Things you should know about Traktor Kontrol S5
No, I'm not someone who always complains about products. But in case you intend to buy Native-Instrument's Traktor Kontrol S5 (most things will probably apply for S8 as well) I would like to tell you some things which none of these oh so nicely produced (Native Instruments funded? 😊) DJ - shop - YouTube - videos tell. There are a couple of things in daily use which are annoying and which I don't like. At least at a first glance to me it looks like they could easily have been made better, but as I said ... at a first glance. 😊

Don't get me wrong! The Kontrol S5 is a great device and I like it! But hey NI, if you are reading this, give yourself a push and improve these things for us. 😊

Here now some things you should take into account before buying the controller:

Power adapter

Someone may ask what the hell can you dislike on a power adapter? The answer is very simple: The chord is too short! When plugging it into S5 you have to count the depth of the case and the height of the desk you are putting it on, in order to reach the power outlet under the desk. In most cases it does not touch the ground! That means you have to put a multi socket extension on the desk, which at least on weddings looks quite ugly. 30 cm more would have done the job! :-(

Browser

In all of these nice videos on YouTube you are told that in fact you don't need your laptop anymore (except for searching a track), which means you can fold it away. Seriously guys! These little displays can NEVER replace the amount of information you are getting on your laptop. But anyway ... I'm not complaining! I knew this before, but I thought that in worst case, I'll just keep looking onto the laptop's display. Unfortunately this does not work! The problem is that, even though browsing within a playlist is reflected on the laptop's display, browsing through the tree is NOT! That means if you want to continue using your laptop display, you first have to look on the controller's display in order to choose a playlist. Then you can go back to the laptop's display while browsing within the selected playlist. This disrupts the workflow completely! Unfortunately there is no way to configure the MIDI settings for NI's controllers, otherwise it would be easy to workaround.

Select track to Pre-Listen

This is more an improvement than criticism: There is a feature in Traktor which I never used in the past, but which is quite handy with these controllers. Quickly pre-listening a track, without loading it into a deck is a very nice thing. While in the browser, you can just press the right rotary knob and the selected song starts to play. You can also quickly seek through the track, by turning the knob. But unfortunately you still have to use the left rotary knob in order to select another track. Even though the right one has no function when no track is pre-listened. In this case it would be very nice to be able to also select another track with the right control and need one hand less. 😊

Spectral waveform view

One of the things most people are annoyed about on the web, is the fact that the controller's displays show the waveform only in blue. In Traktor Pro 2 it is a very nice feature to select "spectral" view for the waveform, which let's you easily see where the bass kicks in or where the high hats start to play. But this is unfortunately not reflected on the controller. At least there is an acceptable workaround/hack for this, even though it is still not a real spectral view.

Mic/AUX

Fortunately, as opposed to some statements on the web, the mic and line inputs are not only active as long as AUX is pressed down. So if pressing the AUX button once, mic and line are permanently heard. There is also no need to route any of them through a live input deck, unless you prefer to use a fader/EQ for controling the signal or add some effects. Otherwise you can only control the signal level by holding down AUX and turning the left or right rotary knobs for mic/line. Also be aware that even when not routing through a deck, there is a delay of a few milliseconds which adds to both and comes from the processing latency. At least for the mic it is a little annoying to hear the own voice with a slight delay, but this is not really bad.

Button lighting
All buttons are illuminated on the controller, also in inactive state ... which is very good for dark environments! But for my taste especially in dark environments the brightness of inactive buttons is too high and it can only be turned down to a minimum of 25% of the maximum brightness, which sounds fine, but is still too bright for my perception. To be able to clearly distinguish active from inactive buttons the brightness for active buttons must be turned up to 100%, but then in dark environments this is really blinding.

Conclusion
As said, Traktor Kontrol S5 is a great (and cool) device. But before I bought it I was really trying hard to get such details regarding the functionality like above, but unfortunately didn't manage for most of my questions.

So if you want to know how a certain feature exactly behaves on the device, just let me know and I 'll do my best to quickly test it. I'd happy to help!