Hardware Manuals
PERFORMANCE PADS
- PAD MODE. Press any of the 4 available Pad mode buttons to set the Pads to Hotcues, FX Fade, Pad Scratch and Sampler mode.
Hold SHIFT and then press any of the 4 available Pad mode buttons to set the Pads to Beatjump, Loop Roll, Slicer and Trans mode.
Note Due to firmware limitation, Split Pages are not offered from the device's Pad mode buttons. - PADS. The 8 Pads offer different functionality depending on the selected mode.
The Parameters of each mode can be adjusted from the VirtualDJ GUI (Pads section)
Read further details about Pads in the VirtualDJ 8 manual
HOTCUES
Each one of the 8 pad assigns a Hot Cue Point (1 to 8) or jumps the track to that Hot Cue Point (if assigned).
When a Hot Cue Button is unlit, you can assign a Hot Cue Point by pressing it at the desired point in your track. Once it is assigned, the Hot Cue Button will light on.
Hold SHIFT and then press a pad to delete its assigned Hot Cue Point.
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FX FADE
The FX Fade is a mode controlled from the unit's firmware. Each Pad performs a function provided from the DDJ-SB3, and cannot be assigned to any VirtualDJ action. The functionality of the Pads in this mode, only operate when triggered from the DDJ-SB3 and the Pads on the GUI will not perform any action.
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In this mode:
- PAD 1 : Press Pad 1 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking and a High-Pass Filter will be applied, starting from the Off position, gradually increasing and stop at the maximum Cut. Press again to turn off the High-Pass Filter and automatically bring Filter to its Off position.
- PAD 2 : Press Pad 2 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking and a Low-Pass Filter will be applied, starting from the Off position, gradually decreasing and stop at the minimum Cut. Press again to turn off the Low-Pass Filter and automatically bring Filter to its Off position.
- PAD 3 : Press Pad 3 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking, an Auto-Loop of 1 beat will be enabled at the current position and the Deck's Volume will gradually decrease and will reach the minimum position (Fade). Press the same Pad again, to turn off the Loop and bring Volume back to the position it was before the Pad was enabled.
- PAD 4 : Press Pad 4 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking, and the track will perform a Back-spin*. When the back-spin is completed, the track will automatically resume playing from the current position.
- PAD 5 : Press Pad 5 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking and a High-Pass Filter will be applied, starting from the Off position, gradually increasing and stop at the maximum Cut. Press again to turn off the High-Pass Filter and automatically bring Filter to its Off position. This Pad works similar to Pad 1, but the time required to reach from the Off position to the maximum Cut positions is longer
- PAD 6 : Press Pad 6 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking and a Low-Pass Filter will be applied, starting from the Off position, gradually decreasing and stop at the minimum Cut. Press again to turn off the Low-Pass Filter and automatically bring Filter to its Off position. This Pad works similar to Pad 2, but the time required to reach from the Off position to the minimum Cut positions is longer.
- PAD 7 : Press Pad 7 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking and an Auto-Loop of 4 beats will be enabled at the current After the 4 beat loop is played once, the loop size will be automatically set to 2 beats. After the 2 beats loop is played 2 times, the loop size will be automatically set to 1 beat. After the 1 beat loop is played 4 times, the loop-size will be automatically set to 1/2 beat. After the 1/2 beat loop is played 8 times, the loop-size will be automatically set to 1/4 beats and stay enabled, until the Pad is pressed again.
- PAD 8 : Press Pad 8 from DDJ-SB3. Its led will start blinking, and the track will perform a Back-spin*. When the back-spin is completed, the track will automatically resume playing from the current position. This Pad offers the same functionality as Pad 4, but the Backspin in this case will be longer.
* Back-spin duration can be adjusted from the DDJ-SB3 Utilities. See further details in the DDJ-SB3 Manual https://www.pioneerdj.com/en/support/documents/ddj-sb3/
PAD SCRATCH
Press the PAD SCRATCH mode button to set the PADs to Pad Scratch mode (button will be lit solid) and automatically load the Pad Scratch Pads page in VirtualDJ GUI
The PAD SCRATCH is a mode controlled from the unit's firmware. Each Pad performs a function provided from the DDJ-SB3, and cannot be assigned to any VirtualDJ action. The functionality of the Pads in this mode, only operate when triggered from the DDJ-SB3 and the Pads on the GUI will not perform any action.
In this mode, each one of the 8 Pads performs a different Scratch routine as long as the Pad is pressed, starting from the selected Hotcue and its steps will be synchronized to the tempo of the track. When the Pad is released, the track will resume playback.
Hold SHIFT down and then press Pads 1 to 4, to select Hotcue 1 to 4 as the selected Hotcue for the scratch routine. If the Hotcue is not assigned, and a Pad scratch Pad (1 to 8) is pressed, the selected Hotcue will be set at the current track's position.
Hold SHIFT and then press Pad 5 to select a release mode for the Scratch routines. If disabled (its led will be off), after releasing a Pad Scratch routine pad (1 to 8), the track will resume playback from the current position. If enabled (its led will be lit), after releasing a Pad Scratch routine pad (1 to 8), the scratch routine will continue until it reaches the Hotcue and after that, will continue playback.
Pads 6 to 8 when SHIFT is pressed, have no functionality in this mode.
Tip: For best Scratch performance, make sure the TouchWheelSpinThreshold setting (in VirtualDJ->Settings->Options tab) is set at value 2.0 or higher (default value is 0.8)
SAMPLER
Each one of the 8 pads triggers a sample from the selected Sampler Bank of VirtualDJ. If a bank has less than 9 samples, both sides of the DDJ-SB3 will control the same samples. If a bank has more than 8 samples, the left side of the DDJ-SB3 will control samples 1 to 8 and the right side samples 9 to 16.
Press the pads to trigger a sample. Depending on the selected trigger Pad mode, use SHIFT and the same pads to stop the sample.
Use the Parameter arrow-buttons from the GUI of VirtualDJ (Pads section) to select the Sampler Bank (previous/next).
Beatjump mode
In this mode, each one of the Pads will jump the track backwards/forward by the amount of beats depending on the selected page/bank (from 1/8 beats to 32 bars)
Use the Parameter arrow buttons from the VirtualDJ GUI (Pads section) to select the previous/next page with the desired Beats sizes
LOOP ROLL
Press one of the 8 pads to trigger a momentary Loop Roll. Once the Pad is released, the track will resume playing from the position it would have been if the Loop Roll was never triggered. The exit point will be visible on the waveform of the VirtualDJ GUI with an additional “running” play marker.
Hold SHIFT to get a ½, ¾, 1 and 2 beats Loop Roll sizes for the 4 low pads.
Use the Page menu to apply the Loop Rolls to Video.
SLICER
The 8 pads represent eight sequential beats—"Slices"—in the Beat Grid. The currently playing Slice is represented by the currently green lit pad. The light will move through the pads as it progresses through each eight-Slice phrase. Press a pad to repeat that Slice (hold it down if you want to keep looping it).
Once the Pad is released the track will continue to play from the position it would have been if the pad was never pressed.
Hold SHIFT and then use the Pads to repeat the memorized Slices (the Slices played/repeated last time)
Use the Parameter arrow-buttons from the GUI of VirtualDJ (Pads section) to adjust the length of the Loop applied to the slice. or adjust the step of the Slices
TRANS
The TRANS is a Pads mode controlled from the unit's firmware. Each Pad performs a function provided from the DDJ-SB3, and cannot be assigned to any VirtualDJ action. The functionality of the Pads in this mode, only operate when triggered from the DDJ-SB3 and the Pads on the GUI will not perform any action.
- Pads 1 to 7 perform a Cut Effect of a different size in Beats (from 1/16 to 2 beats) by automatically toggling the Deck's volume
between the current and the minimum position.
- Pad 8 offers the ability to perform a Manual Cut Effect, by automatically set Deck's volume to minimum position while pressed and set back to the previous-memorized volume when released.