Traktor Integration
On the whole the 4TrackTrigger is very well mapped to Traktor 2.5. Most things do exactly what you’d expect without having to delve into the manual, for instance shift+cue point to delete a cue, but there are some odd ones (shift+pitch bend to unload a track seems bizarre, as I intuitively expected it to be coarse tuning, and pushing the main browser encoder seems a bit buggy as in the track menu it loads tracks to decks or switches tracks, or… generally doesn’t do anything useful), and there’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to the advanced features such as Remix Deck use.
That said, despite NI’s crippling of third-party devices’ integration with remix decks the 4TrackTrigger does a pretty admirable job of mapping things to its deck sections, with three of the buttons taking on general/volume/filter mode duties and the top four cues loading and then muting/un-muting the slots with the bottom ones re-triggering them. Shift and FX enables/disables FX for each of the four slots, and whilst it feels like the 4TrackTrigger will be more at home for a standard full track workflow, it can at least have a decent bash at the jigsaw like paradigm of remix decks.
You can of course remap things to your heart’s content. For some reason the default mapping for the track browse on the decks goes up the list with a clockwise motion and vice versa, but that’s a simple fix. The FX buttons are toggles, but if you want them to be momentary you can do that too. With how tightly the layout of the 4TrackTrigger is integrated with Traktor it’s really only little things like this you’ll want to mess with, though, as coming up with a new workflow completely from scratch would take a long time, and greatly detract from the value of the unit in the first place.
Overall
The big issue with the 4TrackTrigger is its price. People have been conditioned to think of controllers as ways to save money over an equivalent offering of dedicated hardware, but the 4TrackTrigger is priced in the realms of classic ‘real’ gear. Look at it for what it is, though, and the price starts to make sense. For a start, it just feels great to use, plain and simple. You could take it and a laptop to any club that has a four channel mixer and, providing you can plug your audio interface in, get going immediately. If you want a workhorse that can moonlight as a performance controller and you have the pockets for it, it’s definitely worth taking a look at the 4TrackTrigger. Would it be even cooler if it had a built-in audio interface? Yes, it would. But you can’t have everything.
Ratings
Build Quality: Really, really good. Everything feels great.
Features and Implementation: Once you get over the fact there’s no mixing section, no jog wheels, and no touch strips – essentially forcing you to pre-prepare like you really ought to anyway – and look at what the 4TrackTrigger is designed to do, you can’t help but be impressed with how good it feels doing it.
Value for Money: This one’s the elephant in the room. Is it overpriced? Perhaps, if it was being made by one of the giants of the industry, but it’s not; 4TrackTrigger is a small production run unit, but with its boutique pricing comes with it a very high quality build. Okay, it’s probably still a bit steep for what it is, but there’s nothing quite like it so what are you gonna do?
Gallery
I like this but think having all those Deck A&B buttons above C&D might get a bit tiresome. I’d swap them over.
In fact with the new remix decks encouraging a different workflow this controller might be a bit too late. If Glanzmann carry on providing a button for every control, their Remix Deck version is gonna be huge in size.
Go modular guys, let us choose a set-up that suits us and can be upgraded without a huge financial outlay.
I really love the milled aluminum on the old device but I was not in favour of the rest of the concept.. Wait the Innofaders (?) were dope too even tho they felt wrong on this piece of hardware.
Can’t see a big difference here. The concepts seems to be to simply put every single feature into a piece of hardware.
High end gear is difficult. I wish Nakamichi would still exist taking their hit on it…
LOL….u remember the
Nakamichi Dragon?? $1000 for a cassette player!!
And loved every single bit of it. Actually Nakamichi still exists!!!!
This is such an epic controller, and I’m really happy to see the 7-bar LED readouts. I think that Pfister has it right, though. If they went modular with these it would make so much more sense. Have a deck one, a remix deck one, a mixer one, and be able to mix and match. Same build, same controls, etc., but giving users the ability to really dig into their workflow and style and build both up and down.
And it really should have some touch strips. They would just fit right at home here. But, obviously space and necessity…
Their controllers look like someone puked buttons and knobs all over. This to me falls in the category of tries to do everything while doing nothing extremely well. Usually when you see a new controller they just make sense. Looking at this I have no idea what would do what.
Some Chinese company need to start making something like this at a 1/4 of the price. I wouldn’t mind buying a plastic one with a build quality similar to Native instruments gear (which really isn’t that great).
It looks more like something out the cockpit of the space shuttle than a DJ controller.