What would you recommend for an 11 year old kid interested in this?
I’m thinking a mixer like numark where you still have scratch pads but not using vinyls might be good enough to see if he’s interested enough?
I recommend a small DJ controller. It has everything included. You don't need all the fancy features to learn the basics. As long as he eventually learns to avoid the sync button, he'll be able to transfer the skills to most digital setups with ease.
Vinyl is different, and there's really no emulating it. If he can mix without syncing or visual cues (such as the transient indicator on most digital setup, where you can match the peaks of the track) and do it entirely by ear, that gets him most of the way to vinyl mixing.
The other half of vinyl mixing is actually the vinyl aspect. Drifting the tracks is different than you'd do it on CDJs, and it's different if you're on a belt driven turntable (which you shouldn't use for DJing anyway) or direct drive. That needs a bit of practice regardless of actual mixing skill.
But the core concepts are the same. As long as it has the faders, the low/mid/high knobs and gain, he can learn most of what he needs.
I started on a single Stanton CDJ, a cheap Behringer mixer, and Virtual DJ on the other "deck" that I pirated. I'd mix a track in, mix out the previous one, then transfer the track to the other deck and mix again. All of the actual adjustments were solely on the CDJ. It taught me enough to really warrant a real second deck later on.
I've gone on to play clubs in several countries, if that matters. Learning the basics can be done on even the most budget of setups (in fact, you might even be better off).
Hope that helps!
And it's important to add...learning to mix is actually the easy part. As someone who has gigged internationally you understand that song selection, reading the room, and working the crowd are the hard part. That 6th Sense is the real skill.
The S2 or S4 are both great controllers at entry level price. They aren't standalone, so you will also need a Laptop.
Numark mixers are OK, however the cheaper entry level mixers are basically midi controllers and do not include a headphone output for queing songs.
Vinyl is great, but also quite expensive and hard to learn. Best to learn on a digital system first.
As the other poster said, I bought myself a Native Instuments S2 and couldn't be happier for the price, minimalist but with a great build quality and you get the Traktor Pro 3 software included in the price.