Saturday, December 24, 2011

Mixxx 1.10.0 Released!

Happy holidays from the Mixxx development team. After a smooth beta period, we are happy to present Mixxx 1.10.0!
Available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Mixxx 1.10.0 brings several hard-hitting features that are the culmination of a year's worth of work by the development team. 

What we're packing in Mixxx 1.10.0:
  • Rewritten and Improved Vinyl Control Support
    • Completely rewritten vinyl-style pitch-bending for clean, analog-like sound.
    • Absolute, relative, and constant vinyl modes.
    • Rock-solid support for Serato Vinyl/CD or Traktor Vinyl at 33 or 45 RPM.
    • Single-deck Vinyl Control
    • End-of-record Mode
    • Improved needle skip prevention. 
    • Can use different vinyl types on each deck!
    • Improved audio quality when scratching.
    • Support for track selection using the lead-in area of the vinyl and needle-drop hotcues.
    • Track lead-in for scratching before the start of songs.
    • Waveform smoothing to prevent wobbly waveforms.
    • New built-in vinyl signal analyzer.
  • 4 Sampler Decks
  • Beatloops, Loop Halve/Double Buttons
    • Handy beatloop buttons let you quickly throw down an 8-beat loop as you transition from one song to the next.
  • Quantized Loops, Hotcues and Beatloops
    • Turn on quantization mode for a deck and all of your loops, hotcues, and beatloops will snap to the nearest beat when you place them.
  • Phase Synchronization
    • Sync button now synchronizes both the BPM and phase of beats.
  • Beatgrid Adjust Feature
    • Is your beatgrid misaligned? Easily adjust it with one click.
  • Microphone Support
    • Streaming and club DJs alike will love this feature. Plug in your microphone and MC your show, all without the need for an external mixer. 
  • Spinning Turntable Widgets and Waveform Scratching
    • Skins now come with juicy spinning turntables that you can scratch to your heart's delight.
    • If vinyl control is enabled, vinyl signal quality can also be rendered to the spinning widgets.
    • Waveform overviews now act as a progress bar for track analysis.
  • M4A Support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users.
    • Mixxx previously could not support M4A on Windows due to licensing issues, but that restriction is now lifted with our new Windows Media Foundation M4A plugin. Mixxx on Mac OS X already supports M4A.
    • Library Improvements
      • Traktor Library Support.
      • New and improved Browse Mode.
      • Recording Improvements
        • Integrated with the library.
        • Automatically splits files into pieces to avoid large files.
        • CUE files of tracks played.
      • Much faster iTunes and Rhythmbox support.
      • Import and export of crates and playlists as M3U/PLS playlists.
      • Playlists and crates are lockable and rename-able. 
      • Dragging to library sidebar auto-expands closed sections and is easier to aim.
      • Track play count is more accurately measured.
      • Reload track metadata from context menu in library.
      • Auto-scrolling in playlists is fixed.
      • Shuffle AutoDJ Queue feature.
      • Add Playlist to AutoDJ feature.
    • Brand New and Updated Skins
      • Deere
        • 1280x800 WXGA
        • 1280x1024 SXGA
        • 1440x900 WXGA+
        • 1920x1080 FullHD
        • 1920x1200 WUXGA
      • LateNight / LateNightBlues
        • 1280x800 WXGA
        • 1280x1024 SXGA
        • 1366x768 WXGA
      • Shade / ShadeDark
        • 1024x600 Netbook
        • 1024x768 XGA
      • Phoney / PhoneyDark
        • 1600x1200 UXGA
        • 1680x1050 WSXGA
      • Outline
        • 1024x600 Netbook
        • 1024x768 XGA
        • 800x480 WVGA
    • Accessibility Improvements
      • Mixxx should play nicer with screen-readers now. It's not perfect, but a step in the right direction.
    • Limited Support for Internationalization
      • Beta translations for Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Italian, Russian, Finnish, Czech, Dutch, Polish, and Japanese
        • Thanks so much to the awesome Launchpad translators!
      • Alpha translations for many other languages.
      • Better support for UTF-8 filenames.
    • Revamped and Rewritten User Manual
    • Mixing engine improvements
      • Major efficiency and latency improvements.
        • Netbook users report latency improvements of up to 4x.
      • Sound quality is now much improved.
      • Improved support for multiple soundcards. Synchronization problems should now only affect the headphone outputs. See Bug #667651 for more details.
      • Soft-takeover support for MIDI mappings.
      • JACK now recognizes ports as Mixxx instead of PortAudio.
    • Updated MIDI Mappings
      • American Audio RADIUS 2000 (new)
      • American Audio VMS4
      • DJ-Tech i-Mix Reload (new)
      • Hercules DJ Console Mk4
      • Hercules DJ Console RMX
      • Ion Discover DJ
      • Numark Total Control
      • Pioneer CDJ-2000 (new)
      • Pioneer CDJ-850 (new)
      • Reloop Digital Jockey 2
      • Stanton SCS.1m
      • Stanton SCS.3d
      • Vestax Typhoon
      • Wireless DJ (new)
    • Hundreds of bug fixes and improvements!

    Mixxx 1.10.0 -- LateNightBlues skin

    Calling all Turntablists!
    We worked hard to make sure that our vinyl control support is the best out there. How does Mixxx 1.10.0 compare to your current software for your scratching and turntablist needs? We want to hear from you! Please send us feedbackfile a bugwrite us an emailpost to the forums, or chat with us.

    Bugs and Feedback
    You can help improve Mixxx by reporting any bugs you find. Your feedback plays a crucial role in Mixxx's development cycle, and even filing a quick bug report makes an important contribution to the project.

    Join Mixxx!
    We're always looking for new contributors who are interested in working on Mixxx. If you're a hacker or artist and want to work with a creative, enthusiastic team, hop on our IRC channel (#mixxx on Freenode) or sign up for our developer mailing list.

    Thursday, December 1, 2011

    Mixxx 1.10.0 Launch Party in Boston, Tonight! December 1st, 9pm

    Come join us to celebrate the imminent release of Mixxx 1.10.0!

    We'll be partying at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge, MA at their weekly Make It New event.

    To celebrate the release of Mixxx 1.10.0, all the DJs will be using Mixxx.

    Check out the Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/124855847626527/

    Sunday, November 6, 2011

    Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta and Mixxx 1.9.2 Released!

    After a long hiatus, we're back! The Mixxx development team is pleased to announce the release of Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta and Mixxx 1.9.2!
    Available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

    Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta brings several hard-hitting features that are the culmination of a year's worth of work by the development team. 

    What we're packing in Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta:
    • Rewritten and Improved Vinyl Control Support
      • Completely rewritten vinyl-style pitch-bending for clean, analog-like sound.
      • Absolute, relative, and constant vinyl modes.
      • Rock-solid support for Serato Vinyl/CD or Traktor Vinyl at 33 or 45 RPM.
      • Single-deck Vinyl Control
      • End-of-record Mode
      • Improved needle skip prevention. 
      • Can use different vinyl types on each deck!
      • Improved audio quality when scratching.
      • Support for track selection using the lead-in area of the vinyl and needle-drop hotcues.
      • Track lead-in for scratching before the start of songs.
      • Waveform smoothing to prevent wobbly waveforms.
      • New built-in vinyl signal analyzer.
    • 4 Sampler Decks
    • Beatloops, Loop Halve/Double Buttons
      • Handy beatloop buttons let you quickly throw down an 8-beat loop as you transition from one song to the next.
    • Quantized Loops, Hotcues and Beatloops
      • Turn on quantization mode for a deck and all of your loops, hotcues, and beatloops will snap to the nearest beat when you place them.
    • Phase Synchronization
      • Sync button now synchronizes both the BPM and phase of beats.
    • Beatgrid Adjust Feature
      • Is your beatgrid misaligned? Easily adjust it with one click.
    • Microphone Support
      • Streaming and club DJs alike will love this feature. Plug in your microphone and MC your show, all without the need for an external mixer. 
    • Spinning Turntable Widgets and Waveform Scratching
      • Skins now come with juicy spinning turntables that you can scratch to your heart's delight.
      • If vinyl control is enabled, vinyl signal quality can also be rendered to the spinning widgets.
    • M4A Support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users.
      • Mixxx previously could not support M4A on Windows due to licensing issues, but that restriction is now lifted with our new Windows Media Foundation M4A plugin. Mixxx on Mac OS X already supports M4A.
      • Library Improvements
        • Traktor Library Support.
        • New and improved Browse Mode.
        • Recording Improvements
          • Integrated with the library.
          • Automatically splits files into pieces to avoid large files.
          • CUE files of tracks played.
        • Much faster iTunes and Rhythmbox support.
        • Import and export of crates and playlists as M3U/PLS playlists.
        • Playlists and crates are lockable and rename-able. 
        • Dragging to library sidebar auto-expands closed sections and is easier to aim.
        • Track play count is more accurately measured.
        • Reload track metadata from context menu in library.
        • Auto-scrolling in playlists is fixed.
        • Shuffle AutoDJ Queue feature.
        • Add Playlist to AutoDJ feature.
      • Brand New and Updated Skins
        • Deere
          • 1280x800 WXGA
          • 1280x1024 SXGA
          • 1440x900 WXGA+
          • 1920x1080 FullHD
          • 1920x1200 WUXGA
        • LateNight / LateNightBlues
          • 1280x800 WXGA
          • 1280x1024 SXGA
          • 1366x768 WXGA
        • Shade / ShadeDark
          • 1024x600 Netbook
          • 1024x768 XGA
        • Phoney / PhoneyDark
          • 1600x1200 UXGA
          • 1680x1050 WSXGA
        • Outline
          • 1024x600 Netbook
          • 1024x768 XGA
          • 800x480 WVGA
      • Accessibility Improvements
        • Mixxx should play nicer with screen-readers now. It's not perfect, but a step in the right direction.
      • Limited Support for Internationalization
        • Beta translations for Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Italian, Russian, Finnish, Czech, Dutch, Polish, and Japanese
          • Thanks so much to the awesome Launchpad translators!
        • Alpha translations for many other languages.
        • Better support for UTF-8 filenames.
      • Revamped and Rewritten User Manual
      • Mixing engine improvements
        • Major efficiency and latency improvements.
          • Netbook users report latency improvements of up to 4x.
        • Sound quality is now much improved.
        • Improved support for multiple soundcards. Synchronization problems should now only affect the headphone outputs. See Bug #667651 for more details.
        • Soft-takeover support for MIDI mappings.
        • JACK now recognizes ports as Mixxx instead of PortAudio.
      • Updated MIDI Mappings
        • Hercules DJ Console RMX
        • Reloop Digital Jockey 2
        • Stanton SCS.1m
        • Stanton SCS.3d
        • Vestax Typhoon
        • American Audio VMS4
        • Wireless DJ (new) 
      • Hundreds of bug fixes and improvements!

      Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta -- LateNightBlues skin


      New Stable Release: Mixxx 1.9.2
      We're also pleased to announce the release of Mixxx 1.9.2, the latest stable version of Mixxx. This update brings some key bugfixes to the mixing engine and library.

      Calling all Turntablists!
      We worked hard to make sure that our vinyl control support is the best out there. How does Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta compare to your current software for your scratching and turntablist needs? We want to hear from you! Please send us feedbackfile a bugwrite us an email, post to the forums, or chat with us.

      Standard Beta Disclaimer
      Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta has been heavily tested by our die-hard bleeding edge test subjects. That said, the usual warning applies: You should not play live with Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta unless you are willing to accept the risk of a crash during your set! We are not responsible if Mixxx 1.10.0 Beta eats your baby, sets your house on fire, or gets you fired from your residency at Club Booty.

      Bugs and Feedback
      You can help improve Mixxx by reporting any bugs you find. Your feedback plays a crucial role in Mixxx's development cycle, and even filing a quick bug report makes an important contribution to the project.

      Join Mixxx!
      We're always looking for new contributors who are interested in working on Mixxx. If you're a hacker or artist and want to work with a creative, enthusiastic team, hop on our IRC channel (#mixxx on Freenode) or sign up for our developer mailing list.

      Tuesday, May 24, 2011

      Mixxx in Your Language!

      Do you want Mixxx translated into your language? Mixxx 1.10.0 will be our first foray into internationalization and we need your help! If you want Mixxx in your language, please head on over to Launchpad and help with the translation effort.


      We're hard at work on bugfixes as the 1.10.0 development cycle is coming to a close. Hopefully we'll have a beta for you all soon.

      Wednesday, May 4, 2011

      Boston Mixxx Meetup -- Tonight at 9pm!

      Calling all Boston-area Mixxxers -- tonight we're hosting an impromptu Mixxx user meetup care of the Redhat conference that's in town this week.

      Join us at the World Trade Center at 9pm tonight to hang out with other Mixxx users and developers. We'll have a bunch of gear to play with and we'll be showing off some of the latest features in the upcoming Mixxx 1.10 release. Come check it out!

      More info is on the mailing list.

      Monday, April 25, 2011

      Google Summer of Code 2011 Projects!

      The Summer of Code is upon us! Google has just announced which students Mixxx has accepted into the Google Summer of Code 2011 program. Students were competing for one of three slots awarded to Mixxx by Google. This year we received a high volume of applications from many skilled students which made the decision-making process very difficult.

      After over two weeks of deliberation, we're pleased to introduce our Google Summer of Code students for 2011:
      • Bill Good from Oklahoma State University in the United States
      • Bart Verstrynge from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium
      • Qifan Xi from the University of Waterloo in Canada
      Qifan Xi's project will involve building a smarter search feature into the library. For example, a context aware search could allow DJs to easily search for tracks that have similar BPMs to the song that's currently playing.

      Bart Verstrynge's project will be to build a DJ session history into the library, so that DJs can easily recall playlists of their past DJ sets. This would be useful for radio DJs who are required to document the music that they play and for DJs who wish to post their tracklists on the web.

      Bill Good will work to further decouple the Mixxx user interface from the audio engine. The goal will be to rework the boundary between these two parts of our codebase so that animations can be processed independently of audio, which lead to smoother animations and a more consistent user experience across different hardware.

      We're very excited for Bill, Bart, and Qifan to work with us this summer. These projects each have the potential to add extra functionality and polish to Mixxx, and we're very grateful for Google's generosity in enabling this work. The 3 will be mentored by RJ Ryan, Tobias Rafreider, and Phil Whelan. Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have some hot new features for you to play with!

      Meanwhile, the Mixxx team is working full-speed ahead on Mixxx 1.10, which we hope to release in May. At this point all the new features are complete and we're fixing bugs. Look for a beta release in the near future!

      Sunday, February 20, 2011

      Mixxx Debuts as #1 Free App in the Mac App Store


      How are you doing up there, Angry Birds?

      In less than 48 hours since we went live, Mixxx has become the #1 Top Free App in the USA, Germany, and Italy. We're also one of the top 3 Apps in Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, and the UK. 

      We're completely overwhelmed by the response - I don't think anyone saw this coming. We wanted to be in the Mac App Store to reach more users, and now we're reaching far more than we ever expected!

      I'd like to thank our entire community of DJs, artists, and developers for their dedication and cooperation that have brought Mixxx this far. Without the devotion of many individuals, Mixxx would not be the software it is today.

      Feed a Hungry Mixxx Developer
      As a shameless plug, I'm finishing my degree next month and I'm looking for a job! I'm interested in pursuing a career in game development or live performance audio software. If you know someone who needs a C++ programmer with several years of experience with Qt or real-time audio, please let me know!


      "honestly, this is perhaps the BEST app that is currently available for free... if you enjoy music, this is a MUST!"  - VBkappasig

      Saturday, February 19, 2011

      Mixxx 1.9.0 Released!

      The Mixxx development team is pleased to announce the release of Mixxx 1.9.0!


      Available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux



      Mixxx 1.9.0 adds several major new features including Shoutcast support, direct deck outputs for external mixers, and ReplayGain normalization. We've also added many enhancements to the library, a revamped default skin, and more! 

      Some of the new features added since our last major release are:
      • Shoutcast / Icecast support
        • Mixxx can now broadcast over the internet (heavily requested feature)
      • External Mixer Support
        • The new Sound Hardware preferences pane allows you to route each playback deck separately, which allows you to use Mixxx with an external mixer.
      • ReplayGain normalization
        • A user from our forum worked closely with our developers to fully implement volume normalization, including performing the ReplayGain analysis for tracks which are not tagged.
      • Waveform Gain
        • The scrolling waveforms now scale according to the channel gain for better visual feedback.
      • Key lock buttons
        • Formerly known as "pitch-independent time stretch", there are now easily accessible key-lock buttons for each for deck.
      • Revamped default skin
        • Since the original source material for the Outline Netbook skin was lost eons ago, our artist completely redid it from scratch and tweaked it for better visibility. The new skin has also added EQ kill switches.
      • HSS1394 support (Windows, OS X)
        • Mixxx now supports firewire HSS1394 MIDI devices such as the Stanton SCS.1 series.
      • Improved FLAC support
        • We're now using libFLAC directly for smoother FLAC decoding.
      • Revamped metadata parsing
        • Integration of TagLib allows Mixxx to parse more metadata from songs, and do it more consistently.
      • Metadata writing
        • Mixxx can now write changes in song metadata back to disk. This feature is off by default, and can be enabled in the Library preferences pane.
      • Millisecond time display
        • The time counters in Mixxx now have an extra millisecond display.
      • Library improvements:
        • Played column - The library now indicates whether a song has been played in the current session already, and also counts the total number of times the song has been played.
        • Ratings column - 5 stars, no stars, or anywhere in between.
        • Better search - Search now searches in more columns, and by-term instead of by-phrase.
        • Revamped iTunes integration - A rewrite yielded a significant speedup of iTunes parsing.
        • Faster library scanning - The library scanner should perform much better on large libraries.
        • Inline Editing - Double click any item in the track table to edit its contents.
        • Recording to MP3/Ogg - Now your recordings can be saved in either MP3 or Ogg/Vorbis format.
      • New MIDI mappings:
        • Vestax Typhoon
        • Vestax Spin
        • Hercules DJ Console Mk4
        • Numark MIXTRACK
        • Pioneer CDJ-350
      • Updated MIDI mappings:
        • Hercules DJ Control MP3
        • Hercules DJ Control e2
        • Hercules DJ Control Steel
        • Hercules MK2
        • Vestax VCI-100
        • Reloop Digital Jockey 2
        • M-Audio Xponent
      • Tons of bug fixes and performance improvements!

      The Mixxx team would like to give a shout out to these up-and-coming contributors who had a huge hand in helping make 1.9.0 awesome (in alphabetical order):
      • Irwin Céspedes
      • Vittorio Colao
      • Joseph Colosimo
      • Bill Good
      • Anders Gunnarson
      • Tobias Rafreider
      • Owen Williams

      Mac App Store
      We're excited that Mixxx 1.9 is also now available in the Mac App Store. The version in the App Store comes with AAC/M4A support and is 64-bit as an extra bonus for Mac OS X users. However, due to licensing constraints, vinyl control is not included in this version. A version including vinyl control for Mac OS X 10.5+ Intel and PPC users is available on our downloads page.

      Bugs and Feedback
      You can help improve Mixxx by reporting any bugs you find. Your feedback plays a crucial role in Mixxx's development cycle, and even filing a quick bug report makes an important contribution to the project.

      Join Mixxx!
      We're always looking for new contributors who are interested in working on Mixxx. If you're a programmer or artist and want to work with a creative, enthusiastic team, hop on our IRC channel (#mixxx on Freenode) or sign up for our developers' mailing list.

      Update (March 14th, 2011):
      Our 32-bit Mac OS X package has been upgraded to provide better compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5. The new package is available on our downloads page.

      Friday, February 18, 2011

      Mixxx 1.9 Now Available in the Mac App Store


      The Mixxx Development Team is pleased to announce that Mixxx 1.9 is now available for Mac OS X through the Mac App Store!

      We're excited to be one of the first open source applications in the Mac App Store, and grateful for the opportunity to share Mixxx with an even wider audience. This new release brings improved iTunes integration, and exclusive to the App Store, a new audio decoder that harnesses Core Audio to bring M4A playback support to Mixxx.

      A full release announcement including a list of changes included in 1.9 will be posted in the next few days, as we're still finalizing Windows and Linux packages. We're also putting our build server to good use these days, and will have an update on that project soon. Stay tuned! 

      Tuesday, January 25, 2011

      Mixxx T-shirts - ORDER NOW!

      A big thanks to everyone who voted in our T-shirt contest!

      A couple people suggested using both designs, and that's what we're going to do! (It makes the shirt more expensive, but we think it's worth it.)

      Front side:


      Back side:



      Sizes available:

      • Small (34-36" chest, 27" length)
      • Medium (38-40" chest, 29" length)
      • Large (42-44" chest, 30" length)
      • Extra-large (46-48" chest, 31" length)
      • Extra-extra-large (50-52" chest, 31.5" length)
      Now it's time to order!

      (The below information is only for archive purposes. If you'd like to order a T-shirt, please see the latest post for current pricing and availability.)

      It's $25 for the 100% preshrunk cotton T-Shirt ($28 if you need XXL) plus $5 shipping to anywhere in the world.

      We'll place the order with the supplier on February 11, so get your order in now! Allow 6-8 weeks after that for your shirt(s) to arrive in your mailbox (though we expect them to arrive sooner than that, unless you live near the South Pole or something.)

      Thank you for your attention and enthusiasm!