What do you think about Gemini MDJ-1000?

[Reticuli]

They seem to be improving their product but the fact is that.. They clearly don't know what they do exactly... they look like some untrained retarded guys trying to take off an Airbus plane
DJ equipment need to be serious, rock solid and stable. It's not always possible with the price range Gemini is on, so that's why in my sense they should stay simple and remove some functions that "amateur DJs" (those who buy this crap) don't really need because they clearly showed their lack of ressources.

I agree it must be rock solid and they tried to do too much. They're starting to allow some features (analysis) to be disabled, both because I find that "amateur DJ" cheat shit annoying & distracting, it's completely inappropriate for open deck nights and tutoring new DJs, and because I figured it would speed things up and reduce the variables that could be contributing to issues. With browser split screen also gone, delayed, or optional, I think browsing would likely be improved in both function and speed. The option to make it on, off, delayed, or with push (4 settings values possible) would be optimal, I think. Then there are all the glitches and oversights here and there I've mentioned that, when resolved, the performance and stability could start being focused on. I think it's strange v6.5 has analysis, BPM detection, and sync performance all improved, but that may have been something that was already close to seeing results on. I will say that they do spend too much time on that extra junk when there are core capabilities that need the attention still. I am crossing my fingers this progress can be kept up and continued, though, regardless of how they are unfortunately prioritizing. Oh, and the real difficulty is landing, not take-off :-)

P.S. The problem with big loops seems to be resolved or at least mitigated. If they're really long, sometimes it seems to just delete the In point. You can do a loop of a couple minutes now, though, instead of weirder behavior. Also, the setting of BPM to manual and BPM lock to 100 is not effective as a means of changing the 130 default value to confuse people less. Upon reboot later, it keeps the 130 as some kind of background sync value and then pitches the track down until it would be 100 BPM. This is with analysis off.

[Reticuli]

[Reticuli]

I was wrong about there being negative time added before the beginning of tracks. But it doesn't jump forward on scratching back at zero anywhere near as often and if the main cue is there, it makes no difference. Almost never jumps forward on main cue scratch anymore. It occasionally puts a hot cue forward when pause at the main cue, though, but can be fixed by playing and scratching to the main cue and setting the hot cue that way if it's glitchy.

Slip much of the time appears to deactivate AutoCue (not continuous play) so that it plays into the next track if you get that far. That might be intentional.

While the on-screen/HUD marker moves consistently, the LCD ring in the middle of the jog drifts when scratching a significant length. Doesn't bother me, but worth mentioning.

[Reticuli]

The top green status text that replaces the filename, track, artist text could last one half the time or less and still be an effective status message. It lasts too long, in my opinion. Small niggle.

The sound on the Gemini through SPDIF is a touch dry or lacking in musical nuance compared to the Pioneers and Hanpins. Not sure why. Hard to put my finger on. Doesn't wow me like the others do, almost like there's subtle quantization distortion or jitter present. Doesn't have the liquidity and inner light of the others. This might be just a processing issue, in which case it can be resolved. I have not tested it with RMAA on 6.5, but this is perplexing considering it appeared to fall between the objective results of both the others in prior tests. Granted, RMAA only tests a few things and isn't the most reliable. Hopefully they can improve the internal processing sound quality and especially make it essentially bit perfect at zero pitch except when the filter is On.

Over SPDIF, there seem to be fewer ticks and clicks on starting tracks, but on the MP2015 I found the sound seemed to be muted for brief moment upon starting a track. I have not noticed this on the Numark/PPD, Pioneer, or Denon. Not sure if this muting is the fault of the Rane or some synergistic issue between it and the Gemini. The Pioneers and Hanpins do not exhibit this with the MP2015, though.

[DjBlend]

So I been using the Gemini MDJ 1000 with the 6.5 firmware up date. At first I didn't think the update did anything cause I didn't see any improvements everything was doing the same like before the update, but one of the first Things I remember to do was to make sure I had a USB drive that was a fat32 and made sure it was songs that I analyze on Vcase. So for the most the songs were actually analyze and the beatgrids were lined up with the beats of the songs. So basically I was finally able to do some beat matching and able to blend songs together even with sync sometimes. One of the main problems I'm having is the sync, When I turn it off it won't say off and the master (blue BPM numbers) doesn't stay with the lead song, and lot of times with sync on, I'll press play and the song will jump out of sync. haven't tried loops and cues yet. maybe be after the next firmware update we will be able to actually use these players.

[Reticuli]

So I been using the Gemini MDJ 1000 with the 6.5 firmware up date. At first I didn't think the update did anything cause I didn't see any improvements everything was doing the same like before the update, but one of the first Things I remember to do was to make sure I had a USB drive that was a fat32 and made sure it was songs that I analyze on Vcase. So for the most the songs were actually analyze and the beatgrids were lined up with the beats of the songs. So basically I was finally able to do some beat matching and able to blend songs together even with sync sometimes. One of the main problems I'm having is the sync, When I turn it off it won't say off and the master (blue BPM numbers) doesn't stay with the lead song, and lot of times with sync on, I'll press play and the song will jump out of sync. haven't tried loops and cues yet. maybe be after the next firmware update we will be able to actually use these players.

I'm going to sound like a jerk here, but I firmly believe that sort of stuff's the last thing Gemini should be fixing. I'm turning as much cheats and automation off on them and just attempting to do the most basic stuff first.

[deevey]

The sound on the Gemini through SPDIF is a touch dry or lacking in musical nuance compared to the Pioneers and Hanpins. Not sure why.

If a flat sounding deck was the only problem

I'm going to sound like a jerk here, but I firmly believe that sort of stuff's the last thing Gemini should be fixing. I'm turning as much cheats and automation off on them and just attempting to do the most basic stuff first.

I'm gonna sound like a bigger jerk and suggest that there should be a class action or recall ! .. Seriously with the amount of MAJOR issues that it seems these decks have with even the most basic functions I'm surprised they are still selling them without a big warning sticker

Any chance of a (short) list of what DOES actually work (correctly as stated in the manual) ?

[Reticuli]

If a flat sounding deck was the only problem



I'm gonna sound like a bigger jerk and suggest that there should be a class action or recall ! .. Seriously with the amount of MAJOR issues that it seems these decks have with even the most basic functions I'm surprised they are still selling them without a big warning sticker

Any chance of a (short) list of what DOES actually work (correctly as stated in the manual) ?

Oh, they do measure flat. I don't know why they sound amusical and dry the way they do.


Off the top of my head what works:

Three of the four units turn on.

It seems to remember settings I save in the options menu.

You can turn off analysis.

The jog pitch bend is better than the Pioneer CDJ-1000/900/2000 series and the Hanpins (ADJ, Stanton, DJ-Tech, etc).

Slip works.

The HUD doesn't seem to drift like the center LED ring does when scratching.

It will play at least a minute or so usually without a single skip in simple continuous playback, so skips of blended tracks during a transition are fairly rare now, though occasionally seem to still happen.

The pitch resolution is as-good or better than Pioneer in the pitch ranges available below 16%. They have 25% range, which is pretty cool. If they can double the pitch resolution of at least 16 and 25, then I think they'll have more useful pitch resolution than Pioneer even if they can't get 50% and 100% back when in Link.

The rotary encoder for track selection works.

Holding the Back button returns to the HUD from the browser.

You can now do long loops.

You can see filename in the HUD at the top.

You can usually set a cue with your hand on the platter predictably, and if it's in pause, put your hand on the platter, hit play, and scratch back slightly and it won't jump a couple seconds forward.

Reading small, individual USB drives seems to work better than larger drives and/or using the link.

MIDI and HID mostly works... until it doesn't, and assuming you have a mixer with soundcard in it.

You have a better than 50/50 chance I think now of only a slightly frustrating hour or two of simple mix DJing out of the units with some scratching thrown in if you're into that, assuming you follow certain limitations like not fast forwarding VBR tracks, not using the Next Track button, and being patient with the browser and response. Longer length use will probably be enough time to become grating and increased likelihood of exposure to embarrassing glitches.

***

As I tried to put in my latest Amazon review update, prior firmwares were like the pit of despair, at least for standalone non-MIDI/HID. This is comparatively progress. If they get the sound cards back (I assume it's not me, happens on desktop and laptop even after re-installing drivers... just thinking of other users, I don't care about HID/MIDI much) and fix the track search and track next functions, get rid of split screen browser or add some other option with it, add a simple read-only Fat32 mode, I think there's possibility of working out the other bugs and refining things. It's pretty intolerable to fast forward in a VBR track and it goes to the next track, or a unit reboots because you tried to go to the next track intentionally.

Yeah, the turkey being a little dry (to borrow Homer Simpson's line) is the least of the MDJ's worries... along with (gasp!) autosync.

And V-case... Jebus. I don't even want to think about that.

[JeanSB]

Just posting this message because I'm impressed.. I'm impressed by how the designer of Gemini's DJ products sucks.. Come on guys, this is ugly as hell:

[Reticuli]

I think tubes (what the Brits call valves) and tube emulation may help mask some of the Gemini processing dry sound quality, as tube sound does similarly somewhat mask less than perfect room acoustics. I find the MDJ more listenable with a Stax tube headphone system over analog or connected digitally to the PPD9000 with tube mode on. Of course, I think the Pioneer's bit-perfect sound at zero pitch is even better, but it's not as noticeable a difference with tube goodness present in the path.

Also, I had some issues getting the MDJs to read drives larger than 2tb: >2tb drives with only 2tb fat32 partitioned or with >2tb drives entirely partitioned & formatted NTFS. Pioneers had no problem with the former, but can't read-only the NTFS. However, a 2tb advertised drive (actually less than 1.9tb) is read fine as either fat32 or NTFS on the MDJ. The specific 2tb Western Digital drive I'm trying right now that did work does a funny thing where plugging it into the unit causes the MDJ to reboot. Maybe a clean boot isn't so bad? Maybe it's a power issue? Minor quirk.