Reddit mentions of Numark Mixtrack 3 | All-In-One 2-Deck DJ Controller for Serato DJ Including an Long-Throw Pitch Faders, 5-inch High Resolution Jog Wheels and Virtual DJ LE & Prime Loops Remix Tool Kit

If you're looking to start making mixes, VirtualDJ can do the trick in teaching you the basics of live mixing on a standard format. Virtual DJ did a great job at showing me all of the basics back when I didn't have a physical board (I assume that's what you mean by mixing manually), and made it much easier to streamline into using Traktor.

That being said, a physical board is worlds better simply because you can use both of your hands and do more than one thing at once. It also better separates and visualizes the actions you do with actually mixing the music vs. selecting a song. My friend just bought this board which integrates with VirtualDJ for only $150 if you're looking for a quick start with something physical. This gets the job done, but the quality is lowered because the audio output is only available through your computer's audio interface. He just DJ'd a party on Saturday with it and the quality was notably lower. Also, I wouldn't dream of showing up to a venue with this equipment.

Depending on your long-term goals with mixing, Traktor's an interesting one. I found traktor to be my best options from a cost standpoint and honestly, personal feedback from other DJs that I was talking to who use the equipment. I love how my S4 gives me 4 decks with standard output routing, but a lot of bars/clubs/venues don't have traktor equipment with them (they mostly have pioneer equipment). During the finalists competition, I was the only one who brought my equipment because I was the only one using traktor, while other DJs brought just their computers.

VirtualDJ is free. I'd give it a shot.

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear - I'm basically looking for a digital dj controller with digital turntables, that will also allow me to plug in my actual vinyl turntables, and use as a mixer.

I do not want separate components. Looking for something like THIS, but with RCA inputs (and 4 lines, I suppose).

It depends on how invested you think you're going to be right off the bat. If you want to drop a few hundred bucks then there's a few options but if you're not sure I'll go over that too.


Firstly, figure out if this is something you kinda sorta want to do but you're not sure or if you're like "Hell yeah let's git it!". If you're not sure then download Virtual DJ or the free version of Traktor Pro 2 (these are my preferences you can also do mixxx or serato or whatever) and play around with it. There's a way that you can map your computer keyboard to these and just play around with music and see if this is something you'd like to do. Side note: I love Traktor so much more than Virtual DJ and the only limiting factor is the amount of time you can use it during the demo then you just close and re-open it to reset it every 30 minutes or hour I don't remember exactly which is way less annoying for practicing.



Once you figure it out for yourself and you know whether you want to do it or not then you need to buy a controller. To do this you can obviously come back here for advice but I'll lay out the basic advice everybody gives here anyways: Most budget controllers come with demo versions of the software so it doesn't do jack for you tbh. But you need to figure out how much you want to spend so I'll put some advice here.



Craigslist is your friend: Like I said above most controllers don't come with full software versions so if you can find the same controller you want used for cheaper go for that one (duh). If you want to buy new or you live somewhere there's not much on Craigslist here's some great options for a budding DJ.



Numark Mixtrack 3 $149 - This is a great controller, it's actually the one I started on and still have and use for when I'm going to a friend's house or something because it's lightweight but pretty sturdy. It works with Traktor and VDJ (when looking for controllers Virtual DJ LE is the demo version just so you know) and I have a few different .tsi files for it that I've personally made for that controller specifically (.tsi is the file extension for the controller mapping i.e. what tells the software what the controller is doing right now). The biggest drawback of this controller is that it doesn't have any audio outputs so you'll have to use the one from your laptop (the 3.5mm jack or if you have a USB interface for like a headset or something that works too). That's why it's so cheap but you'll need a 3.5 mm splitter and possibly an RCA to 3.5 mm jack in order to make it work with headphones and speakers (you need the headphones to listen to the song that you'll be mixing into). You'll need one of these if you have RCA input speakers and one of these so you can have headphones and speakers playing at the same time.




If you want to avoid that hassle you can buy the Numark Mixtrack PRO 3 but it's about $100 more for very nearly the exact same thing. You basically get gain knobs and audio outputs.



Another commonly suggested controller is the:



Pioneer DDJ SB2 & DDJ RB ($247)

This is a dope controller. I don't personally have one but I do have another Pioneer Controller and I've used the SB2 before (a friend of mine has it). These are very similar controllers the main difference being that the SB2 works with Serato and the RB works with Rekordbox DJ. With the SB2 you get Serato Intro and the RB you get a full rekordbox license. Serato Intro, to my knowledge, is just a toned down version of Serato but it's fully functional (not like the demos of Virtual DJ and Traktor which cut you off after a time). The whole argument of which one you should use is really up to personal preference and you should watch people use them on YouTube and stuff to get an understanding if you don't fall in love with one instantly.



This last one I'm only putting here because it's a nice controller and it comes with Traktor which is one of my favorite all time softwares (plus my friend worked at NI recently so there's a bit of nepotism here).



Traktor Kontrol S2 $399


Nice controller, lots of effects (IMO Traktor's effects are unparalleled) super solid build quality and it's got all the audio outs and everything. Not quite as budget as some of the other ones here but it's still really quite good and has a bit more in way of audio interface and can have other stuff lined into it which opens up some other creative doors.


I hope I helped to shed some light on this for you and if you have any questions, please, feel free to ask. :) Happy Spinning!