Tag / Kontrol S4
Just got my Kontrol S4 back from Daniel, so I got some nice times ahead!
MIDIfighter, designed by workgringo at workgringo.com
I had just the MIDIfighter for a short period, as I was trying to get my new studio in order. But as one might expect I could not just keep it at that.
This is what I am aiming for ultimately ofcourse:
First things first though. I will most probably go and raid the local Ikea to purchase a 4×2 Expedit cabinet, some Capita legs, and some isolating floor panels so that I can finally start building my studio in the attic.
Next to this Daniel(James Dan) and I will be finally setting up a firm basis for RSTRCTDnl. This will become the home stomping ground of our Restricted Sessions, that will also be featured on SimplyRadio’s Simply Electro.
Production-wise 2012 will also be a nice and challenging year. The liquid d&b(Sparkling Tree) project Daniel and I are working on is working to be a promising track. Mastering and EQing will take place this week.
If this works out to be the fine track we think it to become, we will be talking experimental projects that can work out into a musical expedition not yet encountered!
More on all of this as it will develop of course.
One and a half years ago, I had the opportunity to look at some blueprints supplied by Native Instruments. The concept blueprint was than called Traktor Pro CTRL.
It was delivered in print, as that I was able to check the blueprint in 1:1 format. (real- sized print) This basically came down to an A3 format paper sized controller.
After reading through the specs, it became apparent that the controller would also feature an on board soundcard, cue section, effect section, EQ section, crossfader and above all, 2 decks.
Native Instruments than asked all fellow thinkers to answer an online questionnaire, in which we would share our views on the blueprint.
One of the more frequent answers would end up to be;”make it 4 decks”.
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Almost 14 months later, rumours started to turn up, pictures and youtube vids were getting leaked. It seemed that Native Instruments was getting ready to unleash a new breed of MIDIcontroller with accompanying Traktor Software.
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More and more information was being spread, and I was still bound by my NDA with Native Instruments. So I was not able to spread my knowledge on this matter.
With the 1st of November set as release date, all information is already open to the public, and I guess I am allowed to share this little story.
Demos are starting to turn up through the Netherlands and through twitter we had the opportunity to check out the Native Instruments Kontrol S4, as it was called now, at ToneControl.
This cool company that arranged a demo night last Monday and My buddy Marc and myself wanted to check it out badly. The demo night turned out to be a minimeet of the AboutDJ.nl forums, as that Wesley(dj_wb) and René(Rendoe) were there too.
Leon of Native Instruments, brought in by company owner Toon, was a great guy that showed and demoed the little beast.
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First thing I did was actually whip out the old design blueprint and compare size and layout. The size was the same, buttons were not changed that much, but, as mentioned earlier on, two decks were added, not to mention the all new looper, that basically adds a virtual fifth loop deck, that can be used as a layered looper.
(Think photoshop with image layers, or your average DAW software with tracks.)
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Leon guided us around many features of the software and controller, and even left us some time to play around with the controller.
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It’s hard to believe, but at first I was only in it for the software. After playing around with the controller for a while, I am actually thinking of selling my current setup and buy this bad boy!
Here’s the rest of the pictures worth sharing. Props and thanks goes out to Toon van Veelen too, as he supplied a few of the pictures featured below, and ofcourse being awesome enough to arrange this demo evening!
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