Well firstly some controllers still need to actually hit the market. The NS7 II is still not here and finished.
But I agree there is a slight stall and let us be honest that is not so bad. Most new highend controllers are basically splattered with all the nice functions F/X, samplers, pads, slicers,… sure there could be minor improvements but for example I still see no reason to upgrade from my Terminal Mix 4 to any of those new ones.
Sure I would like per channel VU meters on my TM4 and possibly a working slicer mode, but that are minor things and no deal breaker.
The only real dated controllers that come to mind are actually the NI controllers and the Denon controllers. Where I expect NI to bring something new soonish and while the Denons are older they still do work nicely.
So what we possibly need are new things. New ways to control things and approach things. For example I like the basic ideas behind the Reloop Jockey 3 Remix and its many modes for the jogwheels. I also like the basic idea behind the jogwheel effects of the DDJ-WeGo, but it is a consumer product. So the question is will someone risk such things in a pro controller and while being nice is it actually needed? I cannot say, while I find it cool gimicks I cannot actually say if I would use it regularly…
So maybe we should ask ourselfs that? What do we actually want more as DJs to work with that we would actually use? For example I have in the last 3 months seen 3 DJs with Traktor controllers and an added F1 and while their sets were quite good, none of them actually used the F1 to its potential.
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