Numark 4 Trak 4-Channel Traktor Controller

I have owned this controller for a year. Originally was excited to have it...but after first gig the mic section stopped working. Don't know why but it just stopped. Had to use external mixer to run mics. Then about 6 weeks ago....started getting this strange metallic like ringing during a set. Believe it is a issue with the 4trak sound card. Connected a external sound card and ..........PERFECT PLAY BACK!!! The sound comes a goes with internal sound card...It isn't always present. Since I am a VERY busy wedding Dj haven't had the opportunity to send it in for repair. Currently debating on purchasing the Pioneer DDJ-SX2 since they have a Traktor mapping for it. For the money I have to give this controller one star because it just isn't reliable. Has a solid build (visually) but has failed in to many areas. Having owned other Numark products in the past...some good ...some HORRIBLE...this falls some where in the middle...but leaning toward horrible.

I've owned this controller since August 2013? Yea, about that time-ish, and so far, I've had a few minor issues that came up expected as this controller ages.One of my upfaders is finnicky and will occasionally "dance" down or mute, even when the controller is all the way up. I tried using contact cleaner to fix it to no improvement. May need to replace the upfader myself (about $20), though a bit of a ghetto fix I've rigged is to glue a card aligned against the fader's post as keeping constant pressure to the left on the fader's post seems to solve the issue (for now).One of my channel's hi knobs initializes to 100% to the right when it should initialize to the middle. I need to turn it all the way to the right, then the left, then back to the middle before I mix.The 1/4th jack on the front is unreliable. Not an issue since I usually plug into the 1/8th anyway.Overall, yes I've had some issues but given I've owned this controller for 2.5 years and the minorness of these issues, its still pretty good. Controller's a bit out of date now, you may want an auxillary controller (like a MIDIFighter) to control some extra stuff and maybe do cue drumming or whatever, but if you can find this controller for about $400ish or under, its still a great mid-tier controller, above entry level but maybe not quite where the DDJ-SX or Kontrol S8 or a CDJ setup are in the world. Would still recommend in 2016 if you're willing to pair it up with extra controllers if you want more buttons for cue points or stuff.EDIT: Review previously complained about Numark's lack of Windows 8 support. I'll leave my original review below for historical reasons, but as of now (Feb 2016), this controller has had Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 support.There's not much I can add in terms of praise for this controller since a lot of the previous reviews have covered the great points! This is a fantastic controller, and the price I got this at several months ago, $420, was absolutely a steal!There is one glaring issue however. The controller is not compatible with windows 8 as Numark has not yet made drivers for it, and previous drivers seem to have a fatal flaw. On both my laptop and my gaming rig, my 4Trak will become unresponsive to input after 5 to 30 minutes of use. The outputs including the lights and the music, however, will continue playing, so if you are unfortunately caught with an unresponsive controller mid-set, you can still somewhat save the show by controlling Traktor with your keyboard and mouse and do some basic mixing. I was on customer service with Numark (very friendly service by the way!) and they concluded it was due to incompatibilities with Windows 8. This was in September 2013 when I called. Its now February 2014 and Numark still has yet to release new drivers.In summary, hardware is fantastic. This will work perfectly as long as you're not using Windows 8 or 8.1.

Layout - This controller has a great layout for Traktor - really, truly FANTASTIC, the best out there IMO, and is the reason I purchased it originally. You can control everything from a touch of a button or two, the addition of the FX bar means you can control both FX units within plus the gain and filter for each channel. No other controller I've seen has the capability that this one does for control over all the features that Traktor has to offer.Build Quality - The hardware is super solid. The jog wheels are nice and big and float with a nice resistance once you start to push them around. The faders felt amazing, with just the right amount of resistance (plus you could adjust the range with the range button! MIND=BLOWN) The one miss on the originally designed hardware for me was buttons were a little stiff and outdated for my taste. In addition, the USB cord running from the main board to the FX unit (it runs from the FX unit out to the computer) was faulty and I had to substitute a spare USB cable, taking both two ports on my Macbook.THE BIG PROBLEM - For me, running a Macbook with OSX 10.6.8 with Traktor Pro 2, I could never get a driver to work reliably. At first, after installing the driver that came on the CD, this ringing digital distortion would intermittently begin and wouldn't stop until you reset the controller, very odd. Along with that came the infamous (to 4trak users) light-freezing problem, which was frustrating and also required restarting the controller. Updating the driver *seemed* to fix the distortion problem (though I never used it for another 6 hour set), but it never fixed the problem with the lights. Both things happened while I was playing it out a gig, I was just glad the DJ booth was well above the crowd so they didn't see the panic that ensued the first time it went out.In conclusion, I returned the unit, because of the problems above and probably won't get another. I really, really wanted it to be a great controller, it is aesthetically appealing and well laid out, like I said, but wasn't reliable like pro-quality DJ equipment needs to be.