As of today, Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4 has got a price drop. In the UK and Europe, the price if now £499/€599 respectively, but I don’t know about elsewhere, but I imagine it’s a global clear-the-shelves thing. But why?
I shouldn’t need to spell it out by now but here goes. NI has a well established pattern — drop the price of something to herald the introduction of something else. In the case of the S4, it’s getting quite long in the tooth, and very much due for an update. And given their current consumer level dalliance via the lovely iOS based Traktor DJ, it’s quite logical that NI would want to throw themselves headlong into that particular pot of gold.
I don’t know if a new Kontrol S4 mk2 could have more going for it beyond making it iOS friendly, so potentially the current S4 is still just as good with Traktor as it ever was, making this a steal for anyone teetering on the edge of purchasing. Ideally though, an update would do everything the current S4 does, including fully integrating with Traktor Scratch Pro, but better and with full Traktor DJ plug and play. It could however be NI’s take on Numark’s iDJ Pro, rather than tipping its cap towards simply plugging in an iPad via a cable. I’m sure NI’s game plan will be clear soon enough.
So if you hankered for 4 channels of NI controller goodness, now is a really great time to get a bargain.