The controller has a really nice build. It has a Brushed Aluminum casing and a general rustic feel which really makes the makes the controller feel nice and rigid. The Faders feels nice and sturdy and even though I prefer bigger Rubberized EQ knobs (due to my long fingers), i think that Numark found a decent compromise with these knobs, which for some reason reminds me a bit of the Allen and Heath X-one Series EQ knobs. Maybe it’s actually the space in between the EQ knobs that reminds me of the X-One’s EQ knobs. the 4TRAK is Slighty less cramped then the X-One. And that I am happy about. The platters have a nice smooth feel to them. They run with 3600 ticks of resolution per rotation, so it does not only feel smooth rotating the platter, but it will also sound smooth within the digital world, meaning inside tractor. Lucky for me, I rarely scratch, so I can keep the platters setting off scratch – which will avoid incidents of me accidentally touching the platter when reaching for the Loop buttons up here, which I use a lot. Just something I noticed happening a couple of times during the last couple of days.
The pitch faders are nice and longhand have the feel of a technics 1210 i my opinion – if you are not too familiar with the 1210s, they are somewhat firmer then the CDJs faders.
The Mixer section features a 4 channel mixer, which works as a regular mixer while at the same time functions as a controller for the Traktor DJ software. The fact that you have a controller and a straigt up audio mixer is great for DJs who are looking for a flexible system. With this box you can easily inject 12inch vinyl and CDs into your laptop mixsets. I really find it inspiring to be able to drop 12 inches into my otherwise majority laptop sets with such an ease. really great.
On the back we have the 4 regular inputs (4 line, 2 phono and 2 mics). We have the booth out as RCA. The master out as both RCA and balanced XLR. What we don’t see inside the box, is a 24bit audio interface that runs through the one and only USB cable that needs to be connected to the computer. All sound and midi controls runs through this cable. All midi send via the controller is 14bit (what some might call high resolution midi (normal midi is 7 bit), which gives a great smooth feel and better precision when using for example the pitch fader and the platters.
The controller comes with 2 maps, that loads up in Traktor 2. Since I was already running traktor 2, I am currently not running the Traktor 2 4Trak edition, I simply loaded up the maps within the controller setups menu in the settings. Press import and find the 4Trak Main map and the 4Trak FX map, make sure that they receive data from the 4Trak unit and sends it back to the 4Trak unit.
The FX console on the top of the unit slides and locks into place nicely. It connects into the main unit with a USB, so that you don’t have to use an extra USB slot. From this panel you control the 2 first effects in traktor as well as the highpass and lowpass filters on each of the channels. The knobs match the options in the traktor software, although I had to change one thing in the map. The button under the FX MIX knob was set to allow scrolling through effects – I prefer to have this button as an ON and OFF switch of the effect itself. Maybe this has been changed in newer maps, I don’t know, but it’s really not difficult to change at all. 3 clicks in the controller mapping and it’s all done.
The file browsing works really well and lets you browse seamlessly between favorite playlists, playlists in the tree and tracks within the playlists. You load the track either to the left or right channel with these buttons. Preview by clicking down on the Rotary knob.
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