So Windows users are known to be plagued by driver issues with the new, and very sweet Traktor Kontrol S4. I had those issues, but with no driver update in sight I decided to purchase an Audio Interfaceā¦
but which one will work? Are the drivers compatible? questions, questionsā¦
After much research I decided to purchase the M-Audio Fast Track Pro
Best decision ever! :eek: This thing comes with great recording software and has many outputs including RCA and TRSā¦ blah blahā¦
IMPORTANT PART:
After downloading the Windows 7 64bit Driver from the M-Audio website, Traktor Pro S4 recognized the FastTrack and was instantly putting out great sounds with no clicks, buzzing, drop outs, clipping, etc etcā¦
andā¦ you still have the capability to put a deck into CUE mode and set up beats on your headphones. The mix controls are right on the front of the unit.
This was the best investment I have made in Pro Audio equipment. My KS4 works flawlessly with it, and I can later record tracks and other instruments through the inputs, and it even has a great Mic input for DJing parties or weddingsā¦
What was your main issue with using the S4 drivers? I am running windows 7 and havenāt had too many issues. If I leave wifi on I may get a pop here and there but once I disable it I get zero errors.
What system are you running? Also how much did you pay for the soundcard? I was considering getting a small soundcard for when I only want to take my Kontrol X1.
I kept getting audio drop outs every 30 secondsā¦ I tried optimizing for audio processing and used all the tools forum users mentioned, but never fixed the problems. I got it to play with no drop outs but they would pop up as soon as I touched a button or a jogwheel. The jogwheels also stopped glitching since I quit using the Kontrol S4 driversā¦
as for my equipmentā¦
Asus UL50VT Laptop, Intel CORE2 Duo 1.3GHz/1.3GHz, 4GB Ram, Windows 7 64Bit, Traktor Kontrol S4, M-Audio FastTrack Pro, BOSE QuietComfort 2 headphones, 2x Behringer B212D 550watt powered speakers on ProLine tripodsā¦ Thats pretty much my whole setup.
Iām about to be ordering a midifighter too, mostly to save wear and tear on my KS4 hot cue buttonsā¦
Yeah its a 2.6GHz C2Dā¦ I can see where my previous post would cause the trolls to come out of the woodwork and flame my setup. Lolz. Thanks for catching thatā¦
WHOA! TROLL TIME: two 1.3ghz processing cores does not mean it is 2.6ghz. it is a 1.3 ghz Dual Core. your computer is below minimum specs, that is why you were getting drop outs. In traktor, more than anything, the processor is taxed so much more than the ram thats its not even funny. upgrade the processor because that 4 gigs of ram will not help you, unless you want extra smooth waveform movement (Rant, but, in my defence, improper info about processors really grinds my gears. Thank you for that ebay)
Thanks for the constructive criticism. Ill look into upgrading, but if that causes the drop outs why donāt I get any running the KS4 and the Fast Track Pro?
Hey El Gato, I did a quick search online and yeah that processor could be the problem with the audio drop outs. Its dope that you lappy has 4gb but it lacks big time in the processor dept. i got this from the NI site
[quote]WindowsĀ® XP (latest Service Pack, 32 Bit), Windows VistaĀ®/WindowsĀ® 7 (latest Service Pack, 32/64 Bit),
IntelĀ® Pentium 4Ā® 2.4 GHz or IntelĀ® Coreā¢ Duo or AMD Athlonā¢ 64, 2 GB RAM [/quote]
The fast is track most likely taxing the processor less than the sound card in the s4 (hence your under powered processor). BigBeatzz isnāt having the same problem because his i5 processor is, not only far more powerful, but also more energy efficient than your core 2 duo. Your getting pops and crackles because the processor is being nearly maxed out and your system, in order to keep itself from crashing, is choosing to send any available energy flow to the processor and, therefore, cuts off energy flow to external sources (your s4 and its sound card)
Thanks for all of the great input, Im glad this forum is filled with people willing to give great advice instead of just flaming. IE: Get a Mac, Your setup just blows, etc etcā¦
I never thought I would be this far involved in the music world when I purchased my laptop. I bought it for school, but also wanted to have a decent amount of processing and RAM for touching up photos I take with my Canon DSLR.
Last year, my Nissan 240SX blew the motor and I traded the shell for the speakers, tripods, wires, and a Numark NS7FXā¦ Serato was too limiting so I sold the NS7FX in Jan 2011 and purchased the Kontrol S4 a few weeks ago.
Itās been a steep learning curve, but Iām always willing to learn new thingsā¦
Again, Iām all ears hereā¦ well eyes, I should sayā¦
I was searching forums for a long time and this is my first post but Iāve been following for a long time.
My question is, Iāve been wanting to upgrade to a KS4 or Pioneer T1 for the longest time. Though Iāve heard the S4 has alot of problems for Windows users. My specs are : Intel i7 @1.6GHz / 4GB RAM and I was wondering if my processing power was strong enough for the KS4. I read somewhere that the processor I have has some kinda turbo boost technology that would raise my clock rate to 2.8, but Iām not sure if my base clockrate would be high enough.
Well my laptop is running at 2.26Ghz and runs just fine after the KS4 driver was updated. I havenāt used an external sound card in a long time. I only use it for recording outside of Traktor.
You may be able to overclock your processor but Iām sure it will fry it in no timeā¦ maybe itās time to upgrade to a faster laptop before dropping bucks on equipment. I wouldnāt buy an S4 to run on 1.6Ghz, and expect it to run flawlessly because even my laptop doesnāt meet minimum specs for the S4.
One thing that also helps is the Power Script located here:
Get that and Right Click on it and hit Run as Administratorā¦ works wonders to shut off unnecessary processes
an i7 at 1.6Ghz would be fine, most i7ās run at a low base rate. I have a i7 Q740 which runs at 1.73Ghz base. The fastest generation 1 CPU on the mobile market is the Q840, which is 1.86Ghz base.
The CPU has enough balls on itās own without the turbo even kicking in.
The specs suggested refer to the old dual core processors, the i7 is a quad core with 8 threads running.
Look at a Mac book pro, itās only a 2.5Ghz gen2 i7, which is the fastest thing around.
If you are buying a new laptop, see if you can find a gen2 i7 (they are called āsandy bridgeā), because they have all 8 cores able to boost, unlike the gen1 which only boost one core. And now that Traktor is multicore aware, clock speeds should be irrelevant anyway.
PS unless you can see a setting in your BIOS for QPI, you canāt overclock an i series processor. They do not work in the same way as previous chips where you could change FSB and multiplier. The i series overclock automatically when you need more CPU cycles. Itās like having intel āspeedstepā in reverse.
Thanks for the information, I wasnāt sure about all of this because all the threads about minimum specs were old. So I guess itās safe to say my laptop will run the KS4 and traktor smoothly(with minor bumps). Now to decide whether to purchase the pio T1 or S4.
I had those issues, but with no driver update in sight I decided to purchase an Audio Interfaceā¦
