out an update to the mixing algorithm that provides a wide, crystal-clear sound: While holding SHIFT, press the EXT button on the corresponding Mixer channel you want to modify. In this example, we are showing the S3, which only has one EXT button, on Channel D.

A small but important update, the controller now has several small RGB screens sitting between the different buttons. One thing Traktor has always been known for was its FX sections. These controls were generally very detailed and allowed for complete control in sound expression. Hardware and software work together at 30 times the resolution of standard MIDI for maximum precision That said, the sound is amazing and very clear, the unit feels solid, although it's plastic, and, so far, I love playing with it.Move the switch to either LINE or PHONO next to the INPUT CHANNEL B or INPUT CHANNEL A on the rear panel of the TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 hardware. The motorized jog wheels spin are easily adjustable while offering a very familiar movement and feel to them. This ease of use, along with its comfortable size, makes it very easy to start scratching with, giving it that true vinyl sensation. The headphone outputs sounded louder to me, which was welcome as even the S5 and S8 controllers (the loudest of the bunch) still occasionally ended up maxed out in loud clubs. This is not particularly good if your laptop crashes and you still want a simple, external “thru” source to keep the music playing. Rumour has it that true standalone is coming in a firmware upgrade, which would definitely be welcome.