how are you liking it as a controller

Only had it for the day so far and haven't really gone deep into it.

Some things I like, some I don't.

Outside of the drum machine - which is unique to the Roland gear - the things that immediately stand out is the sound quality and the low latency platters; the latter which you can really feel. I'd put it close to the responsiveness of actual vinyl and better than DVS at 1ms buffer.

Build seems just ok - very light and not as solid feeling as the SR2 - for instance the knobs have a little bit of wiggle right out of the box.

Controls aren't as comprehensive as the SR2 with some features buried under layers of pages and shift-functions (most notably to me is key shift requires 2 page button clicks and then shift-clicking the parameter buttons whereas there are dedicated controls on the SR2). The lack of jog wheel indicators is annoying (especially considering there are some LED lights that do gently rotate, but are useless for scratch tracking), and it's still a bit bigger than I'd like.

Pads feel a bit stiff, but the sensitivity can be adjusted in the hardware - although even the most sensitive option doesn't feel as responsive as pioneer pads.

This DVS glitch is a bit of a pisser tho as this and the SR2 are the only 2 channel controllers that support DVS right now and if this is a known issue that they can't fix, then it's pretty much just the SR2 as an option.

Going to give it about a week of testing and practice before I start writing and filming the review tho. And I'm hoping to hear back from Roland or Serato about this issue and see if it's a known issue or if I just a defective unit.

That’s interesting what OS X are you on? If it’s High Sierra can you test a diff OS X on a diff machine. That doesn’t sound right but like you said could be a defect.

El Cap - don't have another laptop right now, but when I link up with my partner for rehearsal next week, I'll try on yosemite.

It's pretty much unusable - audio cutting in and out with nasty distortion. Similar to a super dirty needle but only when cutting fast.

Is the 505 compatible with El Capitan?

If you check the official page there is only drivers for 10.12 and 10.13

Scratch that

It's supported from 10.10 to latest.

do you have pitch n time dj enabled? if so, turn off pitch n time as it should make a huge difference.

Nothing to do with pitch and time. I’ll upload a video and show what’s going on. Its pretty much unusable in DVS with turntables (works fine with cdjs or any line-level input).

Makes me think it could be he preamps in the controller.

On my 808...the channel switch is set to PC..and my db sensativity in Serato is set to -72...sounded distorted at -48.

Jackdhouse, what firmware version are you on?

1.10

I tried all the sensitivity extremes with no difference in results.

Did you make sure the switch is set to Phono? DVS is Phono signal

505 doesn't use a specific switch to change the inputs like others - it relies on a selection in the software - which could mean this is a software bug, but that's a pretty major miss on their part.

Ahh Gotcha damn hope they fix it soon. So DVS sounds bad?

This dudes DVS sounds fine...
youtu.be

yea, i'm certainly not getting that kind of performance - it's why I'm wondering if it's a defective unit - or maybe the firmware update fucked DVS - I didn't test DVS until after I upgraded the firmware.

this is what's happening with me: Watchwww.youtube.com

I'm not touching the fader there at all and just doing fast baby scratches.

There are three switch settings for channels 1 and 2 on the front of the controller, PC, Line and Phono.

The channel switch should be set to PC not Phono for DVS use per page 8 of the 505 manual. The Phono setting is used for non DVS tone records.

Based on your video...its not a channel switch setting that would cause the issue you're experiencing.

What are the scopes like?

God that sounds horrible. Hope it gets fixed soon. Did you try new cartridges? I would recalibrate. Both decks behave that way?

Scopes look fine. Hell it functions fine if I’m just mixing or doing slower drags. It’s just when I start scratching or cuing fast that it breaks up.

Both sides, tried brand new control vinyl, haven tried a brand new needle yet, but have tried on multiple needles.

Exact same hardware setup produces no issues on my 62 nor did it do anything like that when I was testing out an sr2.

What OS X? I see this as maybe a os problem with Serato? Have you tried a previous version of SDJ?

Going to link up with a friend who has yosemite and the DVS plugin tomorrow and see if that works.

Have you tried this


Returning to the Factory Settings (Factory Reset)
The system settings and TR-S patterns stored in the DJ-505 can be returned
to their factory-set state (factory reset).

1. While holding down the [LOAD] button in the left side (L channel)
of the browser section, and press the [POWER] switch to turn on
the power.
The display indicates “FACT ,” and the [START/STOP] button of the TR-S
section blinks.
* If you decide to cancel the operation, turn off the power.

2. Press the blinking [START/STOP] button.
Factory reset begins.
When the display indicates “CPLT,” factory reset is complete.

i did that immediately after updating the firmware (as suggested by the manual). I assume that means a factory reset does not reset the firmware to the older version seeing as I still have some of the new features. If you know of a way to revert to an older firmware, let me know cause I want to see if it's the new firmware that's causing this issue (didn't test before updating).

So I dug up an old ortofon cart and the issue didn't happen. I think it has something to do with their pre amps and the higher output of Shure m44-7 needles.

Majornoversite considering how popular 44-7s are...

That said, I've been in touch with roland and they said they are going to address it in a firmware update.

I found a solution on my own DJ 505, do a default reset of your usb buffer size. It worked for me...

hi , i have the same problems with my dj505 the sound of dvs it's shit . i tried with my akai amx and de same needle (shure m44-7) and the technnics 1210 the working perfectly. i very confused for why is the fucking problem. i make resets . unistall drivers . and the problem its the same .but the jogwheels working perfectly in dj505 its only the dvs , so i dont know if is for driver or software or for the gain in the needles shure m44-7 , but its crazy and imposible play dvs in this mode

Reach out to Roland!

Only solution is to use quieter needles like ortofon nightclubs or S types or run the turntables through their own preamp and run into line mode.

Whatever reason, roland completely fucked up the DVS preamps on the 505 and loud carts like the 44-7 just doesn’t work properly with it.

It’s a good thing I didn’t get the 505 so instead I went with the SR2 which sounds phenomenal w/DVS.

Really? One of the reasons I returned the sr2 was that the sound quality was pretty meh.

I knew the problems the original Sr had with sound quality and wasn’t hoping the Sr would have solved them but it sounded pretty mediocre in my tests.

I find even my Vci 380 sounds better than the sr2.

Granted this was before I had tried out the 505 ad discovered the myriad of problems with it.

At this point, my next controller is either going to be something that hasn’t been announced yet, or if the mythical Mixars primo ever shows up (And it’s problem free).

The joke, is that the shure m44-7 are the last needles I buy,
I have twin mk2 nigth club concorde, but the replacement needle is very expensive,
and now that I click with time code I considered throwing money and quality .
I also have some Scratch ortofon pink, and some Stanton ScrtchMaster v3,

although all of them already without a needle, only capsules,
now I think about which replacement needle to buy because the "gain" of all is quite high

sucks!! this is the fucking hell...

tomorrow I will call roland spain to explain the problem and report the incident


thanks homie, if I do not read that you also had the same needles, I would have gone crazy looking for the problem