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MIDI Mapping File for TRAKTOR PRO/PRO 2 download. Please use MIDI Mapping file in this page when you use CDJ-350/CDJ-350-W as a controller for.
The Lowdown
The Pioneer DDJ-SB3 is the third in the line of one of the most popular controller partnerships of all time between Serato and Pioneer DJ. This latest incarnation of the entry-level SB controller series is a more grown-up affair than ever before. Sure it’s cut down, basic and pretty plasticky, but the trickle-down of features from more expensive gear is greater than ever, and it continues to provide an awesome way to get started in DJing.
Video Review
First Impressions / Setting up
Oh, the fuss! Oh, the uproar! How dare Pioneer DJ put a button on a controller that – Heaven forbid – scratches for you? What on earth was Jazzy Jeff thinking endorsing it, and even lending his scratch patterns for Pioneer DJ to use? Surely this signals the end of DJing?
Well, no actually. The Pioneer DJ DDJ-SB3 is simply a beginner DJ controller, and a damned fine one at that, that also just happens to have a neat little feature that indeed let you mess around with some classic, simple scratch patterns if you so wish. It’s actually a pretty neat feature. But in reality, it’s a small part of this controller.
Software
The DDJ-SB3 is powered by a cut-down version of Serato’s Pro package, called Serato DJ Lite. This is standard among Serato controllers at the price point, and is fine for getting started on.
While any serious DJ is definitely going to want the Serato DJ Pro package at some point (Lite lacks features like beat jump, loop roll, slicer, slip mode, set recording, high-quality effects, and countless more), actually the pairing of the DDJ-SB3 and Serato DJ Lite is a good one – and truthfully, once you own Serato DJ Pro, I suspect you’ll start eyeing more professional controllers, too.
Ddj Sb3 Midi Mapping
As with all DJ controllers built for all flavours of Serato DJ software, setting up is easy. You head over to the Serato website, register your email address, download the software, install, plug in, and you’re off. The unit is USB-powered, so there’s no need for external power (indeed, this isn’t an option).
Getting started
Brand new DJs have a few extra hoops to jump through when getting started, so if you are new to all of this, let’s run through them: You’ll need local music (ie you can’t DJ from your Spotify or Apple Music collection – time to head online and get buying some MP3s), and you can’t use your laptop’s speakers, either: You’ll need to plug in some powered speakers, hook up to your home cinema system, or whatever you have. There is no audio lead provided, so you’ll need to find a 2 x RCA-to-whatever-input-you-require cable.
It’s also a good idea to have a pair of headphones, and they’ll need to have an 1/8″ minijack connector, as that’s the only option on the DDJ-SB3. Finally, if you want to use a microphone, it’ll have to be a 1/4″ jack (TS) unbalanced type – no pro XLR inputs here (and neither would you expect them). The single mic input on the back of the unit has a tiny volume control, and apart from that it bypasses the DDJ-SB3’s controls entirely.
Once you’ve analysed your music (this lets Serato work out things like BPM and track waveforms), you’re ready to go.
In Use
The DDJ-SB3 feels small, light, and plasticky in use. That said, it is sturdy, and to all intents and purposes performs like a basic, shrunken version of bigger controllers such as the Pioneer DJ DDJ-1000.
Pioneer Ddj Sb3 Mapping
That’s because its design is thoroughly “grown up”: Asymmetric decks, sober colours, eight performance pads per side, standard trim/lo/mid/hi channel controls, individual channel filters… It’s actually pretty fully featured for an entry-level device.
Jogs, transport and pitch controls
The most important part of any controller for me are the jogwheels, and these, while small, are well made (they’re aluminium), feel good, and they’re responsive and reliable.
They come with the usual vinyl/CDJ behaviour modes, and holding Shift while turning the jogs allows you to “scrub” quickly through your loaded track. The transport buttons (Play/Pause and Cue) are an improvement over the rubbery ones on the DDJ-SB2, being hard and laid out like those on pro gear.
The tempo (pitch) controls are small and short, but they’re responsive down to 0.02%, which is more than enough for accurate manual beatmixing, albeit a bit fiddly in practice. Tempo range can be toggled between 8%, 16% and 50%, and there’s a key lock button for fixing pitch while you alter tempo.
Mixer and browser controls
The mixer section is concise, small and does the basic job needed on such a controller. It’s only two channel, although there are four “decks” available, as there are switches to flick between decks 1 and 3 on the left, and 2 and 4 on the right. As well as the aforementioned volume/EQ/filter controls, you get master and headphone levels, and headphone cue (“PFL”) buttons for both the active decks and the master – the latter control replaces a knob for master/cue mix.
The VU meters are split; the one on the left is the pre-fader volume for the left-hand deck/s, the one on the right for the right-hand decks. There is no master VU out, and I would have liked to have seen some provision for this.
At the top of the mixer is a single rotary encoder for browsing tracks in your library, and pushing down on it switches between your folder/playlist tree and the currently selected tracks. Two Load buttons let you arm the left and right decks accordingly; press the opposite Load button to the currently playing track twice and the same track loads and plays simultaneously on the other deck (“instant doubles”).
Holding down Shift and moving the line faders up, or doing the same with the crossfader, enables “fader start”, a featured beloved of some mobile DJs, but also potentially of use in more creative mixing styles. This is where the track starts playing as soon as the fader is “live”. In the Utility settings you can even specify whether this happens with Sync on or off.
Effects
There are two effects engines, each containing three effects. While the effects available in Lite are limited, they cover the basics. Once nice feature is that they are post fader; this hasn’t always the case with budget controllers.
The effects engines aren’t assignable, being fixed permanently to decks 1 and 3 (left) and 2 and 4 (right). Each effect can be turned on and off, while holding Shift and repeatedly pressing an effect button opens the effect menu and cycles through the available effects. A single wet/dry knob per effects engine controls intensity across all three effects at once.
Luckily, the Fade FX add a bit of novelty to the effects on offer here; we’ll get to those shortly.
Performance pads (including “Jazzy Jeff” mode)
The pads are where you access Hot Cues, FX Fade, Pad Scratch (aka “the “Jazzy Jeff button”), Sampler and Transformer (“Trans”). While the sampler is a stripped down simple sample triggering affair (four slots), the same with the Hot Cues (the other “slots” in both of these settings being used for some additional transport controls including Censor), the remaining three functions are a bit more fun.
“FX Fade” combines filters, loops/loop rolls and spinbacks with a slowly reducing volume for as long as one of the eight pads are held, the idea being that you sync two tracks, and use these buttons to help you achieve a good-sounding transition. The results could be achieved “manually”, but the one-button versions are fun nonetheless.
Meanwhile, the Trans feature applies a transformer, or gate, to the selected track, which means it is switched off and on rapidly in time to the beat – it’s a cool effect that sounds especially nice on vocals, and there are eight timing variations to play with.
That leaves us with the “Jazzy Jeff” button, or officially, “Pad Scratch”. Basically, whatever sound Hot Cue 1 is set to is scratched automatically when you hold any one of the eight performance pads, with patterns supplied by Jazzy Jeff himself. Moreover, everything happens (roughly, in practice) in time with any other track or tracks you may have playing.
The patterns are simple (from Baby Scratch upwards), but they work fine and are fun; again, you could just as easily do them using the jogwheel, but according to Jazzy Jeff himself (see my exclusive interview with him), that’s the point: These are here to introduce beginners to scratching, and to show them what to practise.
I agree with him: It’s a great feature for a beginner controller. It would have been nice to have Slip mode to work with this scratch mode, but I guess you can’t have everything!
What do you think? Have you bought this? Are you tempted? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Conclusion
Weirdly, I think Pioneer DJ would rather not have made this controller at all! After all, the company has its own range of controllers for its own software, Rekordbox DJ. But truth is that the DDJ-SB2 before it before it sold by the bucketload, and so people clearly still love Serato. And with Jazzy Jeff’s endorsement, this controller is all set to be another major success for the Pioneer/Serato partnership.
Pioneer Ddj Sb3 Software
It actually improves on the DDJ-SB2 in more ways than just a few mode tweaks: The layout is better, the buttons are better, and it just feels a bit more “grown up”, but at the same price point.
“Add scratch effects without a turntable” screams the manual. Actually, you can scratch just fine on the jogwheels of the DDJ-SB3, and you can also completely ignore the built-in “auto scratch” function if you want. Whatever your feelings on it, don’t let that sway your decision on this controller too much: These functions are actually quite a small part of the feature set, and it is a fine budget controller aside from all of that.
****** IMPORTANT NOTICE *******
There is a new fork available for this project: https://github.com/jardiacaj/mixxx
I recommend installing this one and start testing this and give feedback to jardiacaj on github
This version has way more functionality then my version. Check it, test it. Thanks
Description
This is a basic mapping for Mixxx for the Pioneer DDJ-SB (2 decks). The code is based on / forked from hrudham's project: Mixxx-Pioneer-DDJ-SR (https://github.com/hrudham/Mixxx-Pioneer-DDJ-SR). I've used the same methods but stripped it a bit so it works for my DDJ-SB and also so the code is understandable to me. I like to understand what I implement. So I might have deleted some cool functionality from the original project ...
- It requires v1.11. Certain functionality will NOT work in previous versions.
- Forum Thread on mixxx.org -> http://www.mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6886
How do I use it?
If you just want to get your controller working with with Mixxx without bothering about the details much, then do the following:
- Download the following two files:
- [PIONEER-DDJ-SB.midi.xml] (https://github.com/wingcom/Mixxx-Pioneer-DDJ-SB/blob/master/Pioneer-DDJ-SB.midi.xml)
- [PIONEER-DDJ-SB-scripts.js] (https://github.com/wingcom/Mixxx-Pioneer-DDJ-SB/blob/master/Pioneer-DDJ-SB-scripts.js)
- Copy these to the
[Mixxx Directory]/controllersfolder. This will probably be one of the following locations:- Windows:
C:Program FilesMixxxcontrollers - Linux:
/usr/share/mixxx/controllers or /usr/local/share/mixxx/controllers - OS X:
/Applications/Mixxx.app/Contents/Resources/controllers/
- Windows:
- Make sure your Pioneer DDJ-SB is plugged in and turned on
- Open (or restart) Mixxx, and enjoy using your (semi-functional) controller
What's implemented?
I've only implemented what I need and 'know of' for now...
General
- Cross-fader
- Volume ControlChannel, Master and Headphones
- Manual FilteringHigh, Mid and Low
- Playlist browsing
- Back : switches between Tracklist and Sidebar
- RoatrySelector : browses through the Tracklist of the Sidebar
- RotarySelectorClick : Expands or Collapses the Sidebar item
- Load : loads the selected track in the Left or Right deck
- Sampler Control
- Push : Starts playing the sample from start
- Shift-Push : Stop playing the sample
- Pitch Control
- Inverted. With my current skin I can not get this to work as intended even if I change the setting
Deck Controls
Play / Pause / Cue
- Cue: Sets the Cuepoint when not playing, Jumps to Cuepoint when playing
Vinyl Mode
Keylock
Precue'ing
Hotcue Control (4 can be set)
- Push: Sets the hotcue and lights up the LED of the pushed button.
- Push again: Turn of the hotcue point
Autoloop Control
- 4 Autoloops can be set (no shift use on Performance Pads yet) on: 1 beat / 2 beats / 4 beats and 8 beats
- If you want other beatloops you need to change the xml and the LoopInterval Enum in the Init() function
Manual loop Control (still buggy)
- In : Sets in point
- Out : Sets out point
- Exit : Not working yet. Pretty annoying :)
- 1/2 : Cut loop in half
Jogwheel ControlWhen playing in normal mode, only touching/turning the side will result in pichbend. All otherinteractions are disabled in this mode.
NORMAL MODE (when playing)
- Pitchbend using the side of the Jogwheel
NORMAL MODE (when not playing)
- Scratching / Seeking when turning the Jogwheel surfaceI've switched this to Scratchmode, it makes seeking by using the jogwheels quicker.
For the next mode I've tried to make the DDJ-SB behave like a vinyl as much as I understand of it.
- VINYL MODE (when playing)
- Brakes when touching the Jogwheel surface, Starts again when releasing.
- Pitchbend using the side of the Jogwheel
- VINYL MODE (when not playing)
- Scratching / Seeking when turning the Jogwheel surface
What's missing?
- Shift Functions of the Performance Pads
- Manuel loop bug
- Reversed Pitch Control
- Channel Filters
- Crossfader Automatic Filter
- Effects (Not available in Mixxx I think?)
- Decks 3 and 4
I will definitly fix the Manual Loop bug and as I go along and need more stuff I might implement the exta functions (Performance Pads Shifts) same goes with deck 3/4 which, atm, I don't need those.
If I stumble upon good code to do the filtering, I will probably implement that too. Suggestions are welcome.