Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4 review

HOT-CUES AND LOOPS

An important part of digital DJing is the ability to use hot-cues, loops and samples, and the Kontrol S4 provides an effective array of controls for these functions. It has four hot-cue buttons, four sample buttons and two loop control buttons. It also has one rotary pot that lets you set the loop size and activate the loop and another that lets you move the position of the loop.

The loop in and out buttons are great for setting irregularly sized loops for effect, but the most useful loop control is surely the rotary auto-looper. This is especially handy if you need to create a panic loop because you’ve lost track of time and one of your songs is eight beats away from silence. The auto-looper’s also brilliant for decrementing a loop, so that you can progress from a ½-beat loop to a 1/8th-beat loop, for example.

The hot-cue buttons are made from rubber rather than plastic, and they’re large. This makes them easy to hit and stops your fingers becoming fatigued if you press them often. They’re large size makes them great for hot-cue drumming, which is where you set hot-cues on drum beats or special sounds so that you can trigger them as if you’re using a drum machine.

CONCLUSION

The Kontrol S4 is one of the best MIDI controllers we’ve ever used and is certainly the best Traktor controller we’ve used. It has everything you need to make the most of the Traktor software and your creativity. The fact that you can attach regular turntables and CDJs further increases its value.

If anything, NI has perhaps packed too much in to the Kontrol S4 and many people would be better off with the Kontrol S2, which is a two-channel version of the S4 that doesn’t let you use external CDJs and turntables. Even so, if you want to get in to DJing or if you want to integrate a digital controller into your traditional setup, this a brilliant place to start.