The Musignal FJ1 is the ultimate GO DJ, But it's not for sale in the USA

[admin]

Before I get into the actual topic of this post, a little Background is needed:


Background:

First, there was the Monster GO-DJ -- a diminutive DJ player mixer with 2 touchscreens -- initially released in 2012. It featured quality, mostly metal construction, and a beautifully developed User Interface. It was developed by JD Sound, a Japanese company, and marketed by Monster -- The company known for heavy gauge, quality speaker wire.


Monster GO-DJ -- Photo credit unknown


Then there was the GO DJ Plus -- In 2016, JD Sound developed the GO-DJ Plus, with the same 2 small touchscreens, a larger form factor with internal speakers, and more physical controls for somewhat more serious DJ'ing capability. Development of the GO DJ Plus was funded as an Indiegogo project.

Go DJ Plus -- Photo JD Sound Inc.

Go DJ Plus.png (167.21 KiB) Viewed 2337 times

In 2020, I Designed and Built my own GO-DJ inspired Portable DJ player/mixer. I called it the Poor Man's GO-DJ -- It was a low-budget build based on 2 Chinese media Player Modules and Analog Tone controls and mixers.

In 2022, I swapped out the Media Player Modules in the Poor Man's Go-DJ with more capable players with Color TFT screens, and other minor upgrades. I feel that it is important to note that I did not do any software development for the Poor Man's Go DJ. Functionality is limited by the player modules chosen.


The Poor Man's Go DJ.

Full documentation of my Development of the Poor Man's Go DJ can be found in this thread.

In 2024, a new company called Musignal (Which apparently grew out of the former JD Sound, and retains at least some of the key people) began development of a New Version of the GO DJ Plus. This development was funded on Makuake -- A Japanese crowd funding site similar in concept to Indiegogo. The Musignal FJ1 exceeded it's funding goal and is moving toward production.

Once I learned of the Musignal FJ1, I began to explore how I could purchase one from here in the United States.

As of this writing, I now own one of the very few Musignal FJ1's in the USA. How does it compare to the other devices mentioned, and to other portable stand-alone DJ decks?

My Musignal FJ1 - One of only a Few in the USA

Musignal_FJ1_sm_1.jpg (223.33 KiB) Viewed 2335 times

This thread will serve as a complete review of the Musignal FJ1, how I was able to order mine, a technical review, and updates as development continues.


Buying the Musignal FJ1

Again, I should reiterate that the Musignal FJ1 is a development project funded on Makuake. The Makuake campaign has ended successfully. I do not know the current availability of the FJ1 even in Japan.

So how did I get one? Buyee.jp is a proxy buying service in Japan. Buyee works with several Japanese vendors and auction sites, one of these is Mercari. I'll provide details of the purchase, shipping and --yes-- tariffs in a separate post, but I will say that it all worked out very well. I was kept fully aware of every step throughout the purchase, and it arrived in perfect condition 4 days after Buyee shipped it.


First Impressions:

When I finally purchased an original Monster Go DJ, I compared it to the simple player modules I used in the Poor Man's Go DJ, and stated:

"It puts my "Poor Man's Go DJ" absolutely to shame!"

Well -- The Musignal FJ1 puts the original Monster Go DJ, the GO DJ Plus and quite frankly, most other -- at least small -- DJ decks "absolutely to shame".

Why? What's so great about the Musignal FJ1?

As mentioned, this product is still in development. There have been 2 firmware releases just since I learned about the FJ1. As of this writing, the latest is 0.4.7 -- meaning a pre-release version -- and Yes -- as we will see, it does have bugs -- but even with a pre-release firmware, the Musignal FJ1 is more elegant, and more usable than -- for example -- my Gemini SDJ-4000.

Here's What's Good about the Musignal FJ1:

• Beautiful all-Metal Chassis. I cannot make any fair comparison to any plastic DJ player.
• Beautiful ultra-wide screen -- Yes, It's one 1920x480 screen, not 3 separate screens. I'll post more about the screen and readability in follow-on posts
• It's smaller than even the GO DJ Plus, but with fewer knobs, and no space wasted with fake turntables (they are on-screen), it does not feel crowded at all.
• With a 1.6Ghz 64 bit modern processor, it is fast and responsive. I haven't noticed a stutter since I did the 0.4.7 firmware update.
• No PC required. Musignal does not mention any separate software -- everything is done on-board (including waveforms), and it's done almost instantly.
• Full support for Cryllic, and strangely formatted file names -- So far, I have not seen any problems with any file I loaded, and all filenames are clear and readable.
• It supports lots of media formats, including High Bitrate FLAC files. It's played every music file I've tried. (See post 3 about compatible sample files.)
• It supports Modern USB Connectors -- The FJ1 has 2 full size USB ports for Media, and a USB-C port for power/charging.
• It also has 2 audio inputs and 2 headphone jacks in addition to the main RCA outputs -- more on this later.
• I was able to update the Firmware by simply copying a file to the root of the same USB device I used for my music. At least for now, I will say that this is fully Linux compatible. Even copying the FW file from your phone via an USB OTG adapter should work fine. This is truly a standalone DJ deck.
• It has a simple (for now) AutoDJ feature. It will play the files in a directory, and optionally fade the tracks together. There's also a feature to sync the beats. While not elaborate, it's a quick, easy solution for when the DJ needs a brief break. NOTE: FW 0.5.2 adds support for playlists. I should also mention that the FJ1 has a standard PC lock slot in the back, so there's more chance of your Musignal FJ1 still being there when you return.

What's Missing? What are the Omissions and Software Bugs?

• As an example of a typical FW bug -- There is a setting for Japanese or English (no other languages are currently supported), but after a full power down, it reverts to Japanese every time.
• There is no SD card slot. I suggest purchasing one or two very small form factor USB drive(s). I also have a very small USB SD card adapter, but even though it is small, It still sticks out, and has to be removed to put the FJ1 in it's included case.

The Musignal FJ1 also seems to suffer from numerous bugs that also plague the Poor Man's Go DJ. I'm not implying anything here --They certainly put much more effort into this design and they certainly didn't copy anything from $18 Chinese Media Players. This sort of development is hard, and it just happens to suffer from similar issues:

• Searching for a track/artist, etc. is not currently supported.
• The Musignal page says that microphone level audio input will be supported, but the current FW has no way to change the inputs from line level to mic level. At least for now, the FJ1 must be used along with a separate mixer if you need microphone support.
• Bluetooth is not supported. There is also no streaming capability (No WiFi or Ethernet).
• It does not have any balanced audio inputs or outputs. Phantom power for condenser mics is not and cannot be supported. Long runs to amplifiers or powered speakers will likely be problematic.
• Previous comment here about "power problems" has been deleted. Musignal recommends a 45W PD charger for the FJ1, and with a suitable PD charger, the FJ1 operates and charges without issue.
• I haven't tried a .PLS or .M3U playlist, but there doesn't seem to be any playlist support except the AutoDJ feature mentioned above. NOTE: FW 0.5.2 adds support for creating/editing playlists stored internally as .M3U8 files.
• The current FJ1 Firmware does not seem to include tracking of which songs have been played in a given session or count number of times played at all. The original GO DJ had many features like this. The FJ1 does indicate which song (and path) is loaded into each player. NOTE: FW 0.5.2 adds support for play history, including creating a .M3U8 history that can be copied to a playlist.
• Album art is not (currently) supported.

I have a small indoor event scheduled for this coming Sunday, and I plan to use the Musignal FJ1 as my primary player. The Poor Man's Go DJ will come along as backup.

Note that there is a GO DJ owners' Facebook page. I will not link to a Meta/Facebook site, but if you are part of that group, please mention this site/forum.

Also, please check back for updates and more information.

[admin]

In the post above, I made reference to "... at this price point...", but I never actually stated how much the Musignal FJ1 costs or how I was able to purchase my Musignal FJ1. This post will also serve as a review of Buyee.jp.


How Much does the Musignal FJ1 cost?

As it turns out that this simple question is not so easy to answer. As mentioned the initial post, FJ1's (including the one I eventually purchased) were made available as part of a Kickstarter - like funding program on the Japanese site Makuake. The site lists a planned retail cost of 92,000 Yen -- or about $592 as of this writing. There were various promotions for participants to reserve an FJ1 for around 58,000 to 59,000 yen -- about $372 -- which really does put the FJ1 in "Poor Man's Go DJ" range.

However, 2 things have changed: First, the Makauke funding campaign has concluded, and even if you live in Japan, purchasing one (at any price) from the Makuake site is not possible.

Second, due to global trade and tariff turmoil (Yes, the current trade situation is not just in the USA, nor is it due to any one world leader), it is currently expected that the price of production units will increase to 128,000 Yen -- or about $825 as of this writing.

That would put the FJ1 close to the price range of the the Denon Prime Go+, which has far more features, and a more professional compliment of connectors. In short, if Musignal can't keep the retail cost of production units to 120,000 Yen or under, I think the FJ1 may remain a rarity.


Getting my Hands on a Real Musignal FJ1

I quickly realized that the Musignal FJ1 was not available at retail anyplace -- let alone someplace that would ship to the USA. Of course I checked eBay (more on that later), eBay Japan, Amazon.jp, etc. (apparently eBay is not very popular in Japan)

I eventually found a few (about 5 total) on 2 Japanese auction sites. Searching was difficult because the listings are in Japanese, and searching in English doesn't translate. Also some listings did not include the term Musignal (even in Japanese characters). Searches for "FJ1" mostly resulted in listings for parts for the Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Of course all of the items found were from individual sellers. Some stated that the items were in new condition, and unused. They were mostly listed for around 68,000 Yen to 75,000 Yen. I assume some were specifically purchased from the Makuake campaign with the intention of a quick profit.

By looking at the pictures that popped up -- what I assume was under "related items" or some such words in Japanese -- I was able to find one that was admittedly used for 62,000 Yen on the Japanese action site called Mercari.

In my searching, I also learned of a company called Buyee.jp. Buyee works with Mercari (and other Japanese retailers and auction sites), and will ship to the USA.

By translating and cutting and pasting the exact auction description, I was finally able to get the action for the used FJ1 to appear in Buyee.


How Buyee.jp Works

Buyee.jp is a proxy buying site. When you find an item you want, you send Buyee.jp the money (typically via PayPal). Buyee tacks on 2 small fees (a total of $5.38, for this purchase). Buyee then purchases the item from the auction site (Mercari in this case) and has it shipped to their warehouse in Tokyo. The 62,000 Yen included shipping, but of course that is the shipping to Buyee's warehouse in Tokyo -- not the shipping to me, or any other fees or tariffs.

Since this was a "Buy it now" action, Buyee informed me almost immediately that I had "won" the item.

While no tracking was provided about shipping from the seller to the Buyee warehouse, the item arrived in Tokyo in about 3 days.

Buyee then opens and inspects the item. I'm not sure if Buyee actually tests electronics, but they make sure that the item appears as described. Buyee then repackages the item for international shipping. At this point, Buyee requests PayPal payment for international shipping and tariffs.

Shipping methods were a little confusing, and it said that most shipping methods to the United States were not available due to current trade restrictions. Only 2 were available, and I choose "Buyee Shipping", which was the fastest. It turns out that "Buyee Shipping" was -- at least in this case -- FedEx.

Express Shipping and Tariffs added $120.


Shipping and Tracking

As with the initial purchase, Buyee acted very promptly. My package left the Buyee warehouse within hours of me sending the Shipping and Tariff fees.

FedEx tracking showed my item moving within Tokyo. It seemed to stay at the Narita (Tokyo, JP) airport for a while, but this was probably due to the timing of arrival at Narita, and probably that it went through US Customs in Narita.

Tracking the package across the Pacific Ocean was interesting. Since it crosses the international dateline, it actually arrives in Anchorage, Alaska before it leaves Narita JP. I was also able to track the exact plane (there is only one FedEx flight from Narita to Anchorage per day) via Flightaware. The FedEx updates and the times of the flight on Flightaware correlated exactly for departures, and within minutes for the arrivals. The pilots actually get 2 separate mornings of the same day -- about 7 hours apart. I was also impressed at the speed of the Boeing 777ERF that my FJ1 hitched a ride on. The speed of a 777 combined with the jetstream meant that my FJ1 was flying at a ground speed close to the speed of sound.

My FJ1 stayed on the same plane to Newark, NJ, and then on to Memphis, TN. In Memphis, it's unloaded from the 777, and put on a 767 to complete it's airborne trip to Florida. I didn't track the flight from Memphis. I had to sleep at some point.

Once it was loaded on the truck for delivery, it was handed to me by the FedEx driver within the 2 hour delivery time that FedEx promised.


Conclusion:

The transaction via Buyee.jp was painless (except for the tariffs). I can confidently state that Buyee.jp is not only legitimate, but very professional and efficient.

My Musignal FJ1 arrived very nicely packaged and was in perfect condition.


Footnote: The Denon Prime Go+ (and other Denon stand-alone DJ players) run Engine DJ. Engine DJ is based on Linux. (See update below)

[admin]

How to load Sound Files onto the Sample Pads of the Musignal FJ1:

What follows is a combination of information from a Google Translated (half translated) version of the Musignal FJ1 owners manual, and my own (successful) attempts to get my sound bites onto the FJ1's pads.

Again, this is platform agnostic, so this is (actually most) easily done in Linux.

The following assumes the current firmware (0.4.7) on your Musignal FJ1:

Steps:

1.. Create a folder called "pads" (without quotes, of course) at the root of the drive you will use in the FJ1. (so far only tested for USB port 1)
2.. In this folder, create sub-folders. I named mine 01, 02, etc. Each folder will represent a bank of 4 Pads. I'm not sure how many banks you can have, but it's at least 8.
3.. Place your effects in the sub folders. For example in /pad/01/ I have Boo.wav Buzzer.wav Clap.wav Test.wav
4.. These must be 48000Hz sample rate .wav files. Keep the filenames short so that they fit in little squares that represent each pad. The extension will not be shown. NOTE: 44100Hz WAV files did not work.
5.. Properly eject the drive and put it in the FJ1.


How to Fix your sample files (if needed):

This is the command I used to fix and name the .wav files I was using in other players (as an example). Note that the input file can be almost any format -- not just .wav. It just needs to be a reasonable size for a sample or a sound bite.

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -i "T06.wav" -ar 48000 "Drum.wav" 

I should note that this is the first time I've had a machine that properly displays the sample names without using external software. Again, the Musignal FJ1 is truly stand alone, and even the pre-realease FW is more functional than production versions of the FW on most other DJ player/mixers.


On the FJ1:

Move the small switches at the lower corners to "PAD".

Use the Function-A and Function-B encoders to select PRESET --> or PRESET <-- and then press the encoder until the samples are shown in each player as you want them. The FJ1 seems to remember these settings so you don't have to repeat this every time you power up.

Description of the sample play modes:

DRONE -- The sample will play as long as the pad it pressed. It will stop when the pad is released.
1 SHOT -- The sample plays once and then stops for each time the pad is tapped. Tapping the pad again forces the sample to start over.
LOOP -- The sample will play repeatedly until the pad is pressed again. It will not play again until it is complete.
HYBRID -- The sample will play as long as the pad is pressed. It will stop when complete. It will start over if the pad is released and pressed again.

So, for example with a sound bite like "applause" or "boo", 1 SHOT provides the expected behavior. It would probably also be the default setting for drum beats.

Note also the VOLUME settings. One of my complaints about the Gemini SDJ-4000 was that there was no way to mix the levels of the samples with audio playing in that player (that I know of). Again, the FJ1 pre-release SW is better than production SW on a machine that costs twice as much. Volume of the samples in each player can be set in steps of 10%.

Just for those curious, I should mention that the Musignal FJ1 does not have the Piano or Guitar functionality like the original GO DJ had. It also has only 4 + 4 pads as opposed to the 8 + 8 virtual pads on the original GO DJ, or the 8 + 8 physical pads on the GO DJ Plus.

My Poor Man's Go DJ has 8 total pads that are separate from either player. The sample pads have their own level control and headset preview switch.(Actually a 3 channel mixer).

[admin]

Musignal FJ1 New Firmware Released. 0.4.11. 2025-12-17 UPDATE: Keep Scrolling for the 2026-02-10 Firmware


Translated Release Notes:

Version 0.4.11 (2025.12.17)

Fixed the initial pitch bend width and BPM width
Recovery mode correction included
Including measures for aircraft that have already installed 0.4.7


Installation:

The new firmware weighs in at 270.5 MB (270,549,675 bytes), being only a slight increase over 0.4.7. It takes a while for that ~1/4 Gig to swim under the Pacific Ocean.

Best practice -- as it's name implies should be -- practiced. In this case, that means verifying checksums of downloaded files. so I dragged and dropped the firmware file at the end of an md5sum command, and verified the result against the value on the Musignal website. That was Good Practice, however, I did the md5sum on the copy in my Downloads folder. Better Best Practice (I am NOT soliciting comments on my use of the English language), would have been to do it after the firmware file was copied to the USB drive. Apparently, I'm still doing better than Airbus did with a Commercial Airliner software update, so I figured it was good enough for a DJ player.

Since the 0.4.7 firmware fails to retain the language settings, the message indicating that a new firmware was found appeared in Japanese. Again, not wanting to take any chances, I didn't want to just hit the button that I thought was Cancel (gray), change language, and then try the update. NOTE: You cannot go to the menu, and change language while the dialog is displayed. I decided that it was best to fire up Google Translate Camera mode on my phone, and make sure of what it said, and the options.

Once in the Recovery or FW update screen, I was able to press the Language icon in the upper left, and continue the update in English.

In my case, the battery was already at >85%, and I had a plain 5V USB power source connected, so I figured I was safe to continue. I strongly recommend a healthy battery *and* a good external source of power before attempting a firmware update.

The update proceeded smoothly, and the update screen looks very nice and professional.


Firmware 0.4.11 Comments:

To be perfectly honest, I have no clue as to what anything in the 0.4.11 release notes are talking about. I had not noticed any of the referenced issues. I'll also note that it's not just me referencing Aircraft Flight Software when speaking of firmware for a DJ player, but I am assuming that is just a Google Translate "peculiarity".

So for me, nothing seems to have really changed. The bug relating to retaining the selected language across a power cycle is still present and search is still not implemented.

I'm still very impressed with the sophistication and functionality of the Musignal FJ1. The cadence of FW updates is also very encouraging. I very much look forward to what the New Year will bring.

[admin]

Yes, the Musignal FJ1 does run Linux.


This is clearly stated in the following video at the 12:05 mark:

https://youtu.be/Hse37iu-cZo?si=goReZxJDIaf5j8HJ&t=725

This is a video interview with someone called Miyazaki, and identified as a developer at Musignal.

[admin]

New Firmware for the Musignal FJ1 has dropped.

#GO-DJ

The first Musignal FJ1 firmware of 2026, and the the first firmware since the availability of the initial retail units has been released.

FW 0.5.2 weighs in at 270.3 MB (270,321,739 bytes) and has an MD5 of 65c40c2bc9d2dc67f8efa282e3901a54 -- and yes, I verified it on the USB drive this time.

Here is a quick Google Translation (with clean up) of the update notes:

Version 0.5.2 (2026.2.10)

■BPM pre-analysis
Press and hold the folder or drive you want to analyze for one second → OK and start the analysis
■Updated date and time, BPM order sorting
You can change the tab of the file browser by tapping
Ascending and descending order in ▲▼ on the upper left
■CUE Marker Display
CUE1 to 4 information set to the left of each file is displayed
■History preservation function
You can choose not to save in the display settings Menu, load time, 10s after playback
You can create a date folder called YYYY-MM-DD in the History folder
You can erase the History folder, date folder, and playlist by long-pressing
You can copy it to the playlist by long press and hold the date folder
■Playlist creation function
Click [Create new playlist] in the Playlist folder to create one playlist
How to add songs to playlists is as follows
Open the playlist you want to add in B
Press and hold the song you want to add in A (A and B are OK even if they are the opposite)
You can change the name by holding down the playlist
You can erase the Playlist folder, playlists, and playlists by long-pressing
You can change the order by pushing the playback list
■ Assign SHIFT function to the Monitor button
If you press and hold the Monitor button at 500ms or more, SHIFT=ON
When it is released, SHIFT = OFF
■Information display
File When you select a file on the file browser, the artist name, album name, and last playback date and time are displayed
■Time display
You can select the stopwatch and the current date and time in the display settings menu
You can switch between 24h and second displays.
■Effects on line input
You can choose to apply an effect to the line input in the FX settings menu
■ Turntable
Save the state of the turntable
Improved sound quality of scratch sound
■Bug Fix
Fixed a bug in loop and CUE jump system


My Notes:

-- Search function has not been restored. The Search Tab is not present in my file display on any recent FW.
-- The issue where language settings are lost after a power cycle has not been fixed.
-- The new Playlist function is a very welcome addition. I am anxious to try it out. Playlists seem to be stored in a standard m3u8 (UTF-8 encoded m3u), but they are stored in internal storage, and not on the USB drive. This is good because it does not put other files on your music drive, but it also seems to indicate that you cannot create playlists on a PC, and then copy them to the FJ1.
-- History seems to work as mentioned above. This is also a great update. There is no history indicator at the left in the file list like there was on the original Go-DJ, only the last played date/time in the top row.
-- The inclusion of time display is a nice addition. I was literally thinking of putting a simple stick-on clock on my mixer. Unfortunately, the time display seems to be quite buggy at this time. 1) It seems to loose time significantly. after 24 hours mine is now 5 hours behind. Note that I have set it twice, so I doubt that this is due to an error on my part. 2) At some point, it seems to have reverted to stopwatch mode.
-- Also on the new clock function -- The encoder knobs do not work to set the time/date. It would be much faster and more convenient to set the time/date with the encoder instead of only having the touch screen to do this.
-- The pre-analyze function also a welcome addition. It was more elegantly implemented on the original Go-DJ, when it happened mostly in the background, and the only indication was the cool pink LEDs. In this case, it takes over one player, but it can be started and stopped at any time, and it picks up where it left off. It takes about 3-4 seconds to analyze a typical 3-4 minute song. Both players cannot be used simultaneously to speed up analysis. If an un-analyzed track is loaded in the other player, that singe track analysis can happen simultaneously. Since it actually loads a track into a player to analyze it, the progress can be monitored by watching the little triangle that shows what track is loaded in what player.
-- The new Information display in the files section only works if a song has been analyzed. Album art is still not supported.
-- I don't see any updates to using the Line inputs as Mic inputs. In fact some settings for the Line Inputs seem to have disappeared. I'm beginning to wonder if they have realized that the input hardware just does not have the sensitivity to work as mic level preamps.
-- If a track is playing, and stop (play/pause) is pressed, the player will slow to a stop, emulating pressing a turntable. I do not remember this being the behavior previously. As the notes indicate the sound of scratching is improved.
I will add to this list as I have time to more fully explore all the new features.


Just a comment -- this is not a "dig" at Musignal, but 0.5.2 indicates that this is still a pre-release firmware (pre 1.0), and yet they have already had an initial production release sale, and they have a waiting list for more production units. I'd probably do exactly the same thing, as not only does it allow them some income, but it also gets units in users hands for feedback (like this post) and thus faster fixes. I continue to look forward to more features and fixes, and continue to be impressed by the quality of the firmware updates, and the new features added.

I'll also mention that they have been working on their website, and that both the Japanese version, (which seems to be more like a support page), and the English version, (which seems to be more like a consumer/sales website) are very professional, and visually attractive.

Buy more Musignal products! I'm literally selling all my DJ players and mixers except my MuSignal FJ1 and my Yamaha 01v mixer. I will also keep my Poor Man's GO-DJ (because I made it), and my Original GO-DJ (Backup, and a piece of history),

[admin]

More Details on Playlists on the Musignal FJ1 standalone DJ player/mixer firmware 0.5.2

#Musignal #FJ1 #DJ #ProAudio

Last Night, I created a playlist with the new playlist capability of the FJ1 firmware 0.5.2

Here is a more detailed description of the process, with some comments.

-- Tap the File icon in either player, then using the encoder, select Playlist, and then [Create new playlist]. This will create a new file with a name such as PLAYLIST0000.m3u8. Playlists can be deleted or renamed by long pressing on them.
-- Select the playlist with the encoder. (Note that touch does not seem to work once we enter the File section.)
-- Tap the File icon in the other player. Navigate to a track that you would like to add to the playlist, and long press on it to add it to the playlist.
-- Note that long pressing a track will not produce the Add to Playlist dialog unless a playlist is open in the other player. It does not matter which side contains the playlist and which side you are using to select tracks, only that they are both open simultaneously. If the playlist is closed, long pressing a track will soon cease to produce the Add to Playlist dialog. I encourage Musignal to look at this operation carefully as should the user close the playlist, there seems to be a race condition between successfully adding a track to a playlist, and the option to long press timing out. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong from either a ergonomics point of view, nor is there any actual bug, it's just that in the past I have encountered similar situations where a bug was eventually discovered.
-- With both the Playlist and Files open in separate sides, Continue adding tracks to build out your playlist. Note that for each track, the track must be long pressed, and then Add to Playlist selected. It's a straight forward workflow, but it is slowed by the time delay for the OK/Cancel dialog to pop up and the step of selecting OK. Note also that while the press on the track must be done with the encoder button, "OK" can be selected with an encoder twist and a press, or with a touch. Again, not a bug, but it just feels unfinished, or a little awkward.
-- In the playlist, long pressing on a track will bring up an option to delete the track from the playlist. Holding the encoder down and rotating will move the track within the playlist.
-- To begin playing a playlist, Turn on Auto DJ from Menu --> Auto DJ, and select the options for Cross Fade and Beat Matching as desired. Note that if you select Beat Matching, tracks should be selected and ordered so that there are not sharp changes from the BPM of one song to the next, as the Auto DJ will apply any pitch change necessary to sync the beats, and for some song pairs, this could sound almost comical. I generally use Cross Fade, but not Beat Matching.
-- From the Playlist select a track to begin playing, and load it in the normal manner. The track will begin playing, and approximately 30 seconds before the end of the track, the next track in the playlist will load into the other player. This next track will begin playing about 15 seconds before the end of the first track, and FJ1 will nicely fade from one to the other. The same will continue through the playlist. When all tracks are played (in order), Auto DJ will loop back to the first track in the playlist, and continue playing. There is no feature for random play.
-- To exit Auto DJ mode, turn it off from Menu --> Auto DJ. The current track will play to the end (if playing), and then stop.
-- In essence Auto DJ works like it always did, and the playlist is simply a directory of files. It works very well, it's cool to watch, and unless you are really live mixing tracks, samples, and effects, it's your audience is probably never even going to notice the difference.


A few other Bugs/Issues:

-- Any file can be added to a playlist -- e.g. a .jpg or a .pdf I assume that a non-music file (or a corrupted music file) is just skipped if encountered during Auto DJ, but I have not tried this.
As long as this does not cause any problems, It may be a handy "hack" to insert comments in a playlist. For example, create an empty file called "=== Second Set ===" or "=== Slow Songs ===" Order the playlist, along with the bogus files, and you have your whole night setup right in the playlist.
-- If the last track (or file) is deleted from the play list, another ↑ is displayed in it's place. This additional ↑ is functional, and disappears if selected or the playlist is scrolled, but the expected action would probably be that the playlist scrolls down.