I am looking at getting a set of the above, and linking it to traktor. I have an S4 and F1 however I feel this kinda limits me to getting gigs as not everywhere is controller friendly!
Would I be able to use my S4 as an external mixer?
Also if I use Timecode CD’s Does that mean I lose the ability for cue’s an hot loops?
Yes you can use the S4 as an external mixer… No you won’t lose the ability for cues and hot loops. An X1 is a perfect companion, but since you already have the S4 you can use that
I’ve used some of my friends cdj 400’s with serato in both hid and timecode, if thats anything to go by hid is a ton better. maybe invest in some 400s or even used 850s instead? however i’m by no means experienced on the topic. its just what i have found.
You can use the s4 as a soundcard as it is scratch certified. However the s4 cant be used as an external mixer because it is just a midi controller that controls when in INTERNAL mixing mode. so the line faders and eq knobs do absolutely nothing to the audio source as their only use is to be mapped to the controls within traktor.
Technically, you can use the S4 as a “mixer” for CDJ’s either using timecode or standard CD’s. However, you must have a computer connected running Traktor to do so. You have two options:
Connect CDJ’s to decks C & D and select C & D as “Live Input” decks in Traktor. You can then play regular CD’s.
If you have the certified Scratch Pro 2 upgrade, you can connect your CDJ’s to decks C & D and play timecode CD’s to control Traktor.
In both cases, you have the full “mixer” controls available on the S4, including gains, EQ’s, filters, and line faders. So, technically it can be used as a mixer, but it is by no means able to be used as a standalone mixer without a computer.
No problem… a couple other nice features of using Traktor and the S4 is that, even when playing regular CD’s through the S4, you can still use decks A & B as either track decks or remix decks controlled by the S4… and you can also record all of your sources via the internal mix recorder.
If you’re going to use just the timecode CD’s, just get the mk2’s since you won’t be able to use any functions on the players. I’m a vinyl user (nowadays TCV) and I don’t see any real differences when using timecode with CDJ800’s and CDJ1000’s no matter what marks.