s8/beatgridding questions

Lets start with my issues with the s8. i upgraded to an s8 from my s4 about 3 months ago. Thought i could live the jogwheel less life. I was terribly wrong. The controller is amazing don't get me wrong. But trying to mix anything but anything but edm is turning into a nightmare. A. The tempo knob is a huge issue. Quick tempo changes mid mix don't exist. have to press 2 buttons to get a simple bpm change. B. not having platters to touch let alone beat match with is turning into a huge hassle. Yes, the touch strip is amazing. AS LONG!! as your beat grids are perfect. If your beat grids are off or its a transition song you life turns to hell. So i feel that getting a set of platters on the side would be fix my issues. I cant have turntables because the clubs i dj at have to much bass so the needle jumps. and race car life. won't be able to fit them in my car to get them anywhere.

So my question is what are good alternatives for platters besides turntables. Im mainly looking at getting some xdj 1000's but i cant really justify spending 2000$ just to get platters. So what other solid options are there. i want the platters to at least be big enough to scratch on. no s4 sized platters. and has to work perfectly with traktor.

Second question is on beatgridding transition songs. Im finding that using transition songs in traktor is a hit or miss lately. If I'm using a song that goes from 128-64 it will automatically beat grid it to 64. even though i need to start out at 128 to get the phase meter working. yes i know i should use my ears. But, its a lot quicker to use the phase meter to get the mix right when my transitions are only 16 bars long.
Is there a way to set up the grid in a custom way. So that at the beginning i can put it at 128 then when it slows down it automatically jumps down to 64? And this doesnt have to only apply to transitions songs. I use plenty of songs were it goes from 128-100-128. I would like to be able to set the grid up so it jumps to those said bpm's at certain parts of the song.
If you guys could help me out in either of those questions i would be super grateful.

any help?

If there is a solution to this, Id be pleased as well. I do LOT of open format

for adding tempo adjust cheaply I suggest either remapping some buttons or getting a pad controller like the reloop neon / vestax pad one and creating a mapping that uses the pads in pairs as tempo up / down buttons. This method is fairly intuitive and you might be able use velocity / after touch messages to control the speed of tempo adjust.

If you want to scratch your best of getting either turntables or a CDJ supported by Traktor for advanced HID, no custom midi device will give you such tight control. If you cant transport them you'd have to use what ever the venue has available or make do with tempo up/down buttons and the touch strips.

hmmm I have a midi fighter spectra so I could map that to tempo controls. or I could use my twister. im honestly thinking of selling my s8 and going modular and getting a djm 900, pair of d2's and a x1. and use my xdj's when I need to do a scratch set or just use record box solely.

Just thought of another possibility, is it possible to edit the mapping so that when shift is held the touchstrip becomes a pitch fader instead of scratch control?
Or even map it to be a pitch fader all the time and then beatmatch ala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54nVlEorM0

What's the problem with songs that half or double in tempo? You just hit the /2 or the *2 button after Traktor has identified the BPM (or manually do it yourself!).

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Re: Transition Tracks - I mix out of these the old fashioned way. Right now, it's the only way that I can see it being done. As long as you know what tempo the slower/faster (second) portion of the song is, you can easily beat match into/out of it... Just turn sync OFF before you start mixing. (You can turn it back on after you've mixed OUT of the Transition Track)

Re: Songs with a slow break (128-100-128) - I set a beat/grid marker at the start of each 128bpm section. It means you can't use any beat-sync'd effects on the 100bpm sections, but, that's just something we have to live with (for now...). It means you can leave sync engaged and mixin in/out of the song that has a break easily...