The S4, my CONCERNS part 2
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  1. #1
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    Default The S4, my CONCERNS part 2

    Hello fellow DJTT'ers.

    It is 9:08AM here in Toronto, and I am at work. I am taking the time out my schedule to share my latest findings and concerns about the S4 with all of you because I feel like you would be very interested to hear how my S4 has been behaving. I'm also quite frustrated, and would like to see discussion and resolution by the end of the day (and I will be posting in the NI forum shorty after this with a swift copy/paste, but wanted you to be first).


    There are three big concerns. Let's start with the known concern first.

    1. PHASING IN THE HEADPHONES

    From what I could tell, I was the first to post about this concern on this forum. After 30 seconds of my plugging in the S4 and operating it, I noticed this problem. Now, this same issue is popping up independantly of my finding on the NI forums. Therefore, other people around the world think it's a concern too! Now personally, this isn't a big deal for me. But it's been 18 days since the release of the S4. NATIVE INSTUMENTS SPEAK THE FUCK UP AND START ADDRESSING YOU CUSTOMERS.

    2. FULL TRACKS IN TRACK COLLECTION RANDOMLY TAGGED AS SAMPLE LOOPS AND UNPLAYABLE

    The 2 days ago (and only my 3rd day of actually testing the S4) I go to my browse window to select a track I had recently analyzed. I press play, and NO SOUND. The waveform is moving. Okay, what's up? Look down at my faders to see if I knocked one down/over...nope. Okay, did I press anything? Nope. Okay, maybe the speaker blew/unplugged? Nope. Hmmm. I press my CUE1 to re-cue my track, and... NOTHING. The fucking controlls were completely unresponsive. The jog wheel, completely unresponsive. THE THING FROZE LIKE A FUCKING PC! Now I've already brought this up in a thread on the NI forum, and promised Karlos Santos that I would post a video. Which I will. Apparently even with the track marked to be a loop, the track should (obviously) be playable.

    3. JOG WHEELES = TRAINWRECKS

    So last night aka DAY 4 of testing, and I'm playing a track on my left deck. I decide I want to mess around with some loops, and find a cool section of the track to loop for some juggling for my show at Cobra in Toronto in 2 weeks. I grab the jog, spin the jog back with my index finger at a medium pace to scrub backwards a tad to a cool sample I heard, and FREEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Here is what I know happened: The jog acted as if my finger was using the force and acting as if it was pressing and holding it although sadly this was not (obviously) the case nor my intention. I can confirm that this was the case by testing of moving the pitch bend outter rim. Can anyone guess what happened? The waveform moved (duh). So the motherf**king jog held down and wouldn't let go. Oh, sure, I knew what to do right away. Recalibrate, right guys? Right? Yeah it worked. SWEET!!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO TRAINWRECK DURING MY SHOW, THANK GOODNESS THERE IS THE OPTION TO RECALIBRATE *exit slight sarcasm*. This is just so stupid. And completely unprofessional.

    3 Issues in 4 days of testing. 2 of them MAJOR. Discuss.

    -PL>Y
    Last edited by PRESSPL>Y; 11-18-2010 at 09:37 AM.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by PRESSPL>Y View Post
    Hello fellow DJTT'ers.

    It is 9:08AM here in Toronto, and I am at work. I am taking the time out my schedule to share my latest findings and concerns about the S4 with all of you because I feel like you would be very interested to hear how my S4 has been behaving. I'm also quite frustrated, and would like to see discussion and resolution by the end of the day (and I will be posting in the NI forum shorty after this with a swift copy/paste, but wanted you to be first).


    There are three big concerns. Let's start with the known concern first.

    1. PHASING IN THE HEADPHONES

    From what I could tell, I was the first to post about this concern on this forum. After 30 seconds of my plugging in the S4 and operating it, I noticed this problem. Now, this same issue is popping up independantly of my finding on the NI forums. Therefore, other people around the world think it's a concern too! Now personally, this isn't a big deal for me. But it's been 18 days since the release of the S4. NATIVE INSTUMENTS SPEAK THE FUCK UP AND START ADDRESSING YOU CUSTOMERS.

    2. FULL TRACKS IN TRACK COLLECTION RANDOMLY TAGGED AS SAMPLE LOOPS AND UNPLAYABLE

    The 2 days ago (and only my 3rd day of actually testing the S4) I go to my browse window to select a track I had recently analyzed. I press play, and NO SOUND. The waveform is moving. Okay, what's up? Look down at my faders to see if I knocked one down/over...nope. Okay, did I press anything? Nope. Okay, maybe the speaker blew/unplugged? Nope. Hmmm. I press my CUE1 to re-cue my track, and... NOTHING. The fucking controlls were completely unresponsive. The jog wheel, completely unresponsive. THE THING FROZE LIKE A FUCKING PC! Now I've already brought this up in a thread on the NI forum, and promised Karlos Santos that I would post a video. Which I will. Apparently even with the track marked to be a loop, the track should (obviously) be playable.

    3. JOG WHEELES = TRAINWRECKS

    So last night aka DAY 4 of testing, and I'm playing a track on my left deck. I decide I want to mess around with some loops, and find a cool section of the track to loop for some juggling for my show at Cobra in Toronto in 2 weeks. I grab the jog, spin the jog back with my index finger at a medium pace to scrub backwards a tad to a cool sample I heard, and FREEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Here is what I know happened: The jog acted as if my finger was using the force and acting as if it was pressing and holding it although sadly this was not (obviously) the case nor my intention. I can confirm that this was the case by testing of moving the pitch bend outter rim. Can anyone guess what happened? The waveform moved (duh). So the motherf**king jog held down and wouldn't let go. Oh, sure, I knew what to do right away. Recalibrate, right guys? Right? Yeah it worked. SWEET!!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO TRAINWRECK DURING MY SHOW, THANK GOODNESS THERE IS THE OPTION TO RECALIBRATE *exit slight sarcasm*. This is just so stupid. And completely unprofessional.

    3 Issues in 4 days of testing. 2 of them MAJOR. Discuss.

    -PL>Y
    I feel your pain. I had the issue where the track wouldn't cue / play but the phase would go nuts. Recalibrated and it hasn't happened since. I really hope it doesn't become a chronic problem like it has for some users. We all know that calibration is nothing more then a bandaid for a much larger issue.

    I haven't experienced issues with the collection yet, but I'll keep things posted if I do. I do have a question about your problem with the headphones though. What exactly do you mean by phasing issues? Are your phones playing out of time but the main output isn't? I can't say I've noticed anything particularly weird with mine yet.
    Native Instruments Kontrol S4
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Travis View Post
    What exactly do you mean by phasing issues? Are your phones playing out of time but the main output isn't?

    Sorry, I should have been more clear on that issue.

    Basically, if you have your cue set at 50% CUE/50% MASTER MIX, when you bring the track into the mix (faders up) there is a phasing sound in the headphones (a hollow metalic sound) and increases all the way up as you increase the volume of the fader.

    Because this is a digital mixer, there is no way the tracks should be playing slightly off.

  4. #4
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    Honestly man and I say this without trying to be a dick. You should try to return your S4. I don’t think it’s what you are looking for and you seem extremely displeased with it. I mean come on – you really think NI is going to respond 18 days after a release because there are a handful of post from guys that push two cue buttons at once and get a phasing sound. I’m willing to bet that is not that high on the priority list. 18 days? Are you serious. There’s bigger fish to fry.

    For the rest of your issues – I haven’t experience any of that. Maybe if I did I’d have the same attitude you did right now and would probably go return the unit. I can tell you that I scratch plenty on my S4 and have not calibrated since I installed the software last week and I did a 3 hour hip hop gig with no issues at all and plenty of abuse on the jogs. So maybe it’s the actual S4, could be your laptop, could be program, could be a bunch of things honestly.

    Your having issues and you want resolution “by the end of the day”. Get your receipt and ask for your money back. Problem resolved by the end of the day.
    SSL - DJM 800 - Technic 1200's - X1 - ITCH - NS6 - VCI-300

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by PRESSPL>Y View Post
    Sorry, I should have been more clear on that issue.

    Basically, if you have your cue set at 50% CUE/50% MASTER MIX, when you bring the track into the mix (faders up) there is a phasing sound in the headphones (a hollow metalic sound) and increases all the way up as you increase the volume of the fader.

    Because this is a digital mixer, there is no way the tracks should be playing slightly off.
    I've only heard this when I have BOTH Cue buttons pressed AND the mix is at 50%. Why not just turn one CUE off and listen to it from the 50%?
    SSL - DJM 800 - Technic 1200's - X1 - ITCH - NS6 - VCI-300

  6. #6
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    Ill try to reproduce this phasing. Havent had a chance as yet.

    Ill post back.

    I really hope we can get you enjoying your S4 dude.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by haze324 View Post
    I've only heard this when I have BOTH Cue buttons pressed AND the mix is at 50%. Why not just turn one CUE off and listen to it from the 50%?
    That's exactly what I was doing. Why not just assume I wouldn't take the time out of my life to write something if I didn't know what I was talking about?

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karlos Santos View Post
    Ill try to reproduce this phasing. Havent had a chance as yet.

    Ill post back.

    I really hope we can get you enjoying your S4 dude.
    Karlos reproduce like this:

    Have your cue mix to 50%. Then press the song cue button for the song you want to listen to. Now press the cue button for the song that is currently playing. Now put up volume fader up for the song you want to bring in.

    Thats the only way I heard it.

    Solution - turn off the cue button for the song that is playing and listen to it thru the 50% cue/master mix.

    phasing gone. I have not heard it any other way, and the post on NI that discussed this issue had guy using this method to avoid the phasing as well.
    SSL - DJM 800 - Technic 1200's - X1 - ITCH - NS6 - VCI-300

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by PRESSPL>Y View Post
    That's exactly what I was doing. Why not just assume I wouldn't take the time out of my life to write something if I didn't know what I was talking about?
    You asked for solutions and I just gave you one.

    That has worked for others. Don't ask for solutions if your gonna pipe back "I already tried that - I know what I'm doing"

    Like I said man. You don't sound happy (and thats me putting it nicely) So I suggest you return your S4. You'd sleep better.
    SSL - DJM 800 - Technic 1200's - X1 - ITCH - NS6 - VCI-300

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by haze324 View Post
    Honestly man and I say this without trying to be a dick. You should try to return your S4. I don’t think it’s what you are looking for and you seem extremely displeased with it.
    No offence, but it seems you are either actually trying to be a dick, you are just a dick, or you're sucking huge dick here, trying to earn made-up brownie points with the NI/Traktor junkies here. Well, either that, or you are a serious fanboy.

    Honestly, don't respond to any of these threads anymore as you are zero help. If you had these issues with your machine, you would be doing the exact same thing. You think the simplest option is to ship this thing back to California from Toronto and try and get my money back? Not to sound like a dick here myself, money is not an issue, and if it was, I would have stated somewhere that I am disspleased about spending all my pennies. For what the S4 is (and/or should be) it's great for the price.

    Simple fact is, I like the S4, and am completely in love with it when it doesn't act up.

    Haze, just because you are personally offended by anyone not being 100% satisfied with a NI product doesn't mean you should express your stupidity on here. I believe that, although I am expressing some negativity on here, I am in fact being a good neighbour, and good member of the community. I feel that as a DJ, and even more so a DJ that believes full-heartidly in sharing knowledge and in the power of community and internet, it is my duty to share with my fellow contemporaries. Hopefully through this, others will find something usefull, and hopefully we can all work together to fix these issues.

    -PL>Y
    Last edited by PRESSPL>Y; 11-18-2010 at 10:29 AM.

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