By the sounds of things mate I think going for a copy of Traktor and a midi controller would be you best option. It depends how much you want to spend but you can get midi controllers for really cheap and I am sure they will do the job along with Traktor.
I am selling my set-up just now in order to fund the Traktor S4 software/hardware. I have been thinking about it for ages and finally decided that it is time to try it out. My main reservation before was always being able to set it up in a club and the fear that it would freeze, crash etc…
Was playing at a gig on a boat at the weekend (behold a fine video for discouraging drinking before dj’ing! -
) and the guy on after me hooked up a midi controller and Traktor no problem at all. 2 guy’s who were playing on the boat’s deck were using S4 as well and they never had any problems what so ever.The main thing that makes me want to switch over is the creativity factor in my sets. With the 2 CDJ’s I was limited to playing 2 tracks at the one time with the occasional loop thrown in now and again, it was getting stale for me. I like the thought of (especially when my sounds is drifting away from trance and more toward house music) being able to drop in an acapella or a sample from another track on the spur of the moment. The S4 is laid out like a standard mixer as well which I like because I like to be pretty hands on and don’t want to be touching the computer at all during my set.
Another factor for me, same as you, is the space that my current set up takes up and the logistics of moving it just now. With the nice weather and things (live in Scotland so still waiting for it to appear, if it ever will!) it would be nice to be able to throw my laptop and S4 into a bag, grab my speakers and set up out the back door, friends house etc… With the 2x cdj’s and mixer this is a bit of a pain! Even going to a gig I wouldn’t need to burn CD’s the night before, write up and print of what is on each one.
Have a look at this website regarding the S4 - http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/dj/traktor-kontrol-s4/ - there are tons of videos on youtube as well!
It comes in at the top end of the market at roughly £750 for everything but I have thought long and hard about it so I am making the step away from the CD’s!
My advice to you (if you are sure you want to ditch the cdj’s as it’s a big step, took me long enough to decide) is to go down the Traktor route and spend some time looking through Youtube at demo’s/tutorials of midi controllers and pick out something you like that is within the range of what you want to spend. Djtechtools is also a good site to look through.