That being said, if your music material is not well beat-gridded and with correct BPMs, then you might be in trouble. Especially if you’ve never actually mixed more than two decks at a time, the Kontrol S5 could really open your eyes to how fun and effective it can be. Will it take a little while to get used to this from a traditional DJ set up? Absolutely, but once you do, the floodgates have started to open. It’s more realistic to start chopping up loops into Remix Decks or playing Stems when you’re not worried about beatmatching. We actually think that because the Kontrol S5 (like the S8 before it) has such good integration with Stems and Remix Decks, it’s not “cheating”, but rather the best example of sync allowing you to do more when DJing. Make no mistake, this controller is absolutely designed to be used with sync regularly. Potential DrawbacksĪ few notes here on things that you don’t get with the S5 – or what might be considered shortcomings of the controller to some DJs: Unless you are constantly adjusting Stem levels and dropping out parts in a musical way that demands fader control, the pad and encoder combo will work just fine. Four Faders are already a bit to manage, but 16 is truly next level. The faders are more natural for levels, but I would gladly give up the precise control in exchange for a smaller/streamlined controller. A lot of people questioned the usability of the Stem / Remix decks without having individual faders like on the Kontrol S8, but in reality, being able to use the pads in combination with the loop encoders was just as easy. Stems and Remix Decks On The S5Īs noted in the video review, we found that the S5’s workflows for dealing with Stem and Remix Decks more than sufficient for easy control. However for anyone that is not scratching or doing heavy pitch manipulation, these will handle the basic beatmatching just fine. For that camp, the S4 might remain a solid controller for years to come. Especially for open format DJs and those who are doing more standard 1-to-1 blends. We will admit, touch strips will never appropriately replace spinning platters. When a track is stopped, hold the Shift button and you can move around in the track, needle drop style, and then fine-adjust the track with the Shift button released.Hold Shift on a playing deck, and you can scratch a track (you have to enable this in Traktor’s preferences).When a deck is playing, swipe left or right to pitch-bend, or if your tracks are synced, adjust phase.Once you get past that, it actually becomes pretty clear how powerful the touch strips are on the Kontrol S5 – they have a few different modes. It’s got about the same dimensions as a Kontrol S4, and while is a few pounds heavier still is a reasonable back pack carry. In terms of portability, S5 is very reasonable to carry around. A few drinks into your local DJ night in the dark booth, and you’re going to want a controller that you know well and can quickly find all of the basic controls. The Kontrol S5 takes the more obvious one-to-one workflow of the Kontrol S4 and keeps the surface of the controller less cluttered and easier to navigate. It’s fantastic for technically-minded individuals and works well as a stay-at-home base of operations for a portable digital DJ rig, but it’s a bit of a beast. Let’s be honest here – the S8 is a lot of controller. A Simple Control Interface The S5 (left) has a much cleaner interface than the S8 (right, not to scale) The bottom line: you could play an entire night without looking at your computer at all, and that’s a major plus for a lot of DJs. Same goes for Remix Decks and Stem Decks – having the full visuals for each makes these powerful tools more realistic to incorporate into your DJ set – as they both require significant visual feedback to use effectively. The best element is the easy reference of Traktor’s FX units – which are often difficult to see even with a well-placed laptop. The screens are incredibly high resolution (just as on the Kontrol S8), allowing you to focus on the controller instead of the laptop (which you can hide away and turn off if you like). Having the ability to quickly reference exactly what’s going on in Traktor without looking at a second screen is fantastic. Screens: The Biggest Win On The Kontrol S5
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