Hercules DJControl Starlight | Pocket USB DJ Controller with Serato DJ Lite, Touch-Sensitive Jog Wheels, Built-in Sound Card and Built-in Light Show

Super easy to use and the perfect travel size for those DJs who get out into the world. So many features that are critical and some fun tweaks if you play around. I’ve had no problems using this for over 40 hours in the past two years. I would and do recommend this controller to many people, especially when they ask about what I’m using to DJ. It’s paired with an Apple AV adapter for USB-A and an iPad using djay Pro.

Read some of the other reviews here, written by people who received this product from Amazon for free, who do not seem to know a whole lot about DJ hardware and what to expect from it. I am a professional DJ, and I'd like to give my two cents. I bought this controller just for fun to see how it is. I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but I was beyond pleasantly surprised. This controller comes with Serato DJ Lite, which another reviewer complained about because of the cost associated with upgrading to DJ Pro, and questioned the trustworthiness of Serato. I can assure you that Serato DJ Pro is extremely widely used and respected by pros, and although Lite has limited features and promotes upgrading to Pro, it is still very good software and its shortcomings shouldn't reflect negatively on the controller itself; especially since a Pro license is only $100, which, assuming you already have a laptop, makes your total investment $180 - an extremely reasonable price for a functioning DJ setup, seeing as a single Pioneer CDJ can cost 10x that. Anyway, upon getting the Starlight in the mail, I immediately plugged it in and got to some mixing. The knobs and pitch faders feel very high quality, not too far short of what you'd have on a much more expensive controller. The quality of the audio output is pretty good as well, not superb but no worse than an average smartphone's headphone jack. I saw other reviewers complaining about the inability to connect Bluetooth headphones; this is not a valid complaint, I have never known of any piece of DJ gear with Bluetooth output, mainly due to the lag and quality limitations of Bluetooth audio. I suppose the last thing to address would be the LED lighting, which is certainly corny, but it's a fun touch and I see how it could appeal to new and/or very young DJs. Overall I would recommend this product to anyone looking to try out DJing or to give to their children to do so (assuming they have access to a Windows or Mac laptop). Remember when buying any DJ or audio gear to take online reviews with a grain of salt. Some people don't know enough to judge whether a product is good or bad, but review it anyway, resulting in uninformed and unwarranted praise or criticism. There are lots of good websites to ask questions and inform yourself!

I recently bought this little rig to take along at an event where I was not sure if I would get a chance to spin or not. To my surprise this little guy allowed me to crush a small club venue with a pretty minimal learning curve. That said, Ive been DJing for about 20 years so song selection and interaction with the audience helped make up for any rough mixes due to the newness of this device in my hands. The jog wheels are very small yet sensitive so you will learn just the right touch with practice. Not bad for such a small controller. Also, it only has 1/8th inch out so that can also limit sound quality. I ended up plugging in a Y adapter into a Pioneer DJM900 channel and it worked out.

this is honestly everything I need in a controller. super portable, I've used it from planes to trains to stadiums to more. if you use it with a bluetooth set of cans it only needs a single wire. or you can wire it in for great latency control. limitations... there aren't that many knobs and they all do a limited set of things. if you are comfortable remapping that's not an issue, you'll basically be mixing with 6 software knobs (with toggle), a crossfader, and plenty of buttons. that's more than enough for me. also two decks only, duh. lastly, the sound card isn't great quality (as expected for the price), and if your laptop is plugged into a noisy ground or DC that will translate, especially under high amplification. I still use it and find no issues, but this isn't a $1000 mixer. it also feels a little cheap/plasticy, which might turn some people off. I don't care, because it does the job. the pros of the knobs is they are *very sensitive*... micro-movements translate extremely well which gives you lots of control. the crossfader is also surprisingly smooth and bouncy for the price, again don't expect a $1000 scratching crossfader but you can actually scratch on this thing without much effort. upsides... you can mix anywhere. and if you can sound good on this thing, moving to any other controller is ez mode. it's very compatible with a wide range of software, including my favorite the open source Mixxx. It's on the wired midi standard so should be good for many many many years to come. tldr buy this thing.

This is the controller I use for a sound system that is professional and 100% battery powered. Controller is compact, reliable, and very easy transition from my full size controller.

I bought this as a way to dabble with djing and it’s been fun. Their instructions to get it all set up were easy to follow and even my 7yr old can do it. I like how small and compact it is. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. It’s been a great purchase for us.

I've got a Pioneer DDJ-400 and XDJ-R1 available to use but very much wanted something that would comfortably fit on my desk along with all the other crap on it. It has just enough functionality for my purposes including bass/filter knobs which Numark's competing product doesn't have. Feels pretty well built and is definitely the most portable. Would have been nice to find something similar with rekordbox unlock included but Pioneer won't provide even at an inflated price point. Works well with Mixxx on Linux which I like. Only true con is the mini-USB connection which is known to have a terrible MTBF for insertions.

As a long time professional DJ, I was looking for something small to use on a plane or hotel room. This device was the best controller (for its sizes) that I’ve used. But it comes with one huge problem. Even if you already have serato dj pro (I have 2 licenses) you need to purchase a separate one for this controller. It only comes with serato lite version, and you have to buy a separate PRO license. That’s right, even if you have the pro version , you need to buy an additional one, in order to use the better features in serato. Now one of the better features of this device is the ability to have “vinyl mode “ aka being able to use the disc to scratch or move the platter. The buttons also feel a little cheap to me compared to more professional gear. But with all these things considered it’s still a decent controller for price, especially for NEW or for dj on a budget