Whatever happened to the Traktor Kontrol S8?

If the S8 still works well with Traktor 3, stems and all the rest, that would mitigate much of the problem for me and allow me to upgrade to Traktor 3. As long as it keeps working properly, I'll be happy. When it doesn't, I won't be.

Unfortunately, as with all discontinued gear, there will come a time when it will no longer be compatible with updates. At that point, the only solution for me would be to stop upgrading Traktor and either stick permanently with the S8 and the older Traktor software, or jump ship and either go for something newer by NI, or something different altogether.

After my experience with NI and the S8, it will more likely be "something different altogether". And NOT a very expensive, premium controller. My days of spending large sums of money on expensive hardware only to have it "discontinued" a few months later are over.

Back when I bought the S8, It was NI's newest, biggest, baddest, most expensive controller. I'd been doing mobile gigs for many months with a laptop, Traktor 2 and an Audio 10 soundcard (small, light, easy to carry and can squeeze into the smallest of spaces), but I was persuaded by NI's hype to get myself a "proper controller". So I went for the S8. The fact that it didn't have jogwheels was a major plus for me. I'd been DJaying since the late-70s and wanted to embrace fully the digital DJ paradigm. For me, that meant totally getting away from turntables, CDJ players, jogwheels, the lot.

And I loved the S8 (still do), despite a few little niggles. It cost me almost a thousand British pounds, which was quite a lot of money for me at the time (getting older, DJ career winding down a bit, not as many gigs, etc). But I was very satisfied with the hardware. What I'm not happy with is the ****** way NI treated the S8 and the people who had shelled out a big chunk of cash for it.

The thing that really pisses me off is that the S8 had a really short time on the market. It should've been NI's flagship No.1 controller for years before it was "discontinued", but it wasn't. "Traktor S8 is a discontinued product like all products are eventually"? But it WASN'T "eventually" or "years later". This was their NEWEST, most expensive premium controller. And they dumped it so quickly and uncerimoniously. They KNEW that they were going to dump it, but they kept quiet about that as they wanted to shift remaining stocks of the S8 and they continued raking in the cash from the mugs (like me) that they'd conned into buying it.

It seems that no sooner was the S8 on the market than NI did a double take, decided that they'd made a huge mistake releasing a controller without jogwheels, and decided to rectify that. A relatively short time later, they released the all-singing, all-dancing S4 Mk3, with jogwheels (of course) and its "haptic this" and "haptic that", and the S8 was quickly and quietly "disappeared" and swept under the carpet, while even older gear like the S2 and S4 Mk2 still received some support. That was not cool, not cool at all. And it REALLY pissed me off. I'd been with NI since I first became interested in digital DJaying, but this REALLY sullied their reputation in my eyes.

I love the S8 for what it is, but if I'd known what NI were going to do, I definitely would NOT have spent almost £1000 on it. I would've waited for the S4 Mk3. But because of the way NI handled the S8 episode, I now steadfastly, on principle, refuse to shell out for the S4 Mk3. They won't get another penny out of me for hardware (maybe Traktor 3), and I reckon there are lots of other people out there who feel likewise after being stung the same way.

Someone else in this discussion made the comment about how Numark actively push and support all their older controllers, even "15 years" after their release. I admire and respect that. It shows a great level of respect for and loyalty to their customers. Maybe a cheap or mid-range Numark controller should be my next hardware? NI should take a few notes from the Numark playbook and show some respect for their older gear and their customers who pay up for it.

The whole episode with the S8 left a terrible taste in my mouth and has left me highly reluctant to spend large sums of money on NI hardware in the future.

So was the flagship soundcard, the Audio 10. Sometimes I just scratch my head and wonder what in the name of the seven galaxies Native Instruments are doing.