Hi, my current setup is
1 cdj1000mk2
1 Technics 1200
1 cdj500s
1 djm-300s

I brought the 500 recently (secondhand) and from the time I got it Ive noticed the jog wheel is very sensitive. Ie. speeding up and slowing down it always over corrects no matter how little I turn it.
Ive used 100s 800s and 1000s and have never seen a wheel this sensitive.

My question is has any1 else used the 500s and noticed this. I basically want to know if this is normal or if mine is damaged in some way. I ve never used a 500 b4 and have no access to another to test. I'm slowly getting used to it but it really can b annoying sometimes.

Thanx

hmm.. is yours the mk2 (LTD) edition?

I have the 500-II-LTD (later model) with the improved jog-wheel - I actually find quite the opposite - it doesnt really change the pitch much unless i push on it... and once I finally do get it to change the pitch, its too agressive. I imagine if I got used to it, it'd be no big deal, but screw the jogwheel!

the cdj500's pitch is fairly accurate and quick - i just match on the pitch with my cdj.

I'll repost part of an old post of mine reguarding why smaller jog wheels are more sensitive and harder to use. The main point to mixing with a small jog wheel will be more difficult when you come from TTs versus coming from CDs and switching to vinyl. The jog wheel isn't too sensitive to mix with, you just have to move it very slowly and realize that the quicker you turn it, the quicker it responds (ie the response is not linear). Anyway, here is the exert from the old post. If you want to read the whole thing click here. Be forwarned that this link leads to a VERY long post.

First off, I do agree, very much that vinyl is much better for the most important part of djing: Control. I have both vinyl and CD music and both TTs and CDJs, so I can feel the difference in the control between each medium. What we disagree on, is why there is better control with vinyl over CDs. You state the better control comes from the analog pitch on the turntable versus the digital pitch on the CD decks. I think that there are two other reasons that is why the turntables have better control, and they both come down to the turntable being less sensitive to manipulation.

I’ll start by explaining what I mean by sensitive, because though it is an obvious definition, I always like to be unambiguous. A sensitive device will have a larger response to a stimulus than a less sensitive device. This stimulus is either manipulation of the platter/jog wheel or the pitch slider. The turntable is less sensitive for two main reasons. First I’ll talk a bit about geometry to make my point clearer. The circumference of a circle is the distance around the outer edge of the circle, and it increases with the diameter at the rate of Pi*d. The jog wheel is analogous to the platter on a turntable, and given such it is worthwhile to look at the diameter or circumference of the jog wheel/platter. My CDJ-100 has a jog wheel with a diameter just shy of 4”. The CDJ-800 and CDJ-1000 have jog wheels with a diameter of 7” and a turntable has a diameter of 12” (or slightly more if you count the whole platter). The circumferences of these are 12.6”, 22” and 37.7”, respectively. If each of these is divided by 360° (a full circle), then we will get the inches per degree of rotation: 0.035”/degree for the CDJ-100, 0.061”/degree for the CDJ-800 and CDJ-1000 and 0.105”/degree. To better compare the data, I shall normalize it, which basically is just dividing everything by the smallest amount, so that we can compare things on a basis of 1 is the lowest and the higher the number the better. This leaves us with 1 for the CDJ-100, 1.74 for the CDJ-800 and 1000 and 3 for a turntable. This means that a TT platter has to be moved 3 times as far to get the same advance or retard on a vinyl as the CDJ-100 has to be moved.

Usually people would be asking, don’t you want to have to move it less and want it to be more sensitive? The answer is a resounding, NO! The less sensitive the platter/jog wheel is, the easier it is to fine tune the phasing of the two tracks you are trying to mix. This is one major advantage that a TT has over a CD deck.

The second issue here is the pitch fader. Along the same lines, if you have a 10cm pitch fader that has +/-8%, like many turntables, and compare it to a pitch fader that has +/-10%, 20% or 50%, then you will run into the linear situation of the platter/jog wheel diameter. Let us compare the most drastic differences to make things as a worst case scenario. In the case of a 10cm pitch fader, a Technics 1200 with +/-8% pitch adjustment (16% total) over that 10cm range, will have 62.5mm/% pitch change. A table with +/-50% (100% total) pitch adjustment over 10cm will have just 10mm/% pitch change. Again, normalizing these numbers, the +/-8% pitch fader is 6.25 times less sensitive, and hence it is easier to fine tune the pitch on a Technics versus anything with a +/-50% pitch adjust. The size of the jog wheel isn’t something that you can change once you buy your deck, but usually if you have the option of +/-50%, you also have several other options, usually going down to either +/-8% or 10%. This closes the gap for one of the two issues anyway!

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When you dance, the DJ takes you on a journey, but he or she is usually not the focus of your experience at a club or festival or wherever you hear the music. Dancing is. Music is.