Why are many 4-channel soundcards discontinued?
Hey gang!
I was curious to hear on why Serato/Native Instruments have discontinued their production of 4-channel soundcards such as the SL4 and Audio 10. Is there any specific reason on this? I was interested in maybe getting one of these, but I’m wary that they will lose their compatibility with future upgrades of the software (especially the Audio 10)
-Jyve
The Audio 8 was EOL partly because they couldn’t continue supporting it on macOS due to its funky drivers. The Audio 10 is USB class-compliant, I believe. The SL4 probably didn’t sell that well since (I’d guess) most Serato DJ users are on two decks for DVS.
I’ve been wondering this too and think that maybe there just isn’t enough demand. I currently use a Zomo MC-1000 with a built in 4 channel soundcard which I decided on after looking around and not finding a whole lot of options.
You can use any soundcard with supported drivers with Traktor - I use everything from a NI 4ch to an 8 channel UA apollo. You don’t need to use the brand that makes the software - there are dozens of choices with USB you can pick from.
I’m not sure about Serato, but back in the day, I chose Traktor due to using any type of interface - vs Serato specific hardware.
Still the case.
It’s quite sad how they slowly made the A10 fade. My guess is that it wasn’t selling all that well with most people that are moving towards a 4ch mixer getting one with a built in audio interface already and the rest are pretty likely to own one. The A10 is indeed Core Audio capable so you should be good for a while unless you are running Windows.
Now the question is, what do you guys think would be the best way to get 4 digital decks into something like a Xone:92 or similar analog mixers? (not wanting to buy one, just want to start nice discussion around it 
)
Holy crap. It’s not on the NI product page…
Page is still there but not linked so no way to find it navigating NI site, just going straight to it. As far as we know they don’t have anything in the pipes to replace it either.
Been confirmed as discontinued.
strange times to live in where there are no 4 channel soundcards
edit: now that i think about it, the rane SL2, SL3, SL4 are all discontinued along with SL1.
The only audio interface left in production for serato is the denon ds1 
Rane shifted hands recently, they are still getting their stuff together so I wouldn’t be surprised if they either reissue a SL but yeah since Denon is part of the same parent company we might see them branded Denon instead and keep Rane for mixers.
I think the only reason to buy an A10 specifically (over a different 4-channel soundcard) is that it can be Traktor Scratch enabled.
Probably preparing for the launch of the Z4 or something similar.