Traktor kontrol s4 randomly stops outputting audio - temp resolved by power off/on

djVinny
djVinny Member Posts: 3 Member
in Traktor Software & Hardware

This is a strange one - i can't find any reports of something similar, but please direct me if it's a known issue.

the problem is only related to output audio where the output suddently stops yet the decks continue to play and I all lights continue to function showing live input and supposedly output audio.

Even the headphones go silent when it happens and I can't monitor anything even though I can see something is playing.

Initially I suspected it could be a thermal switch overheating, but the problem immediatly goes away if I power the s4 off and on again. A thermal switch takes time to cool down so I would expect to wait for a while before it would work again, but it returns to fullfunctionality instantly.

Other than not hearing the main output it doesn't affect the playing decks or recording - when i listen back there are no breaks in what's been recorded, it's just the live output that's affected.

When i power off the s4 audio output transfers to the mac speakers and when I power it back on it happily takes ownership from the mac and i hear audio from the main output again.

It's happening more and more frequently so lookds like it's toast??

i'm running the latest traktor pro 4 software on a mac running Montery 12.6, but i only recently upgraded and it was previoulsy happening with traktor pro 3

i checked the s4 has the latest 0.6.0 firmware

anyone had a similar problem? know of a solution?

Cheers,
Vince.

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Answers

  • D2Lover
    D2Lover Member Posts: 59 Advisor

    I had a simiar experience on Saturday night while playing out and once before about 6 weeks ago. I'll post a more detail account later this evening when i return home.

  • djVinny
    djVinny Member Posts: 3 Member

    Just an update - i've since tried updating MAC OS to 14.7 but still have the problem

    I should clarify I was wrong about the recorded audio being unaffected - there are in fact short audible blips when the audio switches from s4 to mac and back again.

    Interstingly I was running Audacity and using traktor for output audio when it happened again however Audacity did flag an error, allbeit unkown - strange that traktor software doesn't seem to notice!

    Note that although I also had traktor pro 4 open, it was not playing any tracks

    the error log includes a generic message - not sure if this can help to narrow down possibible causes (e.g. hardware or software)

        "exception": {

            "values": [

                {

                    "type": "Error",

                    "value": "Error opening sound device.\nTry changing the audio host, playback device and the project sample rate.",

                    "mechanism": {

                        "type": "runtime_error",

                        "handled": false

                    }

                }

  • Harald Walker
    Harald Walker Member Posts: 42 Member

    Could it be the usb port on the S4? The way how it is built is not exactly sturdy. There are some repair videos on YT, although I failed and don’t seem to have the right equipment.

  • Martiniix_NI
    Martiniix_NI Customer Care Posts: 531 mod

    Any Update? @djVinny

  • djgraffs
    djgraffs Member Posts: 3 Newcomer

    Same problem here. 2 nights in a row, after about 4-5 hours of programming, the sound suddenly stops. only the master, the rest still works, including in the software, the songs don't stop. I restarted the console and it recovered immediately, but it already becomes annoying in the middle of the program to stop the sound. it is very disturbing!!! I don't understand where the problem is. all updates up to date, I didn't have this problem until this weekend. Does anyone at Traktor see these problems? we give some money for their products and the support leaves much to be desired.

  • djgraffs
    djgraffs Member Posts: 3 Newcomer

    You resolve this problemDid you guys find a solution to the problem?

  • zephry
    zephry Member Posts: 706 Guru

    A few times I have had S4MK3 freeze up. I had forgotten to unplug my other soundcard I use for Ableton and games.

    In the past with other software versions I had freezes happen when "trying to learn some simple scratching" lol. After hours of messing around and loops left on hitting a ****** load of cues and constantly trying effects I sometimes would freeze up how you describe. But I may also have changed a few settings and latency and testing different things.

    This might not be your issue. But are there any other soundcards hooked up besides the s4?

    How are you recording? Is it through the same laptop with Traktor itself? Or by looping back in? Etc. I only record to other laptops after issues with artifacts in my recording back into the same laptop via audacity.

    Another thing I do is make sure my controller and laptop are on separate power sources. Honestly I don't know if it helps. But I read a tip years ago and power the controller with lower energy devices.

    If you are using any other major applications besides Traktor. It is recommended to turn multicore processing of in Traktor.

    But it could be USB port, USB connection on the controller. A bad driver somewhere else on the computer… etc.

  • djVinny
    djVinny Member Posts: 3 Member

    my system continued to get worse until eventually it would not play anything and kept freezing right after launching.

    I completley reset my mac with a clean OS install and since then it all seems to be working again.

  • Blaze Street Music
    Blaze Street Music Member Posts: 1 Newcomer

    Aloha,

    I've been using my S4 exclusively for many years and during 2024 this started happening. Just last week it happened twice during one set and it's never happened like that before? Do you guys think this is a hardware or software issue? I really really love djing with Traktor but how can I go out to dj live and not be afraid that this is going to happen?

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