The DDJ-SB2, while indeed made of plastic, hardly feels like a toy – it gives me more of an impression that it’s meant to be a portable controller for the serious DJ, someone who uses a full club CDJ set-up but wants something handy for his or her next bar / pub gig.Īll the features from the original DDJ-SB that made it an attractive proposition are still here: the chunky / responsive jogwheels, three band EQ and dedicated filter knobs, and the switchable bank of four pads that can be assigned to control Hot Cues, Auto Loop, Manual Loop, and the Serato SP-6 Sampler. Holding the DDJ-SB2 felt familiar – I’ve DJed with many controllers over the last few years, and there are controllers that feel kinda oversized ( DDJ-SZ, and even the DDJ-SX2 come to mind), while there are ones that feel like tiny little plastic toys. Combine this with the fact that I usually come after another DJ who has his or her own controller, and it makes for a ridiculous set-up situation akin to tap dancing with your hands.
It’s big, heavy (I got the flight case), and wide, so my biggest problems with gigs are bringing the controller to the venue and setting it up in what always seems to be a tiny DJ booth made to fit just a laptop and little else. I’ve been using a Traktor Kontrol S8 for a few months now, and it’s a real beast not just performance-wise, but physically as well.
If you add in Virtual DJ 8 (you’ve got to pay the US$99 licence though) and the ability to map it in Traktor Pro 2, you’ve got a cost-effective and portable DJ controller that’s platform agnostic, letting you try out practically any major DJ software out there, or flit from app to app if you’re like me and you like to try out new things from time to time.įor this review, I tried it out with Serato DJ, so I just hooked it up to my computer and speakers and got to work. At the time of this writing, Rekordbox DJ version 4.1 has vastly improved both in stability and with its audio engine quality, so it’s starting to become a DJ app force to be reckoned with. The DDJ-SB2 is also compatible with Pioneer DJ’s Rekordbox DJ software.
It also comes with a two-week free trial period for you to see if you like it enough to purchase the full version (and you should!). It comes with Serato DJ Intro in the box, but it’s compatible with Serato DJ through an upgrade.
It has a USB socket in the back, a pair of RCA jacks for the Master output, a 1/4″ mic in jack, and 1/4″ and 1/8″ jacks for headphones. The Pioneer DJ DDJ-SB2 ships with just a USB cable – no need for a power brick with it.
First Impressions / Setting up The DDJ-SB2 has a pair of RCA outputs for Master, one 1/4″ and one 1/8″ jack for headphones, a 1/4 mic input, and a USB socket.