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Traktor Kontrol S4 (First week)
Ok, so I think I got the hang of it now and I've finally got it set up to my liking in conjunction with the other equipment. I've been using traktor for about a year and love it but using the Kontrol S4 has been a.....different experience.
The product itself is amazing. I def don't have to touch the computer nearly as much as I used to using traktor scratch pro, and the mixer layout is quite easy to use. The faders feel nice, the buttons are solid, the cue points/sample decks simply rock, and in no way does this product feel like one of those "DJ in a Box" toys. It's simple, yet advanced and really pushes Traktor to a new level. WIth that being said, I just don't see myself using this thing for the long haul. Here's why....
Like I just said, it's a little too intuitive and creative causing me to do too many things at once. And I got it so I could stop staring at the computer screen and to stop playing with the computer so much but it has done the exact opposite. It has created a traktor monster out of me. I recorded a two hour set I did on it and I kid you not, 119 minutes of it was spent staring at the computer screen scrolling through tracks, loading them into different decks, grabbing loops and samples, loading useless acapellas, switching from mixer mode, to browse mode, to s4 mode, back to browse mode, rifling through more loops and cue points I'd saved, etc, you get the point. I think in two hours, I'd fired through about 50 tracks all played with god knows how many cue points, another 20 loops and several acapellas. ....It's changed me from a DJ to an ADD ridden little boy with a star wars lego set. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty awesome but just b/c you have 100 ingredients in your pantry doesn't meant you have to use em all, right? And even when I tell myself to just keep it simple, I can't b/c it's just so easy to do all this shit that I couldn't do before just with with CDJs or Traktor scratch pro.
Now, I'm sure 99.9% of people aren't going to have this problem and will use the S4 more sparingly than I have, but it has just created this monster out of me. I'll probably go the Sasha route and switch back and forth from digital to CDJs just to keep my sanity.
Even with all that being said, this really is an amazing product that I'd recommend to anyone looking to go digital or to advanced Traktor users. I think it's reasonably priced and worth $899.
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see how your habits change. Maybe try recording a demo for a specific party using it - that should focus your mind, so you'll be thinking about what would be right for that party rather than just abusing the equipment.
