Has s8 really standalone mixer???

You guys have the right to be pissed off , I think they should return your money in case they have no idea how to eliminate this problem if it's even technically possible.

 

This is bullcrap, or a glitch at most.

I have seen a few cases of people swapping over laptops by switching off tractor on one channel that is playing from a phone with the traktor switch set off, and I have also seen multiple times my friends laptop crash and we switched over in the same way with just a brief interruption to the playback while we got another source going with traktor off.

If your whole S8 board is hanging then either you have some bigger problem or you don't know what button turns it to a through channel. I take it you have updated the firmware for your computer as well as other hardware...

 

i don't believe this is correct at all, altering the signal chain within the mixer is both more expensive than a cheap midi button which relies on software to do the routing, and ALSO it happens to be the thing that defines what a STANDALONE MIXER is.

the Z2 is a standalone mixer. the S8.
the S8 is very cheap for what you're getting, but i'd have rather them put in a real standalone mixer component for another $100. then's it's a real piece of mixing hardware, instead of just another controller with a usb soundcard built-in, that's nothing special.

i hate it when a company gets SO MUCH right, then skimps out on the last crucial bit to save money, it infuriates me. go lookup Numark CDX (pre-dates cdj-1000) faulty CD trays. such a perfect product, ruined because of a lack of BASIC FUNCTIONALITY in the name of cutting corners. pathetic. i'd rather pay $100 more to have something built RIGHT.

 

Mr b this happens when it crashes .. changing over while it's working is different story...and lo not knowing the button??? Come on.. anyway the support knows about the problem if it was a hardware issue than I hop they would have already asked to replace it.
totally agree here with dj slick. It sad when they cut corners from what could be a nice piece of gear.

 

Might be that when Traktor is working ok the S8 is in a known stable state where the buttons all keep working, unplugging the USB cable resets etc. BUT ... if Traktor *crashes* it could well leave the S8 in an unstable state where the firmware is in a mess so the usual tricks don't work.

Must admit this does kinda put me off buying one, at least with the DDJ I always have the hardware switch to flip to an analog input in case of emergency

Mike

 

Just saw the new pioneer xdj rx. Looks nice and real standalone device!! Hid support. If ni don't fix the s8 bugs I think I sell mine and get the pioneer. They have allways maintained quality and stability. Something ni fails.
The 7" screen on it is decent size too!

 

It doesn't seem to have HID support - from the djtechtools site ....

"Pioneer’s press release got it wrong, the only compatibility with Traktor will be in MIDI mode, that means no HID jogwheels or waveforms."

Shame!!

 

Hey!

I just want to let the internet know that I just read this thread and gave the ol standalone mixer a run.


I keep the s8 in box cause I still might bring it back not sure yet. I just really like cdjs without laptop.

Anyway.

I took a 1/8th-1/4 adaptor and plugged it into a guitar patch cord. I pluged that into mircophone 2 cause thats where the 1/4 or a TRS.

I don't have the laptop near by or plugged in. I powered on the s8 it light up. I turned a song on my phone. plugged phone to 1/8th connector. I pressed play. I hit the green "2" in the middle of the mixer and then the sound came thru the 4th channel. fader works, filter works, eqs work. gain works. cue light works, turned the cue balance in the middle and i hear music. play with the fader and the cue blance and all combos work.


So if this baby fails, have a phone with traktor dj ready with a 1/8 to 1/4 cord to plug into number 2 if your using the mike if your not just get it going. laptop crashes. disconnect the laptop press number 2 and let her rip til the laptop can recover.


So far you can easily beatmatch with the strip cause you can set the sensitivity of it.

I was having some laggin issues last night with it but when i turned up the latency I found it was running with no issues.

140 ms isnt really bad. I mean, if your a little off you can just nudge.

I find that traktor always sounds limited or compressed and the signal is never close to how hot a cdj is.

If I could level this playing ground I wouldnt have much complaints.

I heard there was an update im checking it out now, being able to switch the deck flavors is killer and also the limiter update will hpefully make my perception issues less an issue.



Heres an on-the-fly mix when some fresh playlists with the s8 internal recorded to traktor. I seem to be running 3 decks without sync and the remix deck sync to master with Quantize on.

The way the bpm adjust is setup is pretty much the same thing as 97% of djs use of the cdj, focusing on the bpm reader and less the percent of pitch +/-. I can get a really late cued track BPM adjusted just as fast on the s8 as a cdj.

right now I am using one remix deck with a custom remix deck full of useful loops , effects for builds and stab sounds to create some variation. I am just using two effect units til I get a bit more efficient but I picked 6 of my favorite effects out of the bottom group of those compound effects.

I plan on getting 3/4 effects on the go, one will be a advanced delay to use the delay freeze a bit and I want an effects chain that I can use to sculp good sounding variations out of my white noise samples and stabs.

I feel like this thread is knocking to hard on a great piece of equipment.

I know probably a half-dozen people who have brought back s4mki multiple times each so I am aware of the build issues just about directly.

 

hie there i would like to enquire why i cant play turntables using normal vinyls on phono mode and the sound very soft or nothing at all..even on timecode mode its says low signal...
how to change the setting in preference into phono mode?

 

have you tried different cable? i think at the back there is a phono/line switch...

 

already changed to phono at S8 but it still say LINE in my traktor

 

hie there i would like to enquire why i cant play turntables using normal vinyls on phono mode and the sound very soft or nothing at all..even on timecode mode its says low signal…ON MY TRAKTOR S8

how to change the setting in preference into phono mode at my Traktor S8??

tried with technic 1210 mk2 ..its phono out....even tried with BRAND NEW PIONEER Turntables.. same thing..on traktor its says check input..checked and already phono n i cant change phono/line frm traktor itself..like audio 8/10 we can open the audio control panel..not on S8

having problem for normal vinyls and timecode vinyls

 

You know maybe,... just maybe it would have been nice if the s8 wasn't so damn unrelliable on so many configurations then there would be far fewer crashes and people wouldnt be freaking out over these things. I for one Love my s8 but it keeps crashing traktor on my Dell XPS 13 but runs just fine on my macbook (old 2007) and my Desktop PC but I'm mad that I cant use it with my XPS because its newer and much lighter to gig with. Anyway ImNoDJ I'm sure it would be a different story if the shoe were on the other foot and you just spent your hard earned money on a product you couldn't use that kept malfunctioning. And the complacency of people saying "Well it's new they will get the bugs out someday" is BS! When you buy something like this "Flagship Pro Controller" you expect it to perform!!

 

Ni just either don't know how to write drivers for windows or simply just try to push their users to mac.. first most likely. . I been thinking d2 might suit windows users better as it doesn't have audio. Simply using a third party audio. . Haven't tried d2 yet with windows .. if you are windows user just don't buy s8/s5. You be wasting your money.

 

When Jared @djworx reviewed the S8 a few months back he hit issues with the S8 dropping back to the standalone mixer...

"...But when Traktor crashed the S8 acted in some unexpected ways. My track was playing on Deck A, the same deck that the CD deck was playing on. So I swapped my input, thinking that since Traktor had crashed the S8 would go into analog mixer mode or something, expecting it to compensate, but it didn’t. Instead I was getting a summed signal, both the CD and the glitching out track. When I finally crashed Traktor I had a full second of silence, and then it dropped back to the analog mixer mode and audio continued. Personally, while I understand the efficiency of using Traktor to handle the deck controls, it would make a lot more sense if you could opt to use the S8 as an external mixer with Traktor, instead of an internal mixer using Traktor’s decks, precisely to avoid issues like this."

Taken from his review (towards the bottom): http://djworx.com/review-traktor-kontrol-s8-controller/

 

Okay, so all was running perfect on Win 7 and as Win 10 is supported I took the plunge and installed.

I'm now getting stutters from the audio at random times and mostly while using the S8 encoders and faders.

There's reported buffer underruns on each occasion and on one session I managed to crash the S8/Traktor with a glitches out audio that couldn't be stopped without a power cycle from the mixer.

This is an exact echo of the DJ Worx review that said it doesn't fall back to standalone mode effectively. There's no other way but to power cycle if things get whiffy. I appreciate that the audio is handled within a virtual deck but if things go nuts there's no handover flag as the unit freezes.

I've updated USB drivers etc and just need to run the DPC checker to try and eliminate the issues. It's definitely something inside Win 10 so I'll nail it eventually but just wanted to add my input to the issues surrounding the handing over (or lack of) during a crash.

 

I'd love to propose to N.I that holding down the Traktor button for 2 seconds would "force" the S8 to disconnect from the crashed app.

Maybe build it into the firmware so that holding that button for 1 second changes the input instead of a tap? I've caught it once already and it's a bit of a pain when you switch back and the track has stopped. It's not even playing from the same point when you switch bs back!

 

JUST FINISHED READING THS THREAD, have to laugh at imnodj and damien at the beggining, standalon mixers do not crash unless there is a power cut!! so funny the stupid passive aggressive approach to defending this unit.

on the other hand, if you can just reset the unit by clicking the power button is that so hard? 5 seconds maybe.

i come here because im ready to buy a second hand 4 channel mixer djm900 or db4, turns out i can buy a new s8 for second hand pioneer money hhmmmm what to do????

 

I had the s8 and bought a DB4, it blows both the djm900 and the s8 out of the water if you compare the sound quality, the s8 is not bad but wait until you hear the db4...the effects on the db4 are also really great and less destructive as the djm900, far more usable for me and studio grade ...

 

I do think the S8 needs a long press of the "Traktor" button to disconnect the glitching software. Once Traktor crashes there's no was for the mixer to disconnect from it to run a backup source.

It it standalone... Yes, NI haven't lied here. However, it depends on a successful handover from the computer when switching after using Traktor which you don't get if the computer crashes so it's only "standalone" if certain conditions are met and that's something NI don't tell you.

The software is mixed in the computer and sent as one audio stream unlike some other mixers where it's mixed externally in the actual mixer. My A&H Xone 43c does this so when it mixes Serato it's actually inside the mixer and not just sending something that's been mixed in the software. There's advantages to both but like it when four audio streams are sent to the mixer for four decks to be mixed inside hardware.

Like the DB4, the 43c sounds great. Love A&H gear.