Always a good choice, Simon. And way better than coming in here saying “I bought such and such and it’s not doing what I expected/wanted” 🙂
Our general advise on picking a controller, for which indeed the Controller Guide is an awesome tool, is to tackle things in the following order:
1) Determine your (desired) workflow. This includes such things as do you scratch or not, are you big on FX use, do you like to use more than 2 decks, do you need performance pads (for things like Serato Flip or the equivalent in other software), do you need/want samplers or remix decks, but also what are your primary music genres, do you play out at all and if so do you do mobile DJ-ing or are you a venue DJ. Pretty much describe in as much detail what kind of DJ you are and how you (like to) work.
2) Find matching software. It’s way easier to swap hardware (controllers) than it is to swap software. You will be putting quite a bit of time into prepping your tracks for use in DJ software. Often when you change software, you lose all this work. Hence it’s more important to pick your software before your hardware.
3) Set a budget
4) Pick 2-3 controllers for your shortlist and try to get some hands on moments with each
5) Make your choice and get to it 😀
As for the S4, while it’s a good controller and currently on it’s second iteration (mk2). The challenge with all Native Instruments/Traktor controllers is that they tend to work perfectly only with Traktor. And the way Traktor is moving our expectation is this won’t change. So picking an S4 is picking Traktor as your software if you want optimal integeration.
The steps described above suggest picking your software first then a controller that is supported rather than picking a controller that dictates what software you should use.
Hope that helps some.
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