Smithson Martin announce KS-1974 multi-touch Kontrol Surface

**AlanSmithson** · 12-08-2011, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by lethal_pizzle

Looks like someone's got an iPad and rammed it in a huge wooden box, for no particular reason. This product is going nowhere.

Now if they'd managed to come up with a hybrid featuring knobs, faders and the Traktor screen grabbing element - they'd have something I'd actually like to use. Slamming touch screen rotary EQs around? No thanks.

@cybertrash: take it you didn't read the linked article then?

***I find it very interesting that people slam products that they have never seen or touched. The KS-1974 has a larger surface area than 2 iPads and guess what, you can run ANY midi software on it (ie. Traktor, Ableton, Virtual DJ, Light Jockey, Resolume, Arkaos, Pro Tools, etc.).

Lets see you run anything more than angry birds on your iPads. And if you are going to compare TouchOSC or Lemur for iOS, stop right now. There is simply NO comparison.

Please wait til you see this before you make ridiculous comments about putting hybrid buttons on a touch screen. It's called the new 9900 BlackBerry Bold and see how well they are doing compared to the iPhone.

Maybe you are not going to play on this, but I hope you would not discourage others from trying something new.

Cheers!

Alan

**photojojo** · 12-08-2011, 07:08 PM

Nice to see a developer in the discussion. I will say I'm skeptical of touch screen knobs, but my only experience is with TouchOSC. Are you saying these are significantly better?

**AlanSmithson** · 12-09-2011, 02:53 AM

Hey Jojo,

I'm sorry I haven't been part of the discussion before, but as you can imagine, we have been crazy busy trying to make Emulator better and better and of course getting the designs for the KS complete.

We just installed Windows 8 on our new i7 MacBook Pro with SSD HD and let me tell you this thing is screaming fast!! There is now ZERO latency!

I personally haven't played with Touch OSC, but having a controller separate from your computer doesn't seem to be the best way to DJ. I can tell you that after playing in Las Vegas on the KS, this thing is as perfect as you can get as a DJ mixer. It fits perfectly into any DJ booth and is about the size of 2 CDJ 2000's.

I will take a photo tomorrow of an iPad sitting on the KS and you will see the size difference.

Thank you for keeping the discussion going. We appreciate it.

Alan & Pablo

**diezdiazgiant** · 12-09-2011, 03:14 AM

i know im going to sound like bit of a shit saying this... but did anyone get the memo as to why the lemur was discontinued?
ha shit 2,500? good luck getting people to part with that much money...

**AlanSmithson** · 12-09-2011, 03:20 AM

You don't sound like a shit at all. The Lemur was discontinued because it was over priced, small screen that took a PhD in programming to configure. Emulator Modular can be used by even the most basic of DJ's, Lighting Designers, Video guys and all sorts. And for $2500, you get a huge touch screen that is incredibly responsive and reliable.

We don't need to sell a million of these, but I will be damned if I release a cheap piece of crap product like some of the other midi controllers being released now. The KS-1974 is built to last and if you don't see value in that, then buy a cheap midi controller every 2 years. We have a waiting list for the KS now already so my guess is that people do have money to spend on quality products...mmm, I guess that's how Ferrari, Bentley, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Bugatti, Porsche and other high-end car companies have stayed in business.

Oh, and by the way, the Lemur has returned as an iPad app, so you can now buy it for only $50 + iPad. If that is what you want, then by all means, buy the Lemur.

**Micah** · 12-09-2011, 03:41 AM

That's a pretty cheesy photoshop too, look at how much blurrier the left traktor deck is compared to the buttons around it.

**Brittje** · 12-16-2011, 04:44 AM

Well i like it!!

It maybe expansive, but this and the Emulator DVS system can replace all of my gear at home!
No more big dj booths in the livingroom just a nice piece of equipment that looks good.

And for playing on a gig the gear has to be on site and as said you can bring this one with you in a UDG bag. It takes room for 2 CDj's 2000 so that's not bad.

But for now it will be to expansive for me

And another little problem is i don't want to run bootcamp with windows on my mac so that will be a little isseu but it can be solved

So make it mac OSX compatible!!!

**Cook** · 12-16-2011, 05:27 AM

Originally Posted by photojojo

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY THREAD ON THIS!!!

I posted this a few days ago..

http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/sho...ght=production

EDIT: oh im actually behind here, nvm.

OT:
Looks cool, thats about it.