£300 – What would you do if you were me?

I would say a MidiFighter is for serious controllerism – you may want to see whether this fits you by trying out cue point juggling, samples, etc. Controllerism always looks impressive for 10 minutes or so but then I think “just play a good tune!”

A similar point for the F1 really. I think to use one of those you have to be really dedicated to manipulating lots of samples on the fly. Both the Midifighter and F1 move you from plain DJing to more of a performance – this is good but the learning and preparation curves are steep.

I would get a better sound system – one that has a really good sound so you can appreciate the music better.

You could still throw in a much cheaper MIDI controller like an Akai LPD8 – they’re only £60. That would allow you to experiment without committing all of your funds.

If you’re just starting to play out I wouldn’t invest in any extra controllers or effects units yet, I thought I’d be using all my loops and effects when I first started playing out but have done 5-6 gigs now and still haven’t tried anything more complex than just straight mixing. Feels a lot more intimidating when there’s a crowd.

I see your thinking about traktor, are you sure the devices you’re talking about come with pro? I’m not saying they don’t I have no idea but worth double checking.

Fuck the bar owner who says it’s a cheap beginner one, yes it is an entry level controller but I’ve got a friend who plays out at big clubs regularly and had a decent slot at glade festival who uses one so whether it is entry level is irrelevant. If you’re only getting an s2 to feel and look more professional then get the f1 instead. How your kit looks is not important.

Tough choice then! I would definitely do option 1 or 2 though. I think if you’ve only got 300 to spend unless your sound equipment is totally totally awful it shouldn’t be your top priority

I see that you don’t own traktor pro 2, it’s a pity as i highly recommend the reloop terminal mix 4, i upgraded from a mixtrack and audio 2 dj to the reloop TM4 and it was an upgrade that was well worth it. I’ve bought every version of traktor so when a new version comes out i get a discount on the new version so when i go to upgrade a controller i don’t need the new controller to come bundled with a full version of traktor.

Glad to find out in that last post you got the F1, because that would’ve been my advice: X1 or F1, if you don’t like the hardware sell it and keep the TP2 license.

Would nice to hear back from you in regards to the F1: Will you keep it, will you manage to incorporate it in your sets etc? I was so excited for it and then after trying it out for a couple of days was like “meh, whatever…”