i made my desk from 2 8’x4′ 18mm mdf sheets and a bunch of screws and glue for extra strenght cost me all of £40 and just 1 day to complete as had the diy shop cut the wood to size for me
my adivse is dont rely on traktor auto gain ive found it to be miles off in my own mixes and didnt realise you had cut the audio about maybe upload a mix as its recorded then people can judge better on transistions from a full set
yes hobby active moniotrs are available in the UK for under £100 both my sets i have came in at £100 or under and they r fostex pm0.4 (second hand old model £100) alesis 320usb (£86 brand new) and as for more professional package its all a matter of personal preference i went from VDJ to Traktor and love it but others prefer serato, im open to selling my alesis moniotrs as i no longer use them inbox me if your interested
the behringer isnt out til october the kontrol s2 has tight traktor intergration and cues/samples the mix track pro is good but only minimal control but will still cost less to buy and you can buy traktor pro 2 and still come in lower than an s2
you need to ask yourself do you really need a 4 channel controller or can you manage with 2 i personally went with a vci100 and a reloop contour IE as my first mixer controllers for djaying as i realised 90% of the time im only using 2 decks with a third for samples (A&B on vci and sample deck C on the contour triggering pre eq’d samples)
i also decided to pick up the interface edition of the contour for the purpose of the interface and for portability when im happy to play in clubs so i can just connect up to the house mixer
then depending on how many decks you want to use i would consider the denon dn mc3000 which is £399 and is a 2 deck controller but option for 4 deck on shift layers and can handle 8 hot cues and 8 samples as well as full control over 2 effects slots and is tightly integrated to traktor but fully midi mappable.
