DJs

I've been using Traktor gear since 2010. It's not the only gear I use, but it's the majority of equipment I have. The only time I've ever used search bar touch strips was on CDJ 2000s and up. I don't have a pair of CDJ 2000s, but when I DJed at other peoples' events, I'd notably use them to quickly preview tracks while mixing. This would help me know if the next song I want to play was the right song, or had the right energy.

About a week ago, I picked up a Numark Mixtrack Pro 3. I didn't need it, but the seller sold it super cheap, and I figured I could "flip it" and sell it off (seller said they had issues; I fixed said issues).

I decided to play around with the controller, get the idea or the feel for the unit. I'll be honest: I was impressed. The build quality was much better than I imagined, the lights were something I appreciated, and out of all features that were lacking in my Traktor gear, touch strips to skim through tracks were very useful for me.

Just like on CDJs when I was previewing incoming tracks in my mix, I'd use the touch strips to jump around in the songs, and it saved me quite a lot of time. In Traktor, they have "beatjump", which is a nifty tool, but it is a lot of "twisting" the knob, even when you set the beatjump to a higher rate (16, 32, and etc.). The fact that a touch strip can jump through a track in one push, saved me from constantly twisting knobs.

I'm not sure if this justifies me holding onto the controller. I could possibly sell it still. But I was just surprised that touch strips would have had an impact in DJing live events, to the point that it makes me question which I preferred to use.