Gemini CDMP-2600 CD/USB player

[boatman]

I recently acquired a Gemini CDMP-2600 twin CD/USB player and, since this is a new machine to the market, I thought I would share some findings with you all.

 

First of all this is what it looks like (click on the picture for a larger image).

 

http://sites.google.com/site/johnfromarran/Home/files-for-download/CDMP_2600_small.jpg

 

The unit consists of two 2U panels which are connected together with two control cables. These cables are 1.2 metres long so there can be some space bewteen the two units. The control connectors are DIN style but look like a proprietry design as they have 13 pins and look slightly fragile so should be treated with care.

 

The top unit contains two identical control panels and is only 60mm deep including the four buffer type feet on the back. The lower unit contains the two CD drives and the power supply and is 270mm deep. The CD drive unit is substantially heavier than the control panel as it also contains the common power supply.

 

The machine will play normal audio CDs with excellent search, pause and cue facilities. It will also play .mp3 and .wav files from a CD-R or a USB stick. There are some slight restrictions in that there can only be one level of directory on either the CD-R or the USB and there must only be .mp3 or .wav files present. The presence of any other file type may not cause problems, but I haven't tried it as the manual is quite specific. Although it will play .mp3 files at any sample rate, there is a slight problem in that the .wav files must be recorded at 44.1kHz sample rate or they won't play at the correct speed. I am currently in discussions with CGI Technologies about this, so it may be fixed. Anyway it's only a minor irritation.

 

The outputs are unbalanced so if you have a long run to your mixer you may need some DI boxes. In my case it sits on a small shelf immediately above the mixer trolley so unbalanced outputs are fine.

 

Here's a close-up of one control panel (click on the picture for a larger image).

 

http://sites.google.com/site/johnfromarran/Home/files-for-download/CDMP2600ControlPanel_small.jpg

 

As you can see it is essentially a DJ tool and there are several features which may never be used in a theatre situation, but they all work well. There is a built-in cue feature where if a track is stopped and restarted anywhere other than at the beginning a cue point is automatically marked and pressing the CUE button will immediately go back to that point. Another quite useful feature is the loop. A loop start point can be marked when a track is playing by pressing the "IN" button and the end point by pressing the "OUT" button. The loop will then play continuously until the "OUT" button is pressed again and the track will continue past the out point. Pressing the "RELOOP" button will jump back to the start point again and play the loop continuously until the "OUT" button is pressed again. I have experimented with the pitch bend feature but don't know if I would ever use it.

 

Personally, at an RRP of £369 including VAT, I think this machine is excellent value for money and very easy to use.

 

Please ask if there are any points of interest which I haven't covered.

 

Edit: to fix SPaG and a broken link (I hope).

[boatman]

.

.

.... Although it will play .mp3 files at any sample rate, there is a slight problem in that the .wav files must be recorded at 44.1kHz sample rate or they won't play at the correct speed. I am currently in discussions with CGI Technologies about this, so it may be fixed. Anyway it's only a minor irritation.

.

.

 

Just to let you know that I have heard back from the design engineer for CGI Technologies in the USA and he has confirmed that they are now aware of the problem but will not be issuing a fix, just an amendment to the manual which will state that all .wav files must be recorded at 44.1kHz sample rate.

[Genaudio]

Just got a CDMP-2600 to demo but I cannot figure out the folder section when playing from a USB. I have loaded the USB with a couple of tracks and added another 2 folders with more tracks. The unit plays the tracks without any any problems with fast tracking/searching, but when trying to play any of the tracks within any one of the folders the player freezes (play button & play indicator both lit). I can go back to the root folder and playing the tracks from there without any problem. All tracks are CBR320kbps.

 

And what about the LED marked "on/off hold"? There's nothing on the manual mentioning it!

 

 

 

"TRACK SELECTION ROTARY: The TRACK SELECTION ROTARY

allows you to navigate through folders or search through tracks

depending on weather you are in USB mode or CD mode.

In CD mode the rotary can search through cd tracks, turning the

rotary to the right or clock-wise advances the selection, and turning

the rotary to the left or counterclock-wise decreases the selection.

In USB mode the ROTARY knob allows you to search through folders

and navigate through music libraries on your USB device.

TO CHOOSE A FOLDER: Press and hold the TRACK SELECTION

ROTARY and turn it clockwise or counterclockwise to the folder you

wish to search through, once you have found the disered folder,

release the TRACK SELECTION ROTARY and the display will show

the first song in that folder. Once in a folder you can turn the

TRACK SELECTION ROTARY to the song you wish to play and the

CDMP-2600 will either automatically load the song when in single

mode or play the song when in continuous mode.

NOTE : ONCE YOU HAVE SKIPPED TO ANOTHER TRACK, YOU MAY NOT GO BACK TO YOUR PROGRAMMED

CUE POINT. YOU MUST BEGIN YOUR CUE SELECTION OVER AGAIN, THE CUE

WILL BE PRESET TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NEWLY SELECTED TRACK.

We recommend that you use a MASS STORAGE DEVICE that is no

larger than 2 gb and that only has less than 100 folders with less

than 1000 songs in any one folder. larger drives will work but they

will greatly affect the time in which it takes to search and or load a

song"

[boatman]

Just got a CDMP-2600 to demo but I cannot figure out the folder section when playing from a USB. I have loaded the USB with a couple of tracks and added another 2 folders with more tracks. The unit plays the tracks without any any problems with fast tracking/searching, but when trying to play any of the tracks within any one of the folders the player freezes (play button & play indicator both lit). I can go back to the root folder and playing the tracks from there without any problem. All tracks are CBR320kbps.

 

It works for me. You should keep the size of your USB stick below 2Gb and make sure that you only have one level of folders in the directory. No folders within folders as that doesn't work.

 

 

And what about the LED marked "on/off hold"? There's nothing on the manual mentioning it!

 

I agree that this is badly labelled. It is the ON/OFF LED for the PITCH slider control. You have to simply press the Pitch button to turn the function on, but press and hold the button to turn it off. I think the legend on the LED is trying to explain that but does it badly.

[Genaudio]

Really gave up on this CD player after a demo. CD's just played from an old Stanton S700 (a brilliant CD player) froze on the CDMP. Had to cycle power to restart.

 

USB stick was a 2GB with just 2 mp3 albums in 2 separate folders, won't play at all and tried another one with another set of MP3's, played ok but froze again when looking through the 2nd folder. Used an M-Audio Microtrack II via USB and tracked/played mp3/wav files very well, but same problem again. The unit freezes for nothing. Thumbs down for this unit and have to look elsewhere! Does any body know of a dual fitted Pioneer CDJ-1000 laser heads? It just plays whatever you throw at it but unfortunately top loaders are not comfortable for theatre use.

[Mark M]

Really gave up on this CD player after a demo. CD's just played from an old Stanton S700 (a brilliant CD player) froze on the CDMP. Had to cycle power to restart.

 

USB stick was a 2GB with just 2 mp3 albums in 2 separate folders, won't play at all and tried another one with another set of MP3's, played ok but froze again when looking through the 2nd folder. Used an M-Audio Microtrack II via USB and tracked/played mp3/wav files very well, but same problem again. The unit freezes for nothing. Thumbs down for this unit and have to look elsewhere! Does any body know of a dual fitted Pioneer CDJ-1000 laser heads? It just plays whatever you throw at it but unfortunately top loaders are not comfortable for theatre use.

 

Not sure if they use the same heads but how about

 

CMX-3000

 

Or the newer

 

MEP-7000

[Genaudio]

Not sure if they use the same heads but how about

 

CMX-3000

 

Or the newer

 

MEP-7000

 

the MEP-7000 costs +€1400 and the DVD part is not really needed and the CMX-3000 is not mp3 compatible.

[francesco]

I have a new firmware for cdmp 2600 gemini

 

now there isn't crash!!

 

and I can read from usb flash of 32gb,without problem!!!!

 

if you want the firmware ,I can send to you, no problem!!

 

my email is frank980@hotmail.it

 

I recently acquired a Gemini CDMP-2600 twin CD/USB player and, since this is a new machine to the market, I thought I would share some findings with you all.

 

First of all this is what it looks like (click on the picture for a larger image).

 

http://sites.google.com/site/johnfromarran/Home/files-for-download/CDMP_2600_small.jpg

 

The unit consists of two 2U panels which are connected together with two control cables. These cables are 1.2 metres long so there can be some space bewteen the two units. The control connectors are DIN style but look like a proprietry design as they have 13 pins and look slightly fragile so should be treated with care.

 

The top unit contains two identical control panels and is only 60mm deep including the four buffer type feet on the back. The lower unit contains the two CD drives and the power supply and is 270mm deep. The CD drive unit is substantially heavier than the control panel as it also contains the common power supply.

 

The machine will play normal audio CDs with excellent search, pause and cue facilities. It will also play .mp3 and .wav files from a CD-R or a USB stick. There are some slight restrictions in that there can only be one level of directory on either the CD-R or the USB and there must only be .mp3 or .wav files present. The presence of any other file type may not cause problems, but I haven't tried it as the manual is quite specific. Although it will play .mp3 files at any sample rate, there is a slight problem in that the .wav files must be recorded at 44.1kHz sample rate or they won't play at the correct speed. I am currently in discussions with CGI Technologies about this, so it may be fixed. Anyway it's only a minor irritation.

 

The outputs are unbalanced so if you have a long run to your mixer you may need some DI boxes. In my case it sits on a small shelf immediately above the mixer trolley so unbalanced outputs are fine.

 

Here's a close-up of one control panel (click on the picture for a larger image).

 

http://sites.google.com/site/johnfromarran/Home/files-for-download/CDMP2600ControlPanel_small.jpg

 

As you can see it is essentially a DJ tool and there are several features which may never be used in a theatre situation, but they all work well. There is a built-in cue feature where if a track is stopped and restarted anywhere other than at the beginning a cue point is automatically marked and pressing the CUE button will immediately go back to that point. Another quite useful feature is the loop. A loop start point can be marked when a track is playing by pressing the "IN" button and the end point by pressing the "OUT" button. The loop will then play continuously until the "OUT" button is pressed again and the track will continue past the out point. Pressing the "RELOOP" button will jump back to the start point again and play the loop continuously until the "OUT" button is pressed again. I have experimented with the pitch bend feature but don't know if I would ever use it.

 

Personally, at an RRP of £369 including VAT, I think this machine is excellent value for money and very easy to use.

 

Please ask if there are any points of interest which I haven't covered.

 

Edit: to fix SPaG and a broken link (I hope).

 

hi

 

but I want insert the update picture of update firmware,on the post.....but I dont know as