4DJ

Everything where you expect it.

Two or four decks, the mixer in the middle, two FX units on top and the browser below: on first start the assistant asks only for the sound card, your music folders and how many decks. Colour waveforms with zoom, and a phase meter on each deck that turns green when the beats are in time.

• Play, CDJ-style CUE, 8 hotcues, loops from 1/2 to 32 beats, beatjump, Slip and reverse
• Key lock, a KEY knob for ±12 semitones, Beat Sync or Tempo Sync
• Scratch and nudge by dragging the waveform

Stems made on your computer.

StemX splits any track into drums, bass, other and vocals without sending anything online. You prepare them from the browser, once per track, and while a deck plays the work waits, so your set never slows down. On the deck each stem has a volume, a mute, a filter and its own FX switch.

• ACAP keeps only the vocals, INST removes them
• On a low-power PC a track takes a few minutes: prepare them before the gig

In-key transitions, by day and by night.

SMART SYNC makes the next crossfade harmonic and in tempo: keys and tempos glide together and the new track ends up in its own key. SMART in the browser sorts tracks by how well they mix with the one playing. Two looks, Night in black and gold for dark booths and a light Day for outdoor sets.

• Keys in Camelot, Open Key or musical notation, coloured by how well they mix
• Import a .nml collection with BPM, keys, beatgrids, hotcues and playlists
• Your audio files are never modified

Effects, microphone and recording.

Two FX units with 19 effects (delays, reverbs, flanger, phaser, gater, beatmasher and more), a club-style three-band EQ and filter, a Maximizer on the master. The Audio Recorder records your mix to 24-bit WAV, the Loop Recorder captures 4 to 32 beats and overdubs them.

• Microphone with talkover and an Aux input
• Master or headphones also on a second audio device, such as a Bluetooth speaker
• MIDI clock out and in

Plug in your controller and play.

The Kontrol S2 MK3 works natively, sound card included, on Linux too and with about 7 ms of latency on Windows. The most common Pioneer DJ controllers (DDJ-FLX4, DDJ-400, DDJ-FLX6, DDJ-1000 and more) are ready as soon as they are plugged in. For any other one a guided setup shows you the control to touch: nothing to type.

• Kontrol S2 MK1, S2 MK2, S3, S4 MK2 and S4 MK3 in Beta, with a two-minute check
• Import .tsi mappings made in another DJ app
• RemoteDeck: a tablet or phone on your network becomes a second touch screen

Turntables, CDJs and timecode.

With Live Input decks a turntable or a CDJ goes through a deck's EQ, filter, FX and fader. With timecode, control vinyl or CDs (2 kHz or 1 kHz carrier) move the track in relative mode. Each deck can play its track, a timecode record or its input.

In your language, and well explained.

English, Italian, French, German and Spanish, with the words DJs use (PLAY, CUE, SYNC, LOOP, FX) the same everywhere. The ? at the top right explains every function, with search. A broken file never stops your set: the deck flashes red and the music goes on. On laptops the top bar shows the battery.

• Export and import every setting, for a backup or another computer
• Updates checked at start, installed only when you decide
• Android coming: phone and tablet layouts, with the Kontrol S2 MK3 over USB