Reddit mentions of Korg nanoKONTROL USB Controller, Black

I will give you some very ballpark figures based on set-up:

• CDJs and Mixer w/ case: ~$1000-3000
  
• Turntables and mixer w/ case and Serato: ~$1000-1500
  
• Midi controller and Ableton: ~$600
  
• Midi controller and traktor: ~$500
  
• Midi controller and DJay: ~$100
  
  Now, keep in mind these really are very ballpark figures as pricing will be highly dependent on where you buy stuff and what model you buy exactly. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for with regards to the hardware, so dropping $200 on a bottom of the line CDJ from numark or something will give you a bottom of the line CDJ that will probably be a piece of shit. Dropping $1100 on a brand new CDJ900 will get you a professional grade piece of equipment.
  
  Also, these prices take into account you actually buying Ableton or Traktor instead of pirating them. Additionally, if you go the Ableton or Traktor route you will need to get an external soundcard which can run you anywhere from $80 to $250 (I tried to include that in my ballpark estimates).
  
  My advice is, if you wanna try it out and get your feet wet, get a cheap midi controller like the korg nanokontrol, a cheap soundcard interface like this one, and download djay.
  
  This is by far the cheapest option as the whole setup will run you about $130, and you'll be able to DJ any party. Best of all, the way djay works you will actually learn to beatmatch by ear rather than relying on a computer to do all the beatmatching for you, which in my opinion is a great skill to learn when first starting DJing. From there if you want to expand your functionality you could upgrade from djay to Traktor and keep your same midi controller and soundcard and you'd still be good to go.
  
  Hope that helps, and good luck, DJing is a blast!

a gift certificate for business cards?

a low-cost midi controller like the Korg NanoKontrol or NanoPad?
http://www.amazon.com/Korg-nanoKONTROL-USB-Controller-Black/dp/B001J8LJWK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324948510&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Korg-nanoPAD-Drum-Controller-Black/dp/B001J8EZ4Y/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1324948510&sr=8-5


a sweet LED light set? (i often set these up on my table when i DJ and change colors as the music changes)
http://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Changing-LED-Lighting-Strip/dp/B0054U46Y2/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&qid=1324949479&sr=8-41

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50192365/

it's hard to stay under $30, but it's not difficult to get close.

well to be honest $150 will get you pretty far in just about everything but build quality.

but 90% of making the most of any controller is the mapping. i own a bunch of controllers ranging from the nanokontrol to the apc40 and it's all what you do with it. 90% of the fun and creativity that midi controllers give me is because of how i've mapped errythang.

so unless something is tailor-made to work with your daw (none that I know of for cubase or FL) nothing is going to be useful out of the box. there definitely will not be a fuckin ballin awesome controller that is a master of any trades. it's entirely up to you to make it useful.

my last recommendation of the night will be the previously mentioned nanokontrol

yeah the RMX is tits mcgee. It has the best soundcard of any of the intro-level devices (which is one of the most important things in midi controllerism, since everything else can just be reprogrammed and extended with more buttons) at that price, plus it has a ton of buttons and the build quality is pretty solid.

I have a few friends with those mixtracks and honestly after less than a year they're beat to shit. I wouldn't recommend one.

The cool thing about digital is that since you can remap anything, you can just extend your setup with more. little. toys.

I'm rocking an RMX with the LPD8 for maximum effects usage. I also have an akai APC20 but I haven't mapped that for my VDJ/traktor yet...and I'm not an ableton guy.

My only complaint would be that if you want better control over your tracks you might want touch sensitive platters but tbh I never see myself wanting that with this kind of setup...and by the time I get into it I'll be upgrading anyway (probably Denon SC2000, or S3700...or maybe a VS7.)