Help deciding first controller

A VU meter helps you to determine the sound level. That could be to even the volume on tracks so the transition is smoother or to help you find out if your volume is too loud. If it’s too loud you’ll be hitting a limiter, which distorts the sound, not something you want to happen.

The controllers you list are fine for a beginner with the exception of the Terminal Mix 4. That one is too far off from the others in terms of price I’d say.
Have a look at the Reloop Beatmix 4 instead. You said you wanted the full Serato DJ, this controller temporarily includes the full software. But be wary, the offer may not last much longer. I’ve also seen deals on the SB with a full Serato upgrade, that would be worth a look as well.

My first controller was the Mixtrack Pro 2. Note that only the bottom row of drumpads are switchable, the top row is for the effects. The volume of the soundcard is a little on the low side as well. Not sure how it compares to the others though. Nevertheless, I’ve had a lot of fun with it and still have it as a backup or for parties where there might be people I don’t trust that much (ie all birtday parties). It’s also a great controller for scratching considering any price. Steve Canueto has named it one of his favorite controllers to scratch on.

I have no experience with the Denon, but one of the moderators on this forum has a Denon fetish and he’ll be able to tell you all you need to know.

I didn’t buy the Numark just for the scratching either, but it’s nice to have. I bought it instead of the Pioneer because the pads had a better functionality (on the SB you actually have 4 per deck, the bottom is just for show as they house the transport controls) and there were actual fx knobs on the Numark. I was also going to use them with Traktor, so the possible layout was more important than the actual one. I had no idea how dearly I would miss having filter knobs, but that was all corrected when I upgraded.

The MC2000 is compatible with Serato: http://serato.com/dj/hardware/mixers.interfaces.controllers
The beatmix misses some things that may become an annoyance. For instance, I don’t see any keylock buttons (what’s up with that?). There are also no buttons under the fx knobs. You can still use them to turn on effects, but you can’t immediately switch on an effect to a certain level. Limiting the loops to just 1, 2, 4 and 8 seems kind of strange thing too.
I’ve been djing now for about a year and I really don’t miss having hardware controls for four decks. I have the option of switching my controls from deck A to C and from B to D, but I don’t use that function that much either.

In your case the MC2000 looks like a good choice. Not that flashy, but hey, that’s where the music comes in right?

Dutch House Mafia…
Sounds like a plan 😛

My very first controller it was Vestax VCI 300, just a simple plain basic controller, with only 2 channels, just like you said eh I prolly wont do much of mash-up thingie at the beginning anyway
The absences of Pads, its not really bother me much, I didnt miss it too much since I have no use for it at that moment, same thing applied to the absence of the FX knobs, sure I can purchased the separate FX units for it, but I never did get around to bought it, I kind of count on the in house club mixer which most of the time already had a built in FX on it,

And then when I start progressing, advancing if you will my skills in DJ controller, i swapped it for the Reloop Beatmix4, entered the pads and the FX knobs. It is a fun experiences now, since I already acquired a needed skills to abuse those pads and the FX (Serato DJ FX ish awesome!)

Yep, totally ready for many many years on the road 😀