Comments on: iKey $149 Portable USB Recorder: Gemini Responds In-Depth

By: SOHAIL

SOHAIL — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 07:24:38 +0000

I HAVE A DIGITAL MP3 PLAYER

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:36:00 +0000

Mine works great!
It does exactly what it’s supposed to do.
I record my band live from the mixing board and then I listen to the recordings on the way home via my ipod.
You have to also be patient when you end a recording because it may take a bit longer to close if you have other data on you drive.

The only negative thing was since I did the software updates the recording uses a ‘noise gate’ and when there is quiet parts during songs the recording cuts off and then comes back. I want to shut that noise gate off!

By: Tyler Hellard

Tyler Hellard — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:06:10 +0000

This thing is a hunk of junk. I bought mine online and it had a nasty habit of not recording for more than 30 seconds at a time with my USB thumb drive and my iPod Gen 5. So, I assumed it needed a software update. I followed the bizarrely obscure instructions from the iKey site to perform the update. The result was a $150 paperweight that won’t do anything other than blink a little now, never mind recording. I’ve sent 4 messages to Gemini looking for some support and received no reply. I’ve even called an left messages on multiple voice mails looking for some help. Nothing. Can’t return it. Can’t fix it. Sure as Hell can’t record with it. Total waste of money.

By: Guest

Guest — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 02:16:33 +0000

first, ok, so it’s “silly” to include memory, understood, so why not at least have a CF/MMC card slot at the very least, that would add a lot to this. This is already a somewhat large device, i don’t want to deal with some usb flash drive sticking out of it, it’s inconveinient and could easily damage the usb port if this is indeed portable.

second, since when are RCA jacks “professional” ? These is a garbage consumer jack, and the fact that they jut out from the device only makes things worse. This looks like a prototype, or did they not bother to pay for a designer.
A few tweaks and it could have a nitch.
But again the claim it’s “professional” i didn’t see any specs.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 20:35:15 +0000

That’s the whole problem. First, they went to MP3-only line-in recording. Now, only their flash recorder does line recording.

The industry has decided we don’t need line-in recording, but they think we’re recording from . . . I don’t know . . . our vinyl record collection or something. The idea that musicians and DJs want to record a take of their performances / rehearsals off a mixer is totally mystifying to the manufacturers. (And if you’ve seen iRiver’s marketing, that’s not ALL that they apparently find mystifying . . . )

So that leaves us with this much larger iKey, sadly.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:19:34 +0000

“Some readers have suggested using an MP3 player like the iRiver; while that’ll work, it forces you to encode to MP3 (few of the line-in MP3 features include full-fidelity, uncompressed options)”

For the record, my iRiver (IHP-120) does have an uncompressed (wav) format. I suspect that newer iRivers do as well.

I’d be quite interested in a side-by-side comparison of the two… Sam, wanna buy my iRiver and try it out? :grin

-todd k

By: tom

tom — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:50:13 +0000

Their PR department have been busy - although their response to my MT post on the same subject was rather more succint, if illiterate and anonymous:

it’s the post at the bottom