The new controller has been designed to work with Remix Decks, a new feature within the also announced Traktor 2.5 update.
Native Instruments' Traktor Kontrol F1 will be released this coming May.
Traktor Kontrol F1 has been designed to handle Remix Decks, a completely new feature for Traktor 2.5. It's being described as a "loop suite" with 64 slots which can store and launch one-shot samples, loops and tracks. Users will be able to control up to four Remix Decks at a time. The unit itself comprises 16 touch-sensitive LED pads, a global control section, dedicated four filter knobs and four volume faders. As you can likely tell from the above image, the pads are multi-coloured, giving visual feedback as to their current status. The slightly smaller, bottom row of pads are used for controlling groups of samples, while global controls oversee things like quantization, syncing, sample size and reverse. You'll also be able to flip a regular deck in Traktor 2.5 (the F1 will come bundled with the software) into a Remix Deck, meaning transport, sync and master tempo controls, plus timecode control with vinyl or CDs.
See the below video for a frenetic introduction to the Kontrol F1.
Native Instruments will release Traktor Kontrol F1 on May 30th, 2012 at a suggested retail price of $279/249 Euro. Traktor version 2.5 will also be made available on May 30th.