There
seems to be a trend over the last few years - brands that were
once put on a pedestal and worshipped unreservedly have seen
their reputation and status seriously knocked. And some of the
bargain basement low rent manufacturers have decided that enough
time has been spent at the bottom of the brand ladder and have
made moves to raise their game and grab some of the market from
the ivory tower names (or do a Numark as we call it in these
parts).
One such brand is Gemini. It's fair to say that the level
the brand is still pitched at the lower end but the fresh blood
in the driving seat is moving into different markets. Enter the
iKey. What this little virgin white gadget does is to sit between
the mixer and a USB storage device and record the output directly
to the external device in either MP3 or WAV formats. And on the
whole it really is that simple.
In a special review, various members of the skratchworx team
were able to blag iKeys from various sources and have a tinker
in our own environments and perhaps slightly different needs
of the iKey to see if it really can deliver utterly simple direct
recording to digital formats. Let's see what Deft has to say
about it:
Deft's iKey Review
The
majority of small gadgets seem to be an i-something these days.
Everyone wants a piece of the overwhelming popularity (and sales)
that Apple have generated with their ubiquitous portable music
player. The styling of the iKey is obviously a nod in the direction
of the iPod, but it does also partner quite well with the aforementioned
player.
The premise of the iKey is pretty simple - you chain a
USB mass storage device to it (not included!) and the iKey works
as the A/D converter and writes the audio to the storage device
as a standard WAV or MP3. Any plug & play storage device
will do (i.e. one that doesn't require additional drivers). There
is a whole section of the manual dedicated to iPod use and setup,
if you are that way inclined.
The unit has gold plated RCA connections
and a little level control wheel to avoid clipping. It seemed
happy taking signal strengths ranging from -10dBV upto about
around +8dBu I think (as much as I could squeeze from the RCAs
on my SA-5). The main problem being that there is no level metering
whatsoever, or any sign that you are close to clipping before
it happens. When the clip light flashes it is DEFINITELY clipping,
so you are a bit stuffed if it does occur. You can obviously
set the level control to a more conservative point to leave yourself
more headroom but then you push yourself nearer the noise floor.
The
unit has the facility to record 16-bit 44.1Khz WAV or encode
direct to 128/192/256kbps constant bit-rate joint-stereo MP3.
The choice is yours, providing you have enough storage. The
iKey has it's own progress indicators to let you know when the
target storage is reaching capacity.
So, how is the quality? Kind
of what you expect at the price range and given the market it is
aimed at. It's not going to win any awards for pristine audio quality,
and there is definite low level buzzing on the direct to MP3 encoding.
The WAV mode suffers a very slight cyclical background noise too.
The actual quality of the MP3 encoding is not great when comparing
to the same audio encoded with the LAME 3.90 encoder, at the same
bit-rate. Obviously, the audio has to go through an A/D conversion
too in the iKey, so it's probably a combination of the unit
and the encoding. The encoder, as identified by Encspot, is
QDesign (fast mode). I couldn't get hold of the codec to test
away from the iKey but searching for it didn't bring up too
many glowing reports! I'd definitely stick with WAV if you
can.
Overall, the iKey fits with the intended use for capturing
a boatload of audio direct from a mixer or other line level
device, quickly, easily and efficiently. The compromise for
the portability and price is the less than perfect audio quality.
Given the target market, this seems a sensible route and worthwhile
trade-off to take for Gemini, considering most dj types will
have an iPod ready for recording onto.
Pros
RCA connectors
Handles good range of typical input levels
Simplicity
Ease of use
Highly portable
Cons
Dubious MP3 encoding quality
No 320kbps MP3 setting
No level metering
Rating - 80%
Thanks to Nikki at MaxBorges for the review unit
Gizmo's Review
I
had a conversation with the guy from Gemini at MusikMesse last
year. Like many others he told me of all the hot new things that
were coming our way but mentioned a cool little USB recording
device he'd come up with. "Can I see it?" I asked?. "Oh I only
sketched it out last night" came back the vapourware smelling
response.
Well it's vapourware no more. The iKey is real and it works.
Shamlessly jumping on the iThisAndThat bandwagon that shows
no signs of stopping, the iKey is unashamedly aimed at iPod users
- and why not indeed. Apple own the mp3 player market thus meaning
that many people have got some sort of storage about their person
at all times.
But it's not just iPod users who benefit from the
iKey - you can use pretty much any USB storage device with the
iKey. I've successfully tested it with a 3G iPod, a shiny new Nano,
a USB key, compact flash card via a media reader and a 250gb hard
drive. It has to be said though that I found the non-iPod solutions
to be easier, simply because they mount on my Mac desktop as drives
and files are dragged and dropped whereas with the iPods, you have
to either use iTunes or do some fancy terminal hacking to get to
the invisible folder.
Size
wise it's perfect. As you can see from the pic, it's all dinky
and iPodish. It happily fits in a pocket or snuggly in the corner
of a bag, provided you use batteries. Obviously, if you bring along
the supplied power adaptor, things begin to get a little more bulky.
But rather than spend a small fortune on AA's, the iKey doubles
as a recharger as well. Quoted battery life is 4 hours so you'll
be able to get a fair amount of audio recorded before the iKey
needs more juice.
As far as making a recording goes, it's extremely simple - but
in usage and function. Plug the iKey into the desired line level
output, attach the external USB media and you're off. Granted you
have to get the input level just right - a light stays on if it's
too quiet but sadly there's no light to tell you if is turning
into a distorted mess. Next hit the select button to get the desired
format, hit record and you're recording.
Quality wise, the iKey isn't going to please audiophiles. Backing
up Joe's findings, the MP3 format isn't great, with a heavy dose
of background buzzy hiss at all compression levels. WAV really
is the only way to go with the iKey unless your USB device is woefully
small or short on space. Here's some audio samples:
128k
MP3 - 192k
MP3 - 256k
MP3 - WAV
To
sum up, I really like the iKey. It's a keenly priced no-frills
box that does exactly what it says it does. It has no pretentions
of being some high end digital recording solution, simple a quick
and dirty solution to a long standing problem.
It's a shame that
the MP3 quality isn't as good as it could be as this would reduce
the need for larger storage options to be bought and carried
around (10meg=1 minute of sound for WAV). But I'm led to believe
that the iKey can and will be software upgradable so the MP3
encoding will almost certainly be improved in time. However as
it stands, it's perfect for my simple plug and play needs. And
if you buy one understanding that the price and functions reflect
the resulting quality, you won't be dissappointed.
Rating - 87%
Big thanks to Geoff at Gemini US for the iKey - see you soon for a Guiness!
