Which is the right controller?

Question

Hello Native Instruments friends. I have a fairly old MacBook with Catalina and Traktor Pro 3. It works perfectly for DJing with vinyl, but I wanted to get a controller.

I recently bought a used one, the S2 MK2, and I had problems with it. The buttons worked perfectly, but it couldn't produce any sound through either the speakers or the headphones. I installed Traktor Pro 3 on another, newer Mac with Sequoia and connected the S2 MK2... it didn't work there either. I even tried it with Virtual DJ on Windows 11! And it didn't work... This has made me wonder if the S2 MK2 isn't the right one for my hardware and software setup. I know the S2 MK1 won't work, but I thought the S2 MK2 would.

It's also possible that the controller had some internal problem because it wasn't normal for it not to work in any of the ways I've described...

I'd like to know, considering my hardware (somewhat outdated now but more than enough for my DJing style), which controller will definitely work for me: the S2 MK3? Any S4? The S3? Thanks a lot.

DjTower83 · Answer

Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes, I've changed the USB cable and the MacBook's port, but it's still not working.

The strange thing is that I can't configure the S2 sound card from the Mac's MIDI settings. Also, the Mac's Sound menu says something like "the device has no output controls," making it impossible to get any sound out of this controller.

That, along with the various tests I've done, makes me suspect there's some kind of internal error. I wanted to buy another S2 MK2, but I wanted to be absolutely sure it's 100% compatible with my computer and software.

Thanks a lot.

maniacintosh81 · Answer

S2 Mk2, S2 Mk3, S3, S4 Mk2 and S4 Mk3 should all work with macOS 10.15 and Traktor Pro 3.8.0+46. (Latest version with support for Catalina.)

As your S2 Mk2 doesn't work on any computer I assume that your device has an issue itself. Have you tried different USB cables?