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View Full Version : HELP! Traktor...S4....Audio 10...CDJ's....TTS...



RedMistUK
02-19-2012, 10:07 AM
Hi,

A while back a member on here helped me massively, I ended up buying a Traktor S4, and since i have fully loved it. I use it with traktor scratch pro and two 1210's.

But, recently, I have been gigging a lot and its a lot of stuff to carry. Also, i have been getting better at mixing so the whole 4 track mixing is something i'm really getting in to.

What I want to do is get two CDJ1000's, Traktor Audio 10 soundcard, and a simple 4 channel mixer, along with two Traktor X1's to use as controllers for traktor. So the full setup would be 2x TTS + 2x CDJ's + Audio 10 + 2x X1's + 4 channel Mixer.

This setup means i can also just go out with the 2 CDJ's and mixer, without worrying about the huge TTS(in flight cases)

THE PROBLEM

I dont know whether

a) this is possible

b) Is it worth selling my S4 (i bought it for £750 + a flight case for £150 so £900 in total) for £650-£700, then spending possibly double that on this new setup.

c) is there an alternate way?


Any feedback would be ace, cheers all!

James

Ryan Ruel
02-19-2012, 12:41 PM
Hi,

A while back a member on here helped me massively, I ended up buying a Traktor S4, and since i have fully loved it. I use it with traktor scratch pro and two 1210's.

But, recently, I have been gigging a lot and its a lot of stuff to carry. Also, i have been getting better at mixing so the whole 4 track mixing is something i'm really getting in to.

What I want to do is get two CDJ1000's, Traktor Audio 10 soundcard, and a simple 4 channel mixer, along with two Traktor X1's to use as controllers for traktor. So the full setup would be 2x TTS + 2x CDJ's + Audio 10 + 2x X1's + 4 channel Mixer.

This setup means i can also just go out with the 2 CDJ's and mixer, without worrying about the huge TTS(in flight cases)

THE PROBLEM

I dont know whether

a) this is possible

b) Is it worth selling my S4 (i bought it for £750 + a flight case for £150 so £900 in total) for £650-£700, then spending possibly double that on this new setup.

c) is there an alternate way?


Any feedback would be ace, cheers all!

James

It certainly is possible. I have an audio 10, 2 CDJ-2000's, 2 Technics M5G's, and 2 X1's. Works great. The only thing you CAN't do with the audio 10 is use more than 2 TT's unless you get an external pre-amp for the 3rd or 4th. You can do what you want no problem.

I say if you go this route sell the S4. It'll be overlap. And even though "look" shouldn't matter, in reality showing up with decks "looks" better than a controller. And if you have X1's too, that's really WAY too much overlap.

ReelDiel
02-19-2012, 01:51 PM
I use my stanton t120's with DNS1200. I set my TT to the line setting on the turntable. IN the Audio 10 setting I set them all to line and its good to go. Your techs don't have this option so set your sound card 2 inputs to phono, plug your tt's into those and the other 2 channels to line and your cd players on those.

RedMistUK
02-19-2012, 05:38 PM
It certainly is possible. I have an audio 10, 2 CDJ-2000's, 2 Technics M5G's, and 2 X1's. Works great. The only thing you CAN't do with the audio 10 is use more than 2 TT's unless you get an external pre-amp for the 3rd or 4th. You can do what you want no problem.

I say if you go this route sell the S4. It'll be overlap. And even though "look" shouldn't matter, in reality showing up with decks "looks" better than a controller. And if you have X1's too, that's really WAY too much overlap.

I was going to sell my S4 anyway to raise some of the money, but I didn't know whether it was worth spending all the money on the upgrade, to really change not a lot about the setup i have i.e, technically it will let me do the same amount of stuff, but cost me f*** loads more

DJNR
02-19-2012, 05:44 PM
I'm confused. It sounds like (correct me if I'm wrong) that you want to be able to do four deck mixing with full control of Traktor without having to lug your turntables around??

Have you considered using the S4 as your 4 channel mixer? If you do this, all you have to do is get timecode vinyl for Traktor, plug your two turntables directly into the back of the S4 and use them to control decks C and D while the two decks on the S4 control A and B. It seems like a lot of work to go out and have to buy a mixer + CDJs + Audio 10 + X1s when essentially you have all the same functionality with the S4 alone. If you are worried about having to take your decks places and you think CDJs would be a better option, sell the decks, get CDJs, and use them with the S4 to get the 4 deck mixing that you want.

Hope that helps.

ReelDiel
02-19-2012, 06:09 PM
sorry I just read your pm and responded. Why wouldnt you just keep what you have. At home use the s4 w/ 2 TT. When you gig out take just the S4. That lightens the load considerably and you can do just about anything with the s4 as you could with TT or CDJ control, unless you really need complex accurate scratching while doing mobile gigs. I'm a little confused also, because you have a pretty nice set up now.

RedMistUK
02-19-2012, 06:14 PM
I'm confused. It sounds like (correct me if I'm wrong) that you want to be able to do four deck mixing with full control of Traktor without having to lug your turntables around??

Have you considered using the S4 as your 4 channel mixer? If you do this, all you have to do is get timecode vinyl for Traktor, plug your two turntables directly into the back of the S4 and use them to control decks C and D while the two decks on the S4 control A and B. It seems like a lot of work to go out and have to buy a mixer + CDJs + Audio 10 + X1s when essentially you have all the same functionality with the S4 alone. If you are worried about having to take your decks places and you think CDJs would be a better option, sell the decks, get CDJs, and use them with the S4 to get the 4 deck mixing that you want.

Hope that helps.

Sorry I wasn't very clear.

I want to buy CDJ's as they are easier to take to a gig, e.g i can grab the cdj's and mixer and do a gig, compared to taking my s4 and two tts (i refuse to take just my s4 as its more hassle constantly telling people the difference between an S4 and a mixtrack pro (*sigh*) than it is to carry my tts. I am aware that i can plug in my tts to the s4, thats what i do currently . One of the reasons i wanted to change my setup is that im not getting on very well with the switching between decks on the s4. I keep switching tunes/cueing points on the wrong channel etc and messing up the mix. Also, the jog wheels are really unresponsive on the s4 and the pitch fader overly responsive (btw, can i change these settings in traktor?)


Does this make any sense at all? i'm sorry, its late...

RedMistUK
02-19-2012, 06:15 PM
ReelDiel...read above haha!

RedMistUK
02-19-2012, 06:17 PM
also, i run a lot of gigs myself, and constantly replacing needles (from my own gear that DJ's use) is costing me more money than im making. If i had CDJ's id save a lot of money and more people would be happy at gigs about the gear they get to use.

DJNR
02-19-2012, 06:24 PM
Sorry I wasn't very clear.

I want to buy CDJ's as they are easier to take to a gig, e.g i can grab the cdj's and mixer and do a gig, compared to taking my s4 and two tts (i refuse to take just my s4 as its more hassle constantly telling people the difference between an S4 and a mixtrack pro (*sigh*) than it is to carry my tts. I am aware that i can plug in my tts to the s4, thats what i do currently . One of the reasons i wanted to change my setup is that im not getting on very well with the switching between decks on the s4. I keep switching tunes/cueing points on the wrong channel etc and messing up the mix. Also, the jog wheels are really unresponsive on the s4 and the pitch fader overly responsive (btw, can i change these settings in traktor?)


Does this make any sense at all? i'm sorry, its late...

Makes complete sense. Here's my thoughts:

1) The jog wheels should be REALLY responsive. I'm not sure what you have wrong, because they are really responsive on mine (I can scratch pretty well on them). Make sure in the settings that your Jog Wheels are set to Vinyl mode as opposed to CDJ mode. If you keep experiencing problems in terms of latency, recalibrate the jog wheels and see if that helps. It could also be that your overall soundcard latency is really high.

2) If the pitch faders are too responsive, you can change the pitch range and try to fix that. The lower the pitch range, the less the pitch will change as you go up or down. I believe (I don't have my computer in front of me at the moment) it is in the mixer section of the options tab. Just scroll through the different options on the left in the settings menu, and look towards the top of each window for something that says "tempo range" or "pitch range". I don't remember which one.

3) I'm not sure why you have problems switching decks and what not if you are using 2 TTs with the S4 because the channels should always stay the same :shrug:

In my personal opinion, I still think the S4 + CDJs would be the easiest option, but that's your decision. If you wanted to have full control of Traktor + 4 decks, you would need 4 turntables of some kind (2 CDJs + 2 TTS for example), an Audio 8 or Audio 10, a 4 channel mixer, and one or two X1s.

Last but not least, you shouldn't give a f*** what people think of your gear. If they ask if it is a mixtrack, simply say no, and go do your thing. The gear isn't what matters honestly (within reason of course), it's the performance. YOU know that the S4 is a high quality piece of gear, and that's all that matters.

RedMistUK
02-20-2012, 06:24 AM
Makes complete sense. Here's my thoughts:

1) The jog wheels should be REALLY responsive. I'm not sure what you have wrong, because they are really responsive on mine (I can scratch pretty well on them). Make sure in the settings that your Jog Wheels are set to Vinyl mode as opposed to CDJ mode. If you keep experiencing problems in terms of latency, recalibrate the jog wheels and see if that helps. It could also be that your overall soundcard latency is really high.

2) If the pitch faders are too responsive, you can change the pitch range and try to fix that. The lower the pitch range, the less the pitch will change as you go up or down. I believe (I don't have my computer in front of me at the moment) it is in the mixer section of the options tab. Just scroll through the different options on the left in the settings menu, and look towards the top of each window for something that says "tempo range" or "pitch range". I don't remember which one.

3) I'm not sure why you have problems switching decks and what not if you are using 2 TTs with the S4 because the channels should always stay the same :shrug:

In my personal opinion, I still think the S4 + CDJs would be the easiest option, but that's your decision. If you wanted to have full control of Traktor + 4 decks, you would need 4 turntables of some kind (2 CDJs + 2 TTS for example), an Audio 8 or Audio 10, a 4 channel mixer, and one or two X1s.

Last but not least, you shouldn't give a f*** what people think of your gear. If they ask if it is a mixtrack, simply say no, and go do your thing. The gear isn't what matters honestly (within reason of course), it's the performance. YOU know that the S4 is a high quality piece of gear, and that's all that matters.

thanks a bunch for that, i'll take a look in the settings tonight when im home from work and have a fiddle about!
What i meant by switching decks is that when i want to switch from launching cue points or beatmatching from say channel A to C i have to press the button that switches the deck. This is a simple task, but when you're using all 4 channels at once, it can get really confusing as to which ones which, without the task of having to double check which channel im on as well! haha, its a bit of a silly problem, that really i should overcome with practice but its just not happening...i prefer having the solution of 4 seperate decks for four seperate tracks, but obviously its a lot more money...but it will be kickass....

look wise - i know i shouldnt give sh**, and i know that the S4 is a sh** hot peace of gear, but when DJ's turn up at a gig with just a controller, the crowd automatically has a set idea about them. Plus, i prefer DJ'ing on tts anyway, i find it much easier to beatmatch, scratch etc

DJNR
02-20-2012, 01:49 PM
thanks a bunch for that, i'll take a look in the settings tonight when im home from work and have a fiddle about!
What i meant by switching decks is that when i want to switch from launching cue points or beatmatching from say channel A to C i have to press the button that switches the deck. This is a simple task, but when you're using all 4 channels at once, it can get really confusing as to which ones which, without the task of having to double check which channel im on as well! haha, its a bit of a silly problem, that really i should overcome with practice but its just not happening...i prefer having the solution of 4 seperate decks for four seperate tracks, but obviously its a lot more money...but it will be kickass....

look wise - i know i shouldnt give sh**, and i know that the S4 is a sh** hot peace of gear, but when DJ's turn up at a gig with just a controller, the crowd automatically has a set idea about them. Plus, i prefer DJ'ing on tts anyway, i find it much easier to beatmatch, scratch etc

Ah I understand what you mean now. I agree, that can get a bit confusing not having 4 individual cue/loop controls.

With all that being said, I would look into two more decks, a four channel mixer (I can recommend some if you life, an audio 10, and one or two X1s. :)

blackfoxbb
02-20-2012, 02:11 PM
IMO

sell S4, get a denon mc-6000, so you'll still have a controller for traktor AND a stand alone mixer, no need for cdj, AND less stuff to carry than if you buy all that stuff.