Pioneer DDJ-T1 VS. Tacktor S4

I tested it and I am NOT impressed!
Pio uses to do top quality gear with CDJ1000/2000 DJM800/2000/900
but lately they have dropped the quality especially on their controllers IMO
But the price has not followed the lower quality as I see it.

Therefore I suggest you take a look at the Native Instruments S4/S2 and the IMO best controller
Denon MC6000/3000 instead.

The only pro that DDJ-T1 has IMO is that if you are used to Pio CDJ400/DJM400 you feel at home.
But it feels plastic and cheap as a toy in comparsion to a Denon MC6000 IMO!

Whilst the DDJ-T1 doesn’t have the build quality of the Denon or and Allen & Heath controller. It’s still a nice unit with a very intuitive layout, easy to use and is completely plug and play with Traktor. I don’t feel that its cheap but as Hessler said it is akin to Pioneers entry level CDJ’s. I would say that it terms of build the DDJ-T1 and S4 are similar but the S4 has a tighter integration with the software which is to be expected as its made by the same company.

I have been lucky enough to try the DDJ, S4 and the Denon . The best bit of advice I can give you is that they all have their strengths and weaknesses and the best thing to do would be to decide on what features are most important to you and then to demo all three at a good DJ store.

Ya i also tried the T-1 and i think it feels cheap.Can you plug turntables into the T-1??

that sucks.I would look into the Denon MC600 then nice size it looks really strong plus im sure you could play it in a good size club also.

I have both, T1 and S4…. and when I play out, I take my T1 for this main reason, the sound card is much stronger, louder and higher quality than the S4. I like my s4 for many reason and keep it as my home studio system. I have already had to send back my original purchased s4 for a new one under NI’s warranty, due to a faulty channel fader. Also the S4 has a tiny bug to it that if you’re not careful while going thru the motions of your mixing button pushing sliding etc. it will hiccup a mili-sec bump in the software making it obvious in the sound…. not good especially if your recording or playing live at all. The T1, no matter what button pushing sliding etc I do, never ever hiccups the mili-sec bump and contrary to your sense of touch by the “feeling” you get when touching the unit, I can tell you after over a year of owning, playing the heck out of it, taking it on road missions and club missions, I have not had one single problem to speak of about the unit; it’s been very durable and reliable. I always advice a person who is shopping for a controller, to play with one first, before you buy. I know that may be hard to do, being you might not know anyone with that particular unit, but I suggest finding a store such as the Guitar Center in Hollywood I go to, which has a variety of display units to actually demo on.

http://soundcloud.com/dmaq

Out of the two units you asked about, I would go for the S4.
Both units are considered large for controllers, however one upside of being a larger controller is that the buttons are not squeezed into a small area and the unit feels less cramped. One negative point of a large controller is portability, and out of the two units the DDJ-T1 would obviously be the harder of the two to transport.
As well as being a bit too large to transport, the DDJ-T1 does not have the same ease of use / compatibility with ALL the functions of Traktor.
Personally I feel the S4 gets the balance between size and portability just right. It is great to play on as everything is logically laid out and, as has been said before integrates perfectly with Traktor.

HTH