Hercules DJControl Starlight – Compact DJ Controller with Built-in Light Show and Professional Features

This compact DJ mixer punches well above its size—ideal for tight home setups or gigs on the go. It comes loaded with Serato DJ Lite (PC/Mac) and includes a free seven-day online course, making it great for beginners or casual mixers.Despite its footprint, pros have shown on YouTube just how capable it really is. Whether you're honing your craft or just vibing at home, it's a smart pick.In summary: Small in size, full of potential—ready to mix wherever you are.

This little guy is briiliant! Don't be fulled by it's dinky appearnce and flashing lights, it's got all the buttons you need to do so seriously impressive mixing if you've already got a little skill. Likewise, I'm sure it would be a great starter for anyone looking to learn. It comes with a god awful version of Serato Lite, but it's fully compatible with VDJ and easily mapped in many others. I don't use the sound outputs at all and use it just as a standalone controller, and it allows me to DJ online or just practice ideas without pulling out one of the bigger mixers. It sits neatly under my monitor until I need it!My only complaints are minor. Firstly, it's reasonably easily damaged, so don't drop it! Secondly, they are all hard plastic buttons... if they want to come out with a version 2 and stick some rubber/soft touch pads on there, they can take my money now.

So having DJ'd in the 90s and had decks, records, played at bars and nightclubs then subsequently grown old and gotten rid of all of those things I suddenly found myself watching a ton of DJ mix sets during lockdown thinking, "I can do that".So a bit of research later and these controller things are everywhere. They range from amazing massive stations to teeny ones like this.Given that it was clearly a bit of a midlife crisis I opted for the smaller entry level one in case I came to my senses again. On arrival I smashed a ton of YouTube videos and I was off. Setup is easy but you really want to get this linked to iTunes to get the best out of it, using serato lite gives you limited crate capability so I build my playlists in iTunes and they appear nicely.I'm using a windows PC which is not exactly modern (M3 processor 8gb ram and SSD) and it doesn't take more than 30-50% CPU. You will need an external speaker or amp to hook up to and headphones. Some config might be needed, I found the cue and master out weren't in sync but you can tweek latency settings and you get there in the end.All the usual controls are here. Volume, fader, bass/treble control on one button to save space, not the best control but it's small so you have to make sacrifices, this knob also doubles as a low/high pass filter which is nice but it stores the last place of where it was on the other function so you have to trick it sometimes with a little flick. Pitch controls are only +/-8 which isn't great, couple with the fact that they are small again and you have to really be precise with your adjustments. I REFUSE TO USE SYNC. That said it's there for those who want to use it and it does an ok job but that's mostly due to software (more on the later). Lastly it has some cool lights that you can tweek to be on the downbeat, flashing, fading, custom colours. At first I thought they were a bit cheesy but with the lights out they are cool.Wheels/platters - I'm more of a mix DJ so vinyl mode for me is no use, I've never scratched but have seen people do stuff on these. You can use the middle of the platter for scratching and the outer for nudging but when you disable vinyl mode the whole thing can be used for nudging which was the saviour here as the sides are too close to other knobs and sliders. They have a good bit of friction so aren't going to run away.Other buttons - cues are markers you set on a track to jump to or show where a bassline or vocal kicks in, very handy! These buttons then double up to do loops of beat sections, FX which can be quite fun like flanger, phasers, echos etc. And then a sampler bank which is limited in the free software but gives you the customary air horn. All the same buttons using a shift function. Very clever use of space.Serato - you get serato lite for free. I suggest anyone who gets this tries in advance. It's a good bit of software (judging by my own experience of this and nothing else) however it tries to be too clever sometimes. It will analyse the wave form which is great when looking for visual cues, it then applies a beat grid so you can see the downbeat but also counts these in 4s so to try to give you a clue where to come in, this can be misleading and I've learnt to often ignore these and use my instinct and knowledge of the track. You can edit them if they go wrong.One major issue I have is that the software can key shift so you get a tempo change only but the record doesn't change key, I wish this worked all the time but it doesn't, it can add some serious warble to tracks so I just leave off. The other issue I have is the constant BPM on screen, I don't use sync and I'd rather not have this there so I can mix by skill. It is a massive distraction and not always 100% accurate.You can upgrade to pro and the are always deals on for packs and trials, pro gives you a more detailed interface but most importantly for me - recording! Though if you wanted to do this you could input into a mixer or get a y cable and record into something else, while recording I occasionally get a freeze up but once in a blue moon for a second or two but not good mid mix.I've just read back my review and it feels like I'm being hard, this thing is cool, it's small, it's easy to use, I've had hours of fun on it and it packs away in a draw, in a rucksack with a laptop and a portable speaker and you have a fully mobile DJ rig.If you are an old fart like me who wished the Hacienda had never shut then this is for you. You will need to spend time on your MP3 collection though!If you are a beginner then I can't say if these are right for you, I think I can mix on anything (I had the worst soundlab dlp3 belt drives) but for a few quid more Hercules does a bigger controller and that might be more suited to new hands. Either way get into it, don't hold back, play it loud and use hearing protection (and if you get that reference give yourself a pat on the back)

I got this arrival brand as I liked the ability to quickly roll off Bass and do a frequency sweep at the touch of a button. I already have DJ software that I know and so I don’t use the supplied software. I’m sure if I did the lighting would work properly but as I don’t the lights turn on but are very random. I just wish there was a way to turn them off on the unit itself. It’s great that there are two sets of audio output And they sound perfectly fine. One thing I would’ve liked to seen would be a more modern USB-c connector As the micro USB cables are not that durable.I have only use this ‘in anger’ twice So I am just getting used to it. But the knobs and Buttons and dials are very tactile and seem well-made.I am running it with software called ‘djay’ And it maps perfectly out of the box. Hopefully they will add some system preference so that the lights can be controlled correctly or turned off.

I bought this for myself as I already use software such as algoriddm's djay but I wanted a controller. I like the compact size of the product, and the feel of the controls, and djay is nice and responsive as well - although it's worth noting that the controller should be plugged in *before* starting djay for the best results. I also tried the recommended Serato DJ Lite software which worked well. (I'm using this on a Windows 10 desktop PC.)The only reason it's not 5-star ratings everywhere is because your own software/audio setup might need a bit of adjusting so that the controller works well with it, and making the adjustments might not be intuitive for everyone. The box doesn't have any driver software on a disc, but the Hercules website offers drivers you can download. Also, I initially didn't have any sound output from the software, but that was because Windows selected the DJ Control Starlight as an audio output device! So just change this back to Speakers/Headphones or whatever you're used to, and you should be ready. Enjoy!

This has been a really fantastic purchase. I'm so pleased with it. My son loves it. He's only just learning to dj and this is an excellent starter for sure. Allows easy mixing of two songs as well as some fun extras. We've been using it with free software online so far, but if he continues I think we'll upgrade the software before this bit of kit for sure! Excellent size also as it fits in a backpack so he can take it to friends houses.

Purchased as a midi controller but the implementation of the midi standard was not compatible with my application. I returned it for a full refund.