S4 Mk3 TT mode motor noise

Mariuscc

Hi all,

Yesterday just bought a Kontrol S4 Mk3 and first thing i did after installing all drivers and soft was to turn on TT mode. To my surprise when the wheels are spinning there is an very audible noise coming out of both of them. Sounds like some sort of grinding wheel or similar. Also a change in speed of the platter, well, speeds it up.

I would understand some sort of maybe hum from the motor but this feels rather "ungood".

So i have to ask is this normal? Do your S4s have some sort of noise if any at all? Any advice?

I will attach a video if needed.

Paltter noise.zip

Edit. Added a sample clip (zip because seems cannot directly attach video files)

Sûlherokhh

Mine makes noise which i consider normal. I can't judge your device without audio, so your offer to upload a video makes a lot of sense.

Mutis

Seems some mechanical friction between parts. Take a look on how the internals are so you can figure it out by yourself (meanwhile wait for NI response or other user with similar "noise")

These pics are from a youtube video, I didn't make them by myself.

Hope it helps.

Mariuscc

Thanks both. I am hoping for an official answer before i start opening the device up hehe. It's brand new though so either gets a return or goes in for service.

My main curiosity if if it's normal or not. Because if it is then i'll be thoroughly disappointed.

Mariuscc

So here's an update.

I installed Mixxx today (beta version that has some support for S4 Mk3) and guess what! The noise is not there when TT mode is on. Nothing. That got me thinking that if there was some hardware malfunction or such there would be some sounds when just spinning the platters in jog mode.

More so, the noise changes with tempo up/down. It is faster when sped up, and slower when slowed. On slow it is almost gone but not quite. Cannot slow it lower than 8% so dunno if it would stop.

Another thing i noticed is that it the sound is very similar to the ticks when haptic feedback is enabled (or when haptic hot cues are on).

In fact i think that the platter somehow vibrates when in tt mode, kind of like haptic feedback gets accidentally triggered or some such. I don't know whether this is by design or maybe a bug, but i wish i would be able to turn it off if intentional.

What are your guys' experiences.

To add (in case it's relevant) i tried different versions of controller editor (seeing online it had some issues itself). Firmware is 0.6.1 (also odd as website only has 0.6.0 as latest). Traktor version is latest 3.8 (3.9 did nothing to help, and in fact the screens were flickering). Latest drivers and Windows 11.

Cheers.

Mariuscc

Any one have any ideas? Contacted support but seeing all the posts online about NI support it might take more than a week before an answer.

Should I just return the S4 and look somewhere else? I'm feeling very disappointed to be honest.

Stevan

My unit doesn't do that but I noticed artifacts in the haptic feedback when the Jog Tension value is set to anywhere above 75%.

Care to make a video to demonstrate the issue to us?

Mariuscc

@Stevan There is a video attached to the first post. But if you want something more specific i can give it another go.

What do you mean by artifacts, could you describe it ?

I will investigate. Tension for me is about 60 although that's in job mode and turntable mode has not adjustment. And the issue is in TT mode.

Mariuscc

@Stevan Oh i think i know what you are talking about. Yes i get the same. If jog tension is high i get kind of a rattle, or shake, or sort of rapid engage/disengage of the haptic feedback. It's even audible, altho not as loud as the turntable mode. When tension is at max or high even tapping the controller sets off the haptic response, generating that fuzz or artifacts as u called them yeah.

Any one know a way to turn off haptic feedback all together? Some mod perhaps?

Mariuscc

Yeah so at this point i'm beyond disappointed. If any one is interested, i talked tho the store i bought the unit at and I will return it. Never to touch a NI device again i think.

It's been a week since i created the ticket with support. No answer. No company's support should take more than 3 days to answer, at least an automated (if from a human is asking too much) apologies but we busy with more important things or some such.

Sad.

Good luck.

Mariuscc

Could a mod please delete this thread!

The device has since been returned.

lord-carlos

Why delete it? Might still be valuable in future if someone runs into similar problems.

But if you want, you can report your own top comment. Press the 🚩Flag icon and explain the situation.

Mariuscc

May be you are right. I'll leave it for now. Maybe there might be some other soul out there that hates the gring noise coming out of moving jog wheels and reconsider buying an S4.

Thanks for the tip on the report button.

DancefloorTerrorist

I've got this issue to. What was the outcome? Is the tension too high?

Mariuscc

Neah. I think it's normal. Saw a unit in a store one day and checked for this exact thing. The noise was there. and it was regardless of tension for me at least.

I have long since returned the unit.

I may have kept it back then, but since NI support take ages to answer a basic question I gave up.

Good luck.