I’m investigating the Traktor s8s because I want to throw some life into my tracks whimsically and thought it would be cool to work on attaining some DJ ability.
But I’m seeing these 1200 controllers go for $600-$700.
I’m curious why this is, because the thing looks awesome.
Imo stems just not appealing to the masses.
That’s crazy to me. My intention going in hinges on working with stems.
Thanks for your input, though!
Also carrying that controller or D2s around…
Np
I want to live in a world where $600-$700 is considered cheap.
Compared to the initial price of $1200 it’s pretty cheap
They announced a new version of Traktor and new Hardware coming sometime this year
Maybe everyone’s saving for that 
Oh cool! Thanks for the heads up!
Edit: Damn! Depending on what Traktor turns out to be(regarding Maschine/Traktor compatability) Native Instruments might endup being my new Elektron.
Though, it looks like Stems might not be a part of it, so I’m gonna have to keep my eye out irresistible deals on the S8 if they get any cheaper.
Most clubs that I have been to use a couple of CDJs with a Xone92 or Pioneer mixer. If a vinyl DJ is booked for the night two 1210s are in the booth as well. You could not make yourself more unpopular than by carrying this HUGE console (it is 60cm x 40cm) which still needs a laptop to the club and asking for a space to put it somewhere. I guess that this explains the low resale value. By the way most NI stuff has a terrible resale value once the next generation of controler hardware is released.
The second hand price has been pretty stable here (UK) for a good couple of years.
I sold mine for about £550 after having it for about a year (I bought it in a NI sale for £650 a few months after it was released).
It’s probably worth waiting to see what NI announce about Traktor. There may be a load of them up for sale afterwards if they announce their next big thing, who knows.
It is a really good bit of kit, total luxury for doing a bit of simple mixing at home but as phelios said, really big for carting around for gigs.
I never really got into using the stems side of things that much and found using the sampling decks for capturing loops a bit fiddly to be honest, so I was probably under utilising it a lot.
I tended to use 3 normal track decks and one external input for a synth or drum machine.
It’s pretty great for that type of setup.
The screens were great - good enough to switch the computer screen off, as long as your music is nicely organised into playlists. Really the only things you need to refer to Traktor for is searching for tunes outwith your playlists and hitting record to record your mix.
On the downside, apart from the huge size of the unit, I found a few strange design choices
No dedicated tempo control was very strange for a dj controller. You have to go into a menu for manual tempo control - very odd.
Obviously NI expect everyone to use beat sync, but if you want to do a bit of manual mixing or mix into a vinyl record it’s a bit clunky. It really is a machine designed for mixing 4/4 techno.
The lack of customisation options was the one thing that really annoyed me about the S8. I thought the whole point of using a computer to DJ was be the ability to customise your controllers to your personal style. I naively thought that NI would allow customisation of the S8 in a Traktor update, but it never came (I haven’t checked for a while - it may be possible now).
For example I wanted to map the EQ controls on the mixer to control the Xone 92 filter effect, to set the mixer up in similar style to a Xone DB4, but that wasn’t possible.
Also, the 4 band Xone EQ mode coudn’t be mapped across the EQ and filter controls on the mixer - a definite oversight.
Some MIDI mapping of the Stems controls is possible, but most controls can’t be reassigned.
It’s pretty much down to personal taste and your style though.
Ultimately, I sold because it was taking up too much space in my fairly small setup. I still miss it a bit, it was a lot of fun!
Anyway, enough rambling, just though I’d pass on my experience.
If you want to prepare for club gigs, get a rekordbox controller.
If you are happy to take your laptop to club choose whatever you like.
STEMs is a great concept, but with the price of ssd storage still quite high, who really wants to lose all that disk space when most audiences could not give a toss if you are mixing the baseline from one song with the melody from another.
Also most big name Traktor users will use a kontrol x1 and a pro mixer. See the DJ tech tools website for proof. It’s great setup as the x1 is solid and small.
Plugging in your audio interface is boring but to have a small equipment bag is much better if you want to hang out before and after the gig.
I’ve just bought an s8 for £350, seemed cheap
I’ve been using traktor for ages with smaller controllers.
But tonight has made me question sticking with any native instruments software again due to traktor , it’s fucking buggy .I’m so angry atm.
Regarding s8
I assumed it was cheap because
No one uses remix decks
No one uses stems
People only buy their flagship controller because it’s cheap and they’re looking at why it’s so cheap. I can’t imagine anyone buying a new one. And I’m weary that if I moan too much I’ll never be able to sell it on .
It can work as 4channel controller but you’ll still need laptop screen to find tracks ( they only feature basic sorting ) and I like to see the key something is in ( it’s not displayed on any deck when it’s plying )
I may return to just using kontrol z1 and x1 … or just jump onto serato or rekordbox.
Not happy right now …
Buggy how? Maybe a faulty unit? Have you updated the firmware? Latest Traktor installed? I don’t have an S8, but the S5 runs flawlessly, and they’re very similar beasts.
Btw, there’s a hack to show more info on the screens… Although key is only one button away anyway.
Really happy with the S5 FWIW
I’m running on the beta. … these are traktor issues
Very flickery track list screen
Doesn’t start in full screen mode
Search function stops working after a while
It’s just wiped my settings so I have to import everything again , setup my playlists etc.
It doesn’t like to auto import folders
It shows any missing tracks twice until you relocate the file
Tracks turn into ‘smears’ sometimes … needs a restart
While importing and editing tags it’ll add tag to the wrong file if the list changes in any way
When using magnifying glass to narrow down the search, it’ll just to the extreme slow/fast bpm when I’d guess that you won’t to continue looking at similar tracks
A few issues.
Tonight’s fun is re analysing 12000 tracks because it didn’t actually do it properly yesterday.(again)…even though the collection was fine last week.
The small few it did properly were all double/Half actual tempo so even if it adds the stripe this time they may all be %ucked anyway. The only consolation is that my loops/tags are ok.
I’m not paid to write bugs on their forums…
Sorry … had to vent … I’ve had pioneer equipment in the past (sp16 ) so I’m under no illusion they’re any better…
what cheap, where are you finding them, and can you get me one?
Trying to find one cheap to see if I can script it for some other tasks, but “cheap” is usually like 600 US
…what does “…stems not appealing to the masses…” mean…?
what a strange and far from any real world experience “advice”…
and the answer, why traktor controlers are that cheap is pretty simple…
all cheap plastic mass production…and the converters are pretty bad…
if u use them as controlers only…it worx ok for while…
but if u want good sound also…u better use not it’s internal interface option and use some external audiointerface instead…even also damned cheap focusrite interfaces do a a better job than whatever ni is spending their “top notch” wanna bee controlers these days…
not to mention that ni is pretty consumer segment and can’t get even their core competence really right anymore…buggy bug bug…loop me deadly…come again…buggy bug bug…
besides the fact, that it’s quite a challenge to adress via agregate devices alternative outputs…
but if it’s just for fun…it’s defenitly fun…sort of…no doubt…
while for serious stage use…super semi…
In terms of cheap
There’s an x1 on gumtree for £30 atm, I was tempted just to get a new set of encoder caps cheaper than djtechtools…
Some of the smaller controllers (f1 etc) are between £50 and £100 sometimes including covers / cases etc which are £30 .
In terms of controller the encoders, sliders etc all seem ok , I’ve not had a problem , the s8 screen seems good quality.
I’ve only used mine at home , but I do get the impression ‘proper’ DJs use pioneer, some ableton , serato. Hopefully one day I’ll leave my flat and mix in front of humans.
In terms of pure midi controllers I suggest putting in some research , especially earlier controllers.