My first steps into the digital world – DJM-450 and Scratch Pro?

What Todd said! 😀

RB and Traktor being your choices, they are rather far apart in many ways. Had you said RB and Serato I would have understood.

Best way to start with your decision making process it by determining your (desired/intended) workflow. I.e. what kind of DJ do you want to be, what features you need/want (like DVS for scratching, performance pads, sampler/remix decks, etx.)

There are combination to make that will let you integrate two 1200s with a DJ controller and allow you to play both regular vinyl or do DVS with timecode vinyl as well as play digital tracks from the two controller decks. And those controllers support various software from Serato to Traktor to RekordBox to Virtual DJ. So plenty to choose from I’d say.

I’d never put my money on a non-Native Instruments hardware with Traktor software anymore. Traktor has rapidly closed their ecosystem and might do so even more when a major upgrade comes around.

As for mixers/sound cards for DVS, they need to be supported by the software! So while the DJM450 might be DVS-ready in a technical sense, if it’s not Traktor-supported (and it’s not on the compatible list), it will NOT let you do DVS with Traktor. Same goes for Serato. If a sound card/mixer is not Serato certified (and -again- the 450 is not on the compatible list), it won’t work with DVS (or at all actually).

I can understand the “only TTs and a battle mixer” setup, so won’t bother you with controllers.

Unfortunately, as far as I know at least for Traktor and Serato, not compatible = not supported = not authorized = not working!

Where with midi you could go ahead and try to map your own gear if the software allows midi-mapping (not always an easy option btw), this won’t work with Serato for sound cards and controllers nor with Traktor for sound cards.

Mixvibes Cross, I know, lets you do DVS with any kind of sound-card. It happens to be the software I have been using for the last couple of years. At 129 USD/EURO for the most extensive version, including video, HID support for all things Pioneer CDJ and DVS, as well as free upgrades (thusfar), it’s priced very competitively. Also it has a (time-limited, think it’s 2 weeks) full-feature test/demo version.

Not quite sure what the options are for DJay Pro (mac only) or Virtual DJ though.

Last word on eco-systems. With Traktor closing up more tightly the last couple of years and Pioneer clearly favoring RB DJ now they have their own software, don’t expect either to be really willing to put much effort in testing/certifying other vendors gear. Due to “club standards” it seems slightly more likely that Traktor software will try supporting club gear (NOT the controllers!) than that Pioneer will start supporting more software from third-party vendors. Point in case the whole new R-series of controllers. While technically almost identical with the S-series, it seems they won’t work with anything but RekordBox DJ, while the S-series WILL work with RB DJ and most other major software.

P.s. Your name suggest you are, like me, in Holland (or Belgium of course).

Honestly if you want a setup where your mixer and effects are as small and battle worthy as possible I would go with the AKAI AMX + AFX setup.
It is the smallest sized down battle setup there can be for DVS, of course only Serato DJ. Yes you need to buy the Serato DVS upgrade, but since the controllers are so dirt cheap it totally makes sense.
I saw a scratch world champion take on those 2 (and cannot say his name since he is sponsored by another brand) but it was mind blowing. These things may look like toys, but they are for real and sound quality is over the top.

I would still strongly recommend against the 450, while Pioneer is good at advertising, they are not good at delivering that promises all the time… not unlike Mercedes (which many buy because of brand name) when every Mazda 6 will blow away any Mercedes C-Class in performance, features and reliability.