---

Time was when hunting down nextlevelness needed a passport and a shedload of cash. But now it feels like it's looking for me, as my treks for shiny pretty seems to be little more than getting out of bed. This week, I drove just 11 miles away from my rural fortress to watch northern dealers get bamboozled with the vast and immensely great Native Instruments product range courtesy of 2Twenty2. I was however there just to grope the new Traktor Kontrol X1, but did get a taste of the rest of the range too.

Finding a place at the back of the room, I was immediately given an X1 to fiddle with while the gathered masses assimilated huge amounts of knowledge about Guitar Rig, Kore and "The Finger". Having already played with Machine and the Audio2 DJ interface, it was clear that NI have a design template firmly in mind - very high quality materials, sharp lines and made to fit perfectly into an NI heavy setup. It even has a rear recess so that it can be sat on top of a turntable platter.

The rotary controls felt silky smooth with no pot wobble whatsoever. They had a gentle but precise click, and while the rubber buttons did have a little side to side movement, the click was spot on. Actually, do I really need to carry on? The quality of NI's hardware is second to none. Take it as read that the quality is as good as it gets in the DJ scene, even in this pre-production unit.

The Kontrol X1 has been designed to plug and play with Traktor. Plug it in, and after the mesmerising light show, it's ready to go. No config, no mapping - it just works. You can however switch on the fly into regular MIDI mode and map away as you see fit. So while the X1 is preset to particular controls, you do have this whole second layer of vanilla MIDI to play with, and swapping between them is a simple 2 button key press. In MIDI mode however, you don't get the visual feedback on the buttons.

On a related note, the buttons are always on, albeit very dimly so you can see what the control does. You can also configure the dimness in the supplied controller config app - the same one that comes with all NI hardware. It was pointed out that like Maschine before it, the ink screening on the face is perhaps a little too grey and not easily read in dim conditions. Hopefully this will be changed before release.

It seems that you can attach any number of Kontrol X1s to your computer. If you want native control of decks 3 and 4, you could switch to MIDI mode and replicate the controls, but the Kontrol X1 is designed so that for best functionality, buying a pair of X1s is the best bet. But you could for example add a 3rd Kontrol X1 and operate that entirely in MIDI mode.

On the subject of MIDI mode, it appears that the X1 will ship with a Scratch Live overlay, but at this time there are no plans to make blanks overlays available. Instead, NI will probably make the template available for you to print your own. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for a 3rd party to step in and provide blanks (yeah - I'm looking at you Mike).

It's fair to say that there was a distinct implication of more units like this to come. Aside from the nods and winks, the giveway is the nomenclature - X1 gives way to X2, X3 etc. And the Kontrol X1 was described as being "for the most popular controls". If you need a clue, just check out the Traktor screen is broken up into sections.

I came away with the following conclusions:

• The Kontrol X1 is a lot more versatile that I first thought. There's hidden power, if you're happy to dig for it.
• Having touched the case, and looking at similar products, it's competitively price and is specific as a stand and case. So shut up moaning.
• There's a truckload of NI goodness that I have yet to learn about. Just skimming over Kore set my mind reeling. Can this be shoehorned into a TSP workflow and offer effects that an EFX can only dream of?

So there you have it - a taste of nextlevelness yet to come. Hopefully, NI will address the 2nd function screen printing to be brighter, but other than that, the Traktor Kontrol X1 is a highly worthy addition to any Traktor user's setup, and a clear signpost for the roadmap of Traktor.