Deck A stopped in middle of song

Hey everybody

Yesterday, when I was playing some background music (before actual outdoor-party started). Again, when starting up the S4 Kontrol, I was asked to calibrate Jog Wheels 'in 3 minutes after start-up' (issue as mentioned in an earlier forum thread and still remaining). They were calibrated successfully.

After a couple of hours suddenly Deck A stopped playing (in the middle of a song).

I immediately started Deck B. Thought it was a corrupt mp3, I loaded another song in Deck A, but that could not be started also.

The deck A Pitch Fader (on screen) was completely up (fully pitched down) and when I pushed 'play' (on the S4 and/or on TP2 (on screen with mouse)) song would not start and the Phase meter was jumping back and fort (left, right, left, right, ...)

I just could not get deck A started.

So I had to close TP2, turn off the S4, start TP2 back up, power up the S4, (wait 3 minutes to calibrate jogs ...) and then everything worked again for the rest of the evening. Fortunately it happened when I was playing 'warming up' (background) music. I don't wanna think about it, it would happen when the dance floor is full (at the peak of the party) ... :-s

I'm guessing it had to do with the Left Jog wheel (although I did not get any message there was something wrong with the jog wheel, it was calibrated successfully on start-up) ?
If it would happen again (hope NOT), is there another thing I can do to 'reset' the Jog and re-calibrate while the other deck is on-air ? So I don't have to close TP2 down and restart the Kontroller.

Those Jogs are giving me headache's ...

It's only the sixth or seventh time I'm working with the S4 and these issue's are not very reassuring ...

greetz
Kristof

 

Hi Kristof,

Was sync on? Did you try to turn it off?

I have played quite some gigs with S4 now and only once I have needed to calibrate the jog wheels. How does the software normally react to your jogwheels? If it is over-sensitive and starts making a mess when you scratch it, maybe there's something wrong with the unit.

I recall an issue in the beginning of the S4 era, where some users had to re-attach the left jogwheel because it was too loose apparently.

Could you play Deck C btw?

Gr,
Juri

 

Hey Kristof-

Well try having this happen to you in front of a packed club at 1:15am- prime time- and in the middle of a crazy drop. There's nothing to say other than, EPIC FAIL. I've called 4 times and nothing has been resolved.

I've named deck B the bullsh*t deck because this BS usually happens on that deck. Totally randomly. Not touching any settings, buttons, mouse pointers, NOTHING on the deck. It just stops. Then starts again. I literally cannot use deck B anymore when I spin.

I've been dealing with this particular issue since day 1 with the S4, and Native Instruments has YET to resolve or acknowledge it. Specs are not the issue. I'm running a top of the line MacBook Pro - and have been since I got the S4. I've
reinstalled, disabled wi-fi, recalibrated the decks, baked a cake- tried all these anecdotal "tips"...none of them work. NONE
I was praying that the release of Traktor 2 would fix this issue, since it's supposedly the "best one yet." No. Difference.

It's absolutely ABSURD to think that it would be acceptable to let your core group of customers, to spend almost $1000 on a piece of equipment - only to have it f*ck up EVERY time it's used.

I'm furious at the lack of attention and care that this issue is getting, because I KNOW that half of the people that it's happening to aren't reporting it or commenting on forums. ATTENTION NI- YOUR PRODUCTS ARE NOT PERFECT so when I call, please refrain from acting like it's something I did. I probably know more about computers than most of your employees. I've had tons of people watching your software in action, and then also FAIL in action.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION! Replace my S4?

 

Hey guys

Tech Support (pinpointed) solved the problem in my case !

After e-mailing back and fort, in search of a solution to my jog-calibrating issue (see my other thread concerning the jog-wheel calibration message popping up EVERY time I powered up the S4 in TP2) the guys from Tech Support came up with the answer/solution today ! And in a short time too !

To make a long story short , they offered me a Tech Support Tool witch generated essential information of my system, witch I mailed back to them.
This led to the fact that Tech Sup saw my Controller Editor was not the right (latest) version, witch caused the calibration message coming back over and over again (Control Editor 1.3.2 can write user calibration but can not read it from TP2, Control Editor 1.3.4 does both, so calibration info has to be written over and over again, every time the S4 Kontrol is used).

Seemed 1.3.2 was on my system instead of the 1.3.4 version.
This is due to the fact I first installed TP2 update (with 1.3.4 Control Editor), got to the conclusion this was the ideal moment to also upgrade my controller, so I went out and bought the S4. I then installed the S4 software. I saw no problem in the fact S4 software and TP2 were bought on my system, both can run independently from each other. (I installed the S4 software for the S4 Kontrol driver to be installed properly)
But installing the S4 software AFTER TP2 installation also brings the fact that the Control Editor is overwritten and down dated from 1.3.4 version (TP2) back to 1.3.2 (S4). That caused the calibration problem ... and probably also the fact jog failed en stopped in the middle of a song ...

Keeping my fingers crossed I have no further embarrassing malfunctions any more and the Kontrol S4 stays stable and reliable.

So in my case 2 thumbs (and toes) up for the guys of Tech Support !

greetz
Kristof

 

Awesome! Glad they helped you and it seems to be working out. I doubt that this will fix my specific problem though, because it was happening way before TP2 and I've updated every component to the latest version.

I'll be calling them for a 5th time today. We'll see what happens!