Where to begin?

I play breakbeat UK happy hardcore predominantly 1994/95, I have managed to locate a lot of stuff on mp3 but I’m unsure on the bit rates at the moment.

We are so going to be friends 🙂

My first question has got to be; what’s your maximum budget?

With regard to brands, you won’t really go wrong with Numark, Reloop, Denon or Pioneer (Pioneer can sometimes cost more simply for being Pioneer). As for the software, they all do pretty much the same thing in only slightly different ways. Virtual DJ has one huge advantage in that it works with anything at all so if you upgrade your kit you never have to worry about compatibility problems.
A lot of the budget friendly Serato controller options don’t ship with the full version of Serato DJ, so you would have to pay to upgrade to that for recording your mixes as far as I am aware. It isn’t much and it’s worth it.

Your upper limit for what you are prepared to pay will help decide your controller.

If you are into hip hop, especially the funky/jazzy kind that sometimes has beat variation going on I would strongly recommend software with flexible beatgrid. So this is the one rare instance I would strongly recommend against Traktor.
Serato’s flexible beatgrid is the best in class in my opinion, this is why so many hip hop DJs use it (just check out DJ Angelo) and of course Serato IMHO is best for scratching. Now the new Rekordbox DJ by Pioneer looks like it can come close, but I had no hands on yet, so I can only assume it is in the same league. Until I can check it out I would strongly advise towards Serato DJ and a good platter controller (reloop Terminal Mix 8, Pioneer DDJ-SX2, Numark NV, Numark NS7 III,…)

Booth out in general is/should be a copy of the master signal MINUS the mic inputs (or at least offer the option of turning mic input of to prevent the nice effect or feedback) with a seperate volume control. It is conspiciously absent on many even higher end controllers. Even the DDJ-SX I use now, while it has a booth out with volume control, WILL send mic signal out to the booth as well. Very unwanted!

A simple and relatively inexpensive way to add a booth output in a later stage is by using a small PA mixer that has either a booth/monitor out or aux out. If you then run your mic through the mixer as well, you can determine what you send to booth/aux and how much of it. You just run your controller to a stereo input on the mixer, often giving you the added benefit of having balanced outputs for masters even if your controller only has RCA out.

The first three are all good, add the reloop beatmix 2 to the list. I’d advise against being lured by the shiny bits of the Hercules.

As for the jogs, highly personal choice, but I can vouch for the Denon jogs.

On the other hand, getting used (memory muscle) to ALWAYS gain your tracks is good practice. I run my tracks through Platinum Notes so they should be autogained prior to entering the DJ software, mainly because I don’t really trust DJ software autogaining methods. Could just be me being paranoia though hehehehehe.

The Denon jogs are smallish compared to the others, but the same quality as on the MC3000 and MC6000. Having worked with them, unless you are a very active controllerist (i.e. doing lots and lots of stuff with the jogs other than cueing up, nudging and the odd baby scratch) they are totally sufficient.

The Reloop for example has very low jogs, which I am guessing is something you can get used too. Just not something I am accustomed too. Terry_42 for example, a big Reloop fan, swears by the (quality of the) jogs.

By the way, it’s arguments like these that always makes me say to get hands on with the controllers on your shortlist. Some things just can’t be transferred by pictures.