Terry_42

As this is escalating into a Traktor fanboy thread and not helping the original poster anymore I am closing down here.
You voiced your single opinion Hee and I accept that you put more into tools than doing things, but please do not dismiss anything anymore or I will delete such posts. This is not what digitaldjtips is standing for. If you are looking for the Traktor fanboy forum please refer to djtechtools.com

Well there is a lot of personal choice involved in this. Every mistake can be expensive. But now that you have used a controller and know what you want, maybe it is best to go to a store and try different controllers for a bit?
You can also always go to like our Facebook side and get the controller guide for free. It shows you many options you then might want to try out.

For the sake of argument: I am sorry but your argument is flawed.
Fact 1: You said Traktor is the best. Which is an infactual subjective statement.
Fact 2: You said compare an iPhone with a top of the line DSLR as comparison and the comparison is wrong. (I do photography)

So point 1 is disabled by the fact that actually Serato is feature wise inferior (raw sheet features) than VDJ or Traktor. Traktor is feature wise inferior (again raw feature sheet comparison) to VDJ.
Still I am not saying VDJ is superior to both, as they all get the job done in an extremely high quality and Serato definitely has its things going for it (why many Pros choose it), same goes for Traktor and especially in the US Traktor has a huge following, so does VDJ in Europe and even CrossVibes has its market is not per se worse than any other.

Now to go with your analogy of photography (you got me there, since this is one of my favorite hobbies): As for DSLRs this is more like comparing the top of the line Nikons to Canons. Feature wise they both have their things going for them. Both cater to a different workflow with their setup and control wheels. However both are used by extremely good artists to excellent result. You cannot dismiss any photographer whether he uses a Canon or a Nikon for his art. Same goes for the debate over DJ software.

But now comes the really hard to swallow pill: Yes I have seen pictures taken from famous “Ken Rockwell” (you can google him) taken with a point and shoot 100 bucks Nikon and they are by far better than what some people do with their Nikon D3s. But of course if Ken packs out his 30 year old Tachihara large format (that is based on a 100 year old design) he outmatches any current DSRL, because there is no chip yet than could reproduce 3000 Megapixels worth of film real-estate.

In DJing we are lucky enough that sound quality output from most sound cards is good enough for the audience not to hear the difference if we use high quality digital…. in photography produced on an 8 yards Hollywood Filmstudio you will see the difference in Ken’s shots. But even though I am a decent photographer I could not use that old Tachihara to the extend he does, I cannot compete. So what it boils down to is very simple and this is why I do not let any software or any tool (even the Hercules Console Phil just reviewed) be dismissed on the forum and I hence also apologize for sometimes riding on the S4 a bit hard (but it bugged me).
The bottom line: The most important thing is the artist. No tool you use can replace the artist, his choices, his workflows his passion and love for creating. If you do not have it, you will fail with any software and any camera you use. If you have it you are blessed and you simply need a tool that caters your way of creating.
And for comparison sake: Yes I have seen DJs with a full set of CDJ 2ks and a DJM 2k etc. that I would hope to never hear again and I have been to parties where a 14 year old played music from 2 hooked up iPods through a stone age PA and had a total blast and I would like to see him again any day of the week.

So please do not dismiss anything or any tool for what it is: A tool.
There is no best tool for an artist. There are just tools and artists who make something out of them. This is what I try to cater to and what is the philosophy by this site providing things like the Controller guide, which is a fair comparison not ruling out any choices, simply comparing facts.

And for industry standards: I have yet to see any industry standard that is the best of its kind. If it were I would just have watched the movie I saw with my girlfriend on HD-DVD and not BluRay, I would have Beta Cassettes not VHS in my basement, I would have metric nuts in my Harley Davidson, …. Industry standards are about marketing not making the best thing in anything.

I see no advantage for my style in CDJs, so even if money was no issue I would not buy any.
I even think that the high-end controllers for each software (NS7/6 for Itch, 4Trak for Traktor, VCI-400 for VDJ) are superior in their flexibility to any CDJ layout I can come up with, apart from the nice built in screens on the CDJs and the funky lights in the jogs… I actually prefer controller jogwheels (especially that of the terminal mix and NS6) to the CDJ 2000 jogs. (Insert 4Trak if you are a Traktor fan…)

Try a search, there are some topics about organizing already.
Short summary: It depends on your style. Some use mixed in key for key organization, some use their own comments, I use my “energy rating”, some do “event playlists” like “dinner music”, “dance party”, ….
There is no right way to do it, you have to come up with something 😉

Both great faders, depends more on personal choice I think.

No further recommendations, this one actually looks way better than mine hehe if it is as good as it looks, by all means go for it.