New Upcoming Controllers from NI (Kontrol S8 thread)

[mostapha]

Stupid question, since I've never owned an S2 or S4.....

Could you just use the S8 as a control surface and ignore its sound card and mixer? Could you do that with the S2/S4?

I ask because I really want to get a rotary mixer in the next couple months but like those deck controllers more every time I look at them.

The idea would be to use a separate A10 at home (along with the rotary and my 1200s) to use DVS when I wanted to or sync or whatever with the rotary.....but I'd just bring the S8 to parties...or USB keys and use their players if there wasn't space....or probably keep at least one X1 around.

It'd be expensive as sin. But, uhh....screw it.

[Stewe]

Stupid question, since I've never owned an S2 or S4.....

Could you just use the S8 as a control surface and ignore its sound card and mixer? Could you do that with the S2/S4?

Yup! Just select which ever other interface that you have under Audio Devices and S8 will still send mapping data.

[Stewe]

Do you think s8 will be released this year?

It's 18th of November!

[mostapha]

Yup! Just select which ever other interface that you have under Audio Devices and S8 will still send mapping data.

That makes me smile. Unfortunately it's actually just my wallet's frown turned on end, but....whatever. That's how I hoped it would work.

[mostapha]

It's 18th of November!

It said October 30 when it first went up on NI's site.

[goodbytes]

So disappointed in this.. this wont appeal to literally any traditional DJ (vinyl or cd). I know there isn't much to beat matching these days but it's still a fundamental part of djing and pressing sync just doesn't have the same effect... At a push i could probably make my peace with the lack of jog wheel and use the touch strip instead, but no pitch fader? You're basically triggering loop samples. no thanks.

I believe it's also advertised as a full mixer, yet it has no USB support so still tethered to a laptop, i can't see any difference to looking at a laptop screen to looking at the S8, the laptop is there, it has more info on it, why fold it away? making the displays in most cases absolutely useless.

The larger size making it almost impossible to fit into any club setup. I really can't see this catching on.

If this is the way NI is headed it will surely be the last time i buy a product off them, i'll keep my S4 until EOL and then move on to something else.

[padi_04]

S8 will start shipping on Nov 1st.

Regarding traditional DJing, it ships with a Scratch license and the required timecode discs so you can always plug your TTs or CDJs to it.

[Stewe]

S8 will start shipping on Nov 1st.

That is correct!

(i mixed it up with date of my birthday )

[mostapha]

So disappointed in this.. this wont appeal to literally any traditional DJ (vinyl or cd).

That's true. It's not about that. But, uhh....it works with DVS. So, you could very easily run it with 2 turntables, beatmatch to your heart's content, leave the laptop closed, and then sync remix decks to the master.

It's kind of the best of both worlds.

[abletom]

I've never used the z1 so I'm interested in how the mixer section works. Personally i love 4 band eq but theres never enough encoders to use for 4-band, filter and gain.

What I do is assign the top 3 bands of 4-band and assign the filter to be relative and 70% sensitivity so that I can sweep out the very bottom frequencies (in place of low eq), and still have a filter that for me is more accurate for the area of the filter I'd actually use (I'd never sweep it all the way left or right if it was at 100% sensitivity). All I have to do is make sure i set my filters to 12 o'clock before I start mixing and map a button to set the filters to the same in the software.

Anyway my question, if the mixer section can work standalone, will my eq or filter type or sensitivity settings map to the mixer section? How about deck orientation ABCD, CABD etc...? I'm guessing everything is converted to digital on entry to the mixer, but are these settings somehow saved on the controller?