New S4 Deal vs Twitch

[Dustin V]

Oops you're right it does have a soundcard. My b. Still, have to wonder what kind of quality it'll be from Novation who're not exactly known for their soundcards.

It is said that the Twitch will have a 24bit soundcard, making it comparable to the S4 in terms of sound quality. This was also one of my Q's about the Twitch.

The only thing holding me back now is how good the Traktor mapping will be and how well it will work with Traktor. Very keen on future reviews.

[DJZILCH]

i hope the next time native instruments designs a dj controller they make the innofader (or any other non-contact fader) as a standard

[keeb]

It is said that the Twitch will have a 24bit soundcard, making it comparable to the S4 in terms of sound quality. This was also one of my Q's about the Twitch.

The only thing holding me back now is how good the Traktor mapping will be and how well it will work with Traktor. Very keen on future reviews.

Bit rate is not necessarily a measure of quality, to be fair. It means it's potentially as high a quality, but that relies much more on the components and the particular DAC they use. I'd definitely want to hear it in action prior to purchase myself.

[Tasrgunzapzap]

Just placed my order for an s4!!!! cant wait till it gets here, thanks everyone for the advice/ input!

[fullenglishpint]

Novation who're not exactly known for their soundcards.

Novation is the same company as Focusrite, and they are known for their sound cards.

[Alex Wild]

Novation is the same company as Focusrite, and they are known for their sound cards.

Veeeelly interesting, I did not know that.

[keeb]

Novation is the same company as Focusrite, and they are known for their sound cards.

Good to know, though according to Wikipedia, Focusrite LTD acquired Novation and thus Novation became a subsidiary of Focusrite. Hence Novation is owned by Focusrite which doesn't mean they're the same company, technically speaking. You may say I'm arguing semantics here, but this is an important distinction because it does not necessarily mean that they're sharing sound engineers or component design, being still two distinct entities. Time will tell as far as the soundcard on the Twitch is all I'm saying.

[fullenglishpint]

Well all I can say is that Simon, who I spoke to at sónar, always referred to himself as working for Focusrite Novation, and although the email address he later wrote to me from was @focusrite.com, he was talking about the twitch etc. I can't say for certain, but it seems to me that the two companies are very much connected and do share resources.

Even if novation is a subsidiary, it wouldn't make business sense not to use focusrite knowledge in their hardware to improve the products. That's where british leyland failed and look where it got them.

[oneapemob]

Well i didn't have the chance to play or ear one yet, but novation already had a foray into sound cards with the nio2/4, and their newest synth the novation ultranova has a real soundcard inside, means you can use the synth solo, or as an audio hub.
I haven't played with this one either but the ultranova supposedly sound really good according to reviews and forums about synths. So i think they did their best to not shoot themselves in the foot in their first real foray into the digital djing market. I¡m pretty sure its loud and quality.
The real challenge as i see it ( and this is for all companies, and my real pet peave) is the update cycles, the quality of the drivers, and how fast they will fix bugs as they appear.
Because the number of companies i see releasing stuff that have driver errors, or hardware problems related to the "brains" of their machines is really high :
- The denon dnsc2000 still doesnt have any updates and the pitch fader still is a bit erratic.
- The vci 100, we can thanks ean and all the peeps at techtools for the firmware update, or else we would have been "forced" to buy the mkII for fixes.
- The akai mpd 24/26/32 advertised as having infinite pots (that they have) with the accompanying functionality (that they dont have).
- Any company that release something advertised as having "traktor" ready mapping, but that you can just see that with a bit of time any midskilled techtoolers would have mapped with much more proficiency, etc...

/endrant

But i keep my fingers crossed, and i'll dream its top of the line quality sound and design !

[fullenglishpint]

I'll let you know in a couple of weeks mate!