- It's been five years since the Kontrol S4, NI's first dedicated, pre-mapped, purpose-built Traktor controller. And although the software's GUI has remained fairly intact, its potential and principles have changed radically. Traktor Pro 2's initial two-to-four decks-and-a-mixer architecture evolved with the launch of Remix Decks and their hardware counterpart Kontrol F1. Capable of loading up to 16 loops, one-shots, samples or full tracks in a single deck, Traktor became an increasingly individual, performance-led software. The new Stems format—a multichannel audio file capable of splitting four elements of a track, allowing for individual manipulation within a single Traktor deck—is another shift in the program's MO. As with Remix Decks, Stems have arrived with their own hardware associate: the Kontrol D2.
The D2 is significantly larger than any of the other standalone Kontrol devices, boasting a 37-by-19 cm footprint, 6 cm height (with the built-in legs retracted) and 1.5 kg weight. While it feels like it’ll survive in the booth, it does have a plastic feel similar to the Kontrol S range. Eight knobs and buttons surround a full-colour display, and volume, performance and transport sections make up the rest of the unit. Give or take a few buttons, it's identical to a single deck section of the Kontrol S8 that came out earlier this year.
Around the back of the unit, you'll find a few clever additions. A two-port USB hub makes it easy to add extra devices, though NI recommend chaining controllers and not audio interfaces. I ran a Kontrol S2 and a Kontrol F1 through the hub with a separate interface for audio without any problems, giving me three controllers on one USB cable. NI have also included a double-headed power supply, meaning you can power two D2s with one plug.
When reviewing a controller, I like to spend my first hour away from the manual to see how intuitive it might be—an important trait for live use. The Kontrol range historically excels in this area, and the D2 is no different, thanks largely to the built-in display. In fact, I turned my laptop screen off and never felt the need to check my computer. (To be clear, I was testing two D2s.) The experience was preferable to squinting at a busy laptop GUI from a distance, and I wondered if the D2 could be the beginning of the end for floating Apple logos and lit-up faces in the booth. More than that, though, the screen's GUI is well-designed and feels like a separate piece of software in its own right, as it responds quickly without lag. Once you've used the screens on either the D2 or S8, it's almost impossible to go back.
Above the display are four knobs and buttons for effects, and below are four for Stem and Remix Deck filter/FX control. With this control, you could, for example, choose to send only a track's vocals, effects and synths to the global effects and keep the drums dry by reducing the effects send amount. It's a clever signal path and offers a lot of flexibility with minimal control— another bonus for live use. The only problem is that if you load a non-Stem or Remix Deck file, these buttons and knobs are rendered useless. And as you can't manually re-map the D2, you'll never be able to use them if you're not interested in Stems or Remix Decks.
Having said that, controlling Stems and Remix Decks is the main purpose of the D2. Supplied with a selection of Stems, I opened a few in Traktor only to find they cannot be loaded on the fly. Stems must be analysed in advance, and analysis takes quite a while, seemingly more than the four times longer you'd expect given the MP4's contents. Once Stems are in, only the D2 displays all four waveforms; Traktor's display just shows a single waveform. This means that unless you own a D2 or an S8, you won't be able to visualise individual stems. A rep from NI told me this is because Stems was essentially coded on top of Traktor, and the base software would have to be re-written to accommodate the change. No timeframe has been given for when that might happen. However, it's possible to MIDI-map Stem volume and effect slots manually in the Controller Manager. I did this with the F1's faders and it worked as expected. So you don't need a D2 or S8 to use Stems, but you won't be able to visualise the individual waveforms without them.
For D2 owners, though, the screen more than adequately displays each element in full colour. Touching the effects and Stem slot knobs instantly brings up their parameters on screen, similar to how things work with Maschine Studio and the S8. This touch-activated functionality can also be applied to the Browse knob so that you instantly see your track collection. But this doubles-up as various other parameter controls such as BPM are adjusted by it, so it can get confusing figuring out what's active where. Speaking of browsing, I can't stress enough how much more enjoyable it is to find tracks on the dedicated D2 screen than on the laptop. One downside is that the D2 column layout is set—you can sort by track, artist, BPM, etc., but you can't re-arrange the order in which each metric is displayed.
The D2's performance section is where it really comes to life. Just like on the S8, four modes—Hot Cue, Loop, Freeze and Remix—change what the eight pads control. Hot Cue is self-explanatory, and Loop allows up to four pre-determined loop lengths to be activated. Annoyingly, these will overwrite your global loop setting, so if you're feeling creative and jam out some Flux-mode stutter loops, you have to remember to reset the loop length before activating a new loop with the dedicated rotary.
When the D2 is controlling a Remix Deck, the screen transforms, showing eight slots with four miniature waveforms. The display manages to cram a lot of information onto the screen without feeling too busy. As an Ableton Live user who triggers loops with a Launchpad, I found that the D2 screen made the experience much more engaging. While previously having two Track Decks and two Remix Decks onscreen was a lot to take in from a distance, now you can comfortably halve them, leaving the D2 screen to take care of Remix Decks while Traktor's GUI remains in a two-deck setup. I could see this increasing the use of Remix Decks, which has had a slow initial adoption.
With no audio interface, single-deck control and an eventual price of $499 after a $399 introductory cost, D2 isn't a casual purchase. At nearly $800 for two units, it creeps too close to the S8—which features multiple audio I/O—to really make sense. Assuming it's made as a single-deck modular addition for anyone flirting with the idea of Stems and looking for the ultimate Remix Decks controller, NI have done a fantastic job with the D2. Even if you're not sure about Stems or Remix Decks and use Traktor more in HID or with timecode, the D2 is worth a test-run.
Ratings:
Build: 3.7
Cost: 3.7
Versatility: 3.7
Ease of use: 3.9