I am looking for a cheaper end controller just to mess about with at home, maybe use at a venue in time before I upgrade. Just stumbled across these and got instantly curious as I always avoided Gemini as budget, rubbish stuff but these seem quite solidly built and lots of bang for buck in terms of features too.
Any thoughts?
PS - on the G2V two channel version, what do the “1” and “2” bottom on the bottom, cross fader side of each deck do? Are they to switch to use 4 decks (Imassume could be mapped for this in Traktor?) or to assign FX banks to use on those decks (or something else), or to (pointlessly) assign decks to channel 1/2 on the mixer?
I had a G2V for a brief period of time. The numbers at the bottom near the crossfader is for crossfader assign.
The reason I say ‘brief period of time’ is due to having returned it because of problems that arose. The chassis itself is very solid and the entire unit has some weight to it, but the rest is a different story. In my experience, the Cue buttons eventually stopped working so I had to remap it to the Cup button to even use them. Before then I push Cue and it would sometimes input that I did a Shift + Effects command instead of actually Cueing. The jog wheel would also stick. Pushing it down to scratch/scrub through a track would work, but upon letting go it would stay stuck that way until I pushed down on it again.
All in all it has a great amount of functionality for the price, but you can still see the corners they cut to bring it down to that price.
Kind of funny you are debating about getting this controller to use with traktor. There is a good video review I will post here when I get home about the g4v. For 399 a 4 channel mixer with performance pads and actual 4 readable line meters is unheard of. I am more then likely going to purchase this because right now 4 channel mixers for traktor cost at least twice as much. There is actually a traktor g4v mapping on here that I heard works well. If I get it before you I will let you know my findings and if you get it sooner if you could do the same I would appreciate it.
Indeed! I think it looks good. However, seen another couple of teasing options too and looking for recommendations. Ideally want to spend as little as possible but trug to decide between:
Numark Mixtrack Quad (£130 used)
Novation Twitch (£160 used)
Pioneer DDJ Ergo (£170 used)
Pioneer DDJ SB (£200 new)
Gemini G2V (£235 new)
Gemini G4V (£300 new)
Numark NS6 (£320 used)
Which of these is best for a beginner to learn the skills needed to be able to jump obto any DJ setup and also hoping to eventually play smaller bars etc (guy who plays the bar on Friday nights currently uses Mixtrack Pro 2).
Well a lot depends on your dj software of choice. I personally prefer tractor there is just a lot more you can do with it musically. The ns6 is a serato controller imo outdated for a serato controller because no performance pads. And again I prefer traktor. The twitch has no jog wheels I think it’s important to learn at least the concept of what you can do with the jog wheels when starting out especially. The pioneer ddj so is another serato controller but I am pretty sure it’s plastic construction hence the cheap price. Numark mixtrack Quad to me looks like a toy. I do not like the build quality plus I am pretty sure altho it has drum pads they don’t work the same as like the g4v and g2v. The g4v is probably my favorite put of those because it’s metal build. The actual performance pads. And the individual line meters. It’s just not common at all in a controller of this cost. These are just my opinions obviously.
Basically I just want a setup I can learn basic skills on, not be too dependant on the controller or software and have something that would be alright to play in smaller bars in time.
The NS6 looks and seems the most pro but if I only want to try and DJ without being too dependant on tricks of the controller/software, is the drum pads and so on necessary?
In terms of software, most are ‘designed’ for their own specific software, such as the Gemini for VDJ, NS6 for Serato etc but all can be mapped for Traktor and VDJ, and most of them for Serato too. with regard to software, I have previously used Traktor with an S4 and found it quite overwhelming and the simpler approach of Serato does look appealing.
The Ergo is a decent lil controller for very little money, I bought one a few weeks back on a whim and can’t really complain about it at all. The jogs feel good, and all the controls feel solid - although I did change the gain knobs as they were really tiny.
People complain about the build and price yes the body is plasticy, but no worse than low end CDJ’s and all the pots are metal shafted and screwed onto the faceplate and there is dedicated filter knobs which is a nice touch. I wouldn’t pay full retail for one, but for that price I’d jump on it. Also it can be used along with an ipad which is pretty nifty - so gets the thumbs up from me.
You are only starting out, spend little, buy second hand and you’ll probably sell the unit when its time to upgrade for almost as much as you bought it for.
The Gemini Stuff might be made of metal, but that ain’t gonna help if the electronics inside it fry, it has not really been tested in the wild and if you are starting out FX / Pads / loop buttons / effects etc are probably going to hinder your growth as a DJ rather than enhance it.
I do like the look of the Ergo. Looks solid, yet lightweight and has a more ‘pro’ look than the other budget stuff, whilst also looking uncluttered and sensibly laid out to learn ready for Pioneer CDJs.
I apologize I guess I just look at the design of the ergo as definitely cheap (non pro) build quality similar to like the mixtrack pros by numark. They are limited in what they do I am pretty sure it is usb powered which in my experience the sound quaility isnt there either. Plastic controllers that are cheaply built if they drop get hit or anything will break faster then electronics would ever fry inside of a better built controller. Also with the mappings you can find in this forum, or someplace like traktor bible you really arent limited to what the controller is designed for. As far as serato goes they are pretty strict on what can and can not work with there software. Serato is pretty much plug and play as far as there controllers go, meaning you arent going to find serato mappings the same way you would find traktor or vdj mappings. This is all opinion end of the day figure out what works best for you and go for it. For me the performance pads when using traktor, serato, or even vdj 8 makes it easier to set multiple hot cues, preset effects…etc. Good luck to you hope everything works out for you.
With all that being said I would definitely spend little because the chances are whatever you get you will end up selling to upgrade to something better. Second hand is the way to go you can get whatever controller you want for half the price sometimes what you would pay for a new one.
Theres been lots of talk about metal Vs Plastic controllers thoughout the years … personally Ive only seen 1 plastic controller that was damaged beyond repair due to being dropped from a height.
I’ve seen hundreds of Metal DJ mixers and “pro audio” gear in for repair due to internal parts failing.
Lets be fair, the damage you incur to your gear when gigging is most likely going to be caused by a drink being poured over it.
Being USB powered does NOT affect the sound quality of a controller, you might notice that “pro” sound cards like the Native instruments Audio2 are usb powered as well.
The Ergo has a Bloody Good sound card and in fact its Signal to Noise is 101db vs the Gemini 90db
So long as its the Ergo-K .. the white one does actually look pretty cheap IMHO
First check you have proper midi In/out ports selected. There are numerous cases where midi notes in one mapping trigger something “hardcoded” into Traktor.
I used to have the DDJ Ergo and it was a solid controller, never had any problems with it. Worked with all softwares across the board, all tightly integrated. The only gripe I had with the unit was the way it looks, it just looks childish, more like a toy. Now I’ve bought into the Native-Instruments ecosystem, and I must say that I love it.
