Well, it wouldn’t work for me. I’d go nuts with a controller that didn’t have on/off for the mic. And the volume control on the front of the unit would also not work well for me. To top it off, the mic jack goes in the front, so bar using a 90 degree plug (not the most common), this will stick out (and probably end up poking your everytime you stand a bit close to the controller.
The terminal mix 8 is a great controller, my colleague Terry is super enthousiastic about it, but personally I would never buy it.
I think Denon made a good choice by not including (smaller) performance pads in an already somewhat crowded unit. The Reloop Neon option (for example) will give far more features than on-board pads would and you can easily stick that somewhere on a stand over your MC6000 for example.
I personally have very little interest in performance pads, the few samples I use I can trigger well enough with the available buttons on the Denon.
As with all DJ gear, this choice is HIGHLY personal. There is not best, not even a better. What works well for you, might not work for me and vice versa.
All I can share is my personal experience (had a mk1) and the reason I will, most likely, get a mk2 within too long (even having a DDJ-SX).
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