Chris Baines

Hi DJT,

I was thinking about the 4Trak a long while ago as it seemed like a good all-round and well built controller, however since it is an old and discontinued product I wouldn’t recommend it either. Have you considered the Kontrol S5 or S8? The Kontrol S5 may fit your budget and in my opinion the screens are more useful than jog-wheels (plus Stems mixing is something I’d like to try).

Personally I’m waiting to see a Kontrol S8 MK 2 version hopefully sometime next year as the current S8 is a first gen product, surely there are quite a few refinements they could implement before I put down the hard earned cash.

Controllers for Serato and Rekordbox 4 seem really good and nothing wrong with those software packages but after much thought I’m going to stick with Traktor as I still like using it and already familiar with its operation.

One day I’d like to see a fully stand-alone Traktor Controller thats on par with a Pioneer CDJ setup with the option to use without a laptop.

Hi DJ Malsidious,

I went through a phase of trying to decide which music organisation software would be best suited for me so I played around with a few and then settled for MusicBee (Windows only currently) which is an awesome program with many features. It allows you to customize the interface to your liking and even display waveform which is handy.

The downside which I didn’t really give much thought to at first was that all the time I put into organising my tracks and playlists etc. didn’t automatically show up in Traktor (Haven’t tested with Serato). I could of played around with it more and tried to get it to work automatically but I decided to avoid all the hassle and eventually changed to iTunes.

iTunes is definitely not the best or most flexible music software out there but after organizing all my playlists/smart playlists, they instantly showed up in Traktor/Serato (Refresh may be required). I also get music from the iTunes Store so it makes further sense for me to use it.

So in the end you may not like it but it does get the job done and that’s what you want so you can focus on mixing with an organised music collection instead of wasting time trying to hack things together to make it work. I strongly suggest to setup smart playlists, they really help alot.

Hope that helps, all the best!

Hi DJ Vintage,

Thanks for your advise however the actual reason why I’m considering the SX2 is as you mentioned, Native Instruments is not keen to support other hardware manufacturers and I’m quite disappointed with this as I do like using Traktor Pro 2.

With regards to the S2 and S4 they perform very well and can get the job done no questions. However, if you ask if they feel like plastic toys…I would have to lean towards yes. Maybe I’m just anal about the look and feel of gear but that’s just me!

The Kontrol S8 is definitely an awesome controller especially with those built in screens but lack of jogs is one issues for me and also I don’t see myself using the remix decks (which is one of the main features of this controller) and prefer to focus more on mixing music rather than using samples/performance orientated mixing.

Additionally I would like to get used to a Pioneer CDJ/Mixer layout and after playing around with Serato Dj for a while, I’m starting to really like the simpler/clean interface and setup.

So to summarize I’m strongly considering ditching Traktor Pro for the simple fact that they expect everyone to use their hardware. As there is a .tsi map for the SX2 I could switch between each software whereas you can’t use Serato on Traktor controllers (not to my knowledge anyway, probably need to do some hacking).

Best Regards,
Chris

I’m also considering a pair of studio monitors for mixing and hopefully production in the future. Based on my research so far, the JBL LSR305 are in my opinion one of the best value monitors currently (in the states they retail around ~$US300 for a pair).

However I havent had the chance to listen to them yet however I’ve heard alot of positive feedback on these.

Regards,
Chris