Someone finally said it…
He’s right.
Never realized this was a subject of debate or question. Seems rather straight forward to me
Hit every point/counterpoint on the money. I’m sure someone will still argue vehemently why their S4 that never leaves the bedroom should still have a booth out.
I see tons of ‘But where’s the booth out?!?’ comments every time something is released that doesn’t have one. Or ‘I won’t even go near that thing because it doesn’t have a booth out’. I even felt that way once upon a time, but realized very quickly that two master outputs negates the need entirely, if there even was one to begin with.
no shit?
The only advantage of a booth output is a quick and on the fly volume control.
Because if booth is controlled by the venue’s mixer, then i guess you have to do a step or two if you want to adjust the volume 
lazyness ftw
The omission of a booth output on the Kontrol S4 was a massive oversight.
First of all the removal of the Booth output in Routing Preferences was a massive mistake and then not including it on the S4 was a mistake, hell they put one on the S2 cus it was a mistake.
I p*ssed and moaned about the removal of the Booth Output in Traktor and it was said that most DJs mix in the headphones or use a hardware mixer to run a booth. Well, yes, that maybe the case for many DJs but many other do not.
Why oh why take features out of the software that could easily just be left in for people to use.
Some people dont use the booth monitor, thats fine. Many people do use it and there should have been a booth output on the S4.
The S4 is billed as an all-in-one for every kind of DJ. So what about mobile or bar DJs that dont want to bring an external hardware mixer as well as an “all-in-one” controller.
Yes there is usually a hardware mixer to run the booth off but i dont always want to be stretching to the mixer to hear the booth especially if its:
[Turntable - S4 - X1 - Turntable - Mixer] its just too far to reach, not practical .
I play in small clubs, bars, huge clubs and festivals. I want the right options to suit the venue.
I have had to buy one of these for one of my clubs were the booth monitor volume is not in reach (its on the back of the monitor) and the mixer is too far away to use it. It works fine but its another bit of kit that id rather not bring that could easily have been incorporated into Traktor and the S4:
Saying that controllers dont need booth outputs is a stupid as saying they dont need Mic inputs. It comes down to personal preference whether you will use them but the options should be there.
Fine, bring out a controller with no booth output but expect people to complain.
It’s all to do with the speed of sound (man…)
Try beatmatchng with speakers 50ft away!
Most of the time you probably won’t need it and you will never need it in a club, but they should still have them and there’s no reason not to include them on on a decent controller.
The big thing is for mobile and bar DJs where you don’t have a hardware mixer or the hardware mixer is so beat or in the way anyway it would be better to just bypass it if it’s just you there for the night. It’s much better to have one booth knob on the controller than to have to adjust the gain on the back of a PA speaker especially if it’s hard to reach.
I remember a thread on here a little while ago with a guy shopping for a powered monitor that had a gain on the front just for this reason, it was a mistake on the S4 not to have it…
Even worse. I had a residency at a huge club and the amp room was downstairs and across the venue, possibly 300ft of cabling. The difference in the front of house and the foldback was ridiculous, almost a whole beat out.
I’d give you the mobile dj thing, but mobile DJs don’t need booth monitors. All they’re going to do is make the DJ go deaf.
If anyone has ever seen a mobile DJ actually beat match (even with sync), I’ll concede this argument.
Well to be frank dude, it matters not what you give me. Its my personal experience as a working DJ.
The hassle that i have in one club alone with the monitor is enough to make me really want a booth output on the S4… im pretty sure if you were with me you say “shit, that is simply a PITA Karlos”.
When i was using a VCI 100/Firebox and Traktor had a booth output i could constantly alter the booth volume on the VCI along with my headphones and control my monitoring carefully and concentrate 100% on the mixing, rather than stretching across my gear to reach the mixer forcing me to take a hand off the controller for longer than i should have to.
Its like putting the gear stick in a car next to the brake pedal. Yeah i could reach it but id have to take my eyes off the road too long.
Its simply not practical. And in a time of feature packed controllers it makes no sense to leave out one of the fundamental features of DJing.
I don’t know in college there were quite a few fraternities with PA systems that you really needed booth monitors for.
You can see the setup here (skip to 8 minutes it’s a cheesy vid) CU Cribs – Theta Delta Chi (Thumpty) | Slope Media Group
Someone would always bring two 12" speakers on tripods pointed at the DJ booth which was behind/under the main outs pointing at the dance floor from above.
College parties were a little different than a stereotypical mobile gig though at least some of them at my school.
Wow, really? I started doing mobile work at 15 with ten-year veteran mobile DJ, and on some of the venues, we would’ve been SCREWED without a monitor. YES, we did mix (disco, house, top40), and when you play a big venue you absolutely have to have a monitor. We played a few, the largest being the top floor of the Sacramento Convention Center; it’s 20,000 sqft of carpet. One room. Talk about foldback…
In all of these cases, we had a either a booth output wired via our Denon X-800, or we’d bring a monitor amp and control the gains that way…
im glad my VMS4 has Booth outs.
To be fair, he said beatmatch. That being said, I’ve seen several mobile and wedding jocks beatmatch. I personally know several of them, and do so myself on mobile gigs. Some people just have the unfortunate luck of seeing nothing but really shitty, corny, stereotypical, jukebox jocks in mobile settings.
As for the booth monitor on the S4, I’ve never seen the need for one. On mobile gigs, small lounges, and other stuff that isn’t large scale, I’ve never needed a monitor. Over a decade playing raves taught me how to deal with horrible monitoring situations, and small stuff is never loud enough to really require them… at least in my experience. In larger louder places like clubs… where a monitor is something I really need, I haven’t seen a single place in over 15 years of DJing up and down the east coast of america that didn’t have a DJ booth with a mixer that has a booth monitor. That is all I need, as the booth mixer is what I will always end up plugging into.
Mixing/beatmatching…same thing…
I’m a mobile dj who beatmatches! I use the booth out on my Denon mc6000 all the time. Sometimes I need monitors, sometimes I use it to pipe dinner/ cocktail music into another area while spinning (the denon allows you to choose what channel comes out the booth so I can run a playlist on deck 4 into another room while spinning off my other 3 decks). I’ve even used the booth out as my mains because I didn’t have the right adapters. 
O how i wish my S4 had a booth output…
Damn I didnt know this was a big deal untill now.
Is it a big deal if I do all my beat matching in my headphones?
Never really played at a big enough venue to ever have heard of this booth out thing