Traktor S4 Buyers Remorse; Considering Switching Back to Serato and CDJs

[Tenova]

Hey all,

So I'm a pretty experienced Digital DJ, having recently made the switch to a Traktor S4 (from Serato and CDJs) because saw it as a great value to have all of the gear I could ever need in one little box...now I'm having HUGE buyers remorse. I didn't mind the little logwheels/pitch faders at first, but now it's driving me insane. That, the fact that I've had Traktor glitch out on me and skip a beat TWICE while performing live, it has inexplicably lost the locations of my audio files multiple times, causing me to have to readd them and losing all my cue points, and the fact that I don't plan on using remix decks or a sampler anytime soon has me considering switching back to CDJs and Serato. PLUS, turning down the opportunity to use CDJ2000's to use my little control board feels a little lame from time to time.

My MAIN quams with this is not having the same effect functionality, I can't control a Delay and a Filter with different knobs on a DJM-800, correct me if I'm wrong, but last I checked it seemed to be the case.

Not having the same looping functionality sucks, being able to activate loops on demand with a single button is AWESOME, not having to click around on my keyboard, having to do everything with my trackpad without investing to a little software controller that clips on to my CDJs for another hundred bucks.

Never being able to use hot cues without messing with my trackpad also really sucked. Felt so unnatural.

Serato not displaying my BPM's to the hundredth of the beat (eg, 128.15). This is a BIG problem.

My big question is can I invest on one single/double piece of external equipment to gain most of this functionality (looping, hot cues, effects on demand) to have in addition to my CDJs and mixer? I've seen a lot about people having MIDI Fighters or X1's with their Serato setup, but can't tell if any of the mappings will do what I want them to. Like I said, I need full looping functionality (on demand with buttons all the way to 1/32nd of a beat), activate hot cues on demand (and maybe even have a regular "cue" button just for fun), maybe more effects control as well (a second knob to control multiple effects at once without having to buy an effects processor would be nice)

Also, I realize that the hundredth of a beat can't come from any hardware mappings, but I always had the problem in Serato where it would NEVER even display my BPM's live (while they would change as I would adjust the pitch bender, they would never change onscreen)...I'd have to manually beatmatch on my CDJs still, since the BPM indicator on the CDJ wouldn't be accurate with a Control Disk to begin with, such a pain in the arse while having to play at bigger shows/parties.

I understand this may seem like a plethora of problems, and I've used the Search function on the forums just fine, I'm just having a really hard time finding the answers to these questions. I really should have investigated the Traktor S4 more before I bought it...but do any of you good people know any of the answers to these questions? I would really LOVE the help right now, because I can't keep doing using this S4.

[jdownesbaird]

Have you thought about routing a CDJ into the deck C/D input on the back of the S4? You could get all of the benefits of Traktor, and still use the CDJ when you want (with complete control of Traktor effects with the S4 knobs/buttons).

[boarderbas]

Seems like you need to learn to map yourself. You know exactly what you want. The ideal situation for building your own map. And really, with a little practice, it's super easy.

I'd say buy a Xone k2 or similar piece of kit and map it to your liking.

[biased]If you could concider changing your mixer, even a Xone 4D will do nicely as you don't need all the fancy feedback LED's for what you are after. The pro of that is that it maps really well for song browsing (using the disks that resemble a jog wheel, but actually work best as scroll wheels). It also gives you 2 very nice analog filter modules as a bonus. And debatably better sound than pioneer. [/biased]

DB4 or Rane mixer may also have enough assignable knobs.

Heck, anything mappable with enough buttons would do if you know how to map. You ask for just simple tasks.

[synthet1c]

You could use one of these for serato scratch, it has all the controls you want... but if you are using CDJ-2000's they are HID so can fully control software but you need scratch live, traktor scratch of VDJ Pro.

denon HC-1000

[MrPopinjay]

The Denon HC-1000 is such a nice looking controller. No idea why it's not more popular.

I'd love to get it working with xwax one day (but first I'd need to learn to code) :P