Help Me Pick a New Controller/Mixer!!!

[bastimret]

So I have been using Traktor Scratch Pro for a few years now with my SL1200's and an old Numark mixer for casual living room DJing and the occasional gig, usually nothing serious. It's definitely just a hobby, so this gear was just fine. However, my buddy just PIF'ed me his old gear which includes 2x CDJ 1000 MK2s, a Rane TTL 57SL Serato mixer, and the flight case they are all in.

I set up the gear this week and tested it out. The 57SL is in perfect condition, works great. The two CDJ's have issues with the Play/Cue buttons not working propery (play won't play all the time and sometimes skips tracks, cue doesn't cue, just starts/stops like the play button). I took them apart and inspected the buttons and PCBs, they appeared fine. Cleaned out the jog wheel, stripped off the sticky gunk on them and gave them a good coat of Plastidip on the outer ring. Looks and feels great, so it's a shame that I wasn't able to fix the play/cue function. It appears that they will need new boards. Those are $75 a pop, which is about half the going value of these decks in the first place, so I'm not sure I want to sink the money into them when I have two pristine SL1200's already sitting here.

So I got the idea of selling the CDJs as is for parts or if someone wants to fix them, and sell the Rane and flight case for going market price, which should give me ~ $500-$600 to put toward some new gear. In the spirit of the PIF I want to reinvest any money I make off the sale back into DJ gear, and since I already have a decent sized library in Traktor, I started looking at all the NI controllers/mixers. I quickly got overwhelmed and figured I'd turn to DJTECHTOOLS for some help!

So, given my situation, what hardware would you suggest given the budget (and I may be willing to toss a bit of extra cash on top of that)? I'm a long time fan of EDM since the 90's, been a casual DJ for the past 15 years or so, and am pretty technically savvy. I'd like something that will be fun to play with. Also prefer that the hardware have some longevity to it as I don't plan on buying much else for quite awhile. The S8 looks cool as hell but I worry that it's waaay more tech than I'd ever need. Any suggestions? I'm a bit lacking in knowledge around all the current NI units and don't have as much time on my hand these days to research the ever living shit out of them like I used to do when I was younger and single

Any advice you can give would be appreciated. Cheers!

[bastimret]

100+ views and not a single response? Chatty crowd in here...

[SlayForMoney]

Seems a NI Z2 controller/mixer would do you just fine
When used with TSP, it acts as a midi controller for 2+2decks and you can use your SL1200 to control decks in software with timecode vinyl. Also, you get some basic transport controls on it (browsing, loading, cue points, filters and some smart FX combos). As a standalone mixer, you can simply use it to mix real vinyl from your turntables.

[bastimret]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a closer look at it.