I posted this over at the NI Tech Support forums, but without question that is one of the worst Forums and communities I have ever seen for customer-feedback and response (bad job there, NI) - so I’m gonna fire it here to the real Native Instrument fans!
One of my Channel faders on the S4 sticks, or has quite a lot of friction… sometimes it even squeaks, can you believe it! Anyway, I’m guessing some lint or something is down inside the fader itself and is causing it some problems. Does anyone know a simple fix to clean this thing out? Anyone with any experience of it before? I’m just a little wary about opening her up for the first time, particularly when it comes to warranties and whatnot.
NI’s is a user forum, don’t expect official support from Tech Support there because it just isn’t that. You need to file a ticket.
Try using some compressed air to see if you can blow it off, otherwise you’ll have to open the unit for further cleaning (you will void the warranty by doing so).
Hmmm… strange. Still not sure what is causing the problem. Blowing (by mouth) into the fader slot seems to loosen it up… for about 10 minutes. Then it starts to stick again. Going to try the compressed air trick, because I want to keep the warranty if I can help it!
Contacted NI Support… guess I might have to try and RMA this unit. The channel A fader makes an abrasive squeaking noise now whenever I raise it, and it jumps all over the place in the software. Even if it’s held in the top/bottom position, it’s jumping all over the place in Traktor. Completely unusable. Some questions:
I bought this S4 second-hand from a guy in the States… does that mean no warranty/RMA cover for me?
Is there any way to set Channel C/D (i.e. one of the spare channels) as my ‘main’ channel A in Traktor? I rarely use all 4 decks and a much simpler solution would be to find a way to swap Channel A and Channel C in my Traktor software. Not sure how to do this.
For a warranty to be valid I believe you must have the original receipt of purchase showing the original date of purchase. Warranty is 2 years from date of purchase.
What a great controller! A nice instructive lesson here, I feel… first and last time I ever play around with dumb controller toys. A mixer with a common and widely reported problem of the Channel A fader sticking and malfunctioning. Wow. Wonder if that would happen on a $900 A&H mixer? Native Instruments can blow me.
Edit: Does anyone know if the tutorial to fit a new crossfader opens up the same area as the channel faders? I guess I have nothing to lose by cracking open this toys’r’us device now…
I blasted this thing with DJ fader lube today… and compressed air… for like 30 minutes. The fader is still sticky and has a lot of friction and resistance compared to the other 3. WTF could this be? Completely baffling. I opened the S4 and the faders are pretty inaccessible, too. You’d have to take out pretty much every other single board in the unit before you could access the faders. This thing is built like a hunk of crap.
