Thursday, July 1, 2010

Mixxx 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released!

The Mixxx team is pleased to announce the second beta of Mixxx 1.8.0! This release brings a large number of bug fixes, performance improvements, and even some small new features.



Here's a summary of the changes in this release:
  • Library:
    • Massive optimization of the new SQLite database-powered library, including:
      • Faster searches
      • In-memory caching layer which minimizes hard disk access
      • Faster library scanning
    • Fixed some Auto DJ bugs
    • Added tooltips to library table
    • Polished up song Properties dialog
    • Library search now looks at album names too
    • Fixed minor library rescanning bugs
    • Fixed crate and playlist creation bugs
    • Fixed drag-and-drop from network shares on Windows
    • Show iTunes playlists as sorted
  • Audio:
    • Added plugin architecture for audio playback
    • Fixed some cueing bugs with pitch-independent time stretch
    • Improvements to vinyl emulation sound quality
    • Improved performance by optimizing hard disk access for audio decoding
    • Legacy 1.7 library importer now imports cue points
    • Faster MP3 loading
    • Improved reliability with certain MP3s and OGGs
  • MIDI:
    • Improved scratching with the SCS.3d
    • Timers now available in MIDI scripts
  • Fullscreen key changed to F11 to conform to de-facto standard.
  • Tons of other bug fixes!

Hotcues
Since everyone's been waiting ever so patiently for this release, we decided to slip a bonus in for you. Mixxx 1.8.0 Beta 2 adds hotcues, which are cue points that start playing when triggered. These are handy for impromptu drumming and remixing because you can trigger different parts of a song quickly. Although our default "Outline Netbook" skin doesn't yet show the hotcue positions on the main scrolling waveform display, the hotcues do show up in the smaller waveform summary.

The keyboard shortcuts for hotcues are Z, X, C, and V on Player 1, and M, <, >, and ? on Player 2. Now go chop some beats! (Update: Forgot to mention that using the Shift key in combination with the above keys clears the hot cues.)

Audio Playback Plugins
The new audio playback plugin framework lets you to install third-party plugins that give Mixxx the ability to playback extra audio formats. Sometimes support for an obscure audio format is difficult to maintain or may be legally encumbered in certain jurisdictions, either of which would preventing us from supporting it. However, third-party developers can now add support for extra audio formats to Mixxx at their own discretion.

The Mixxx Development Team will not distribute audio playback plugins that carry legal uncertainty for us. The responsibility is solely yours to ensure that you are legally entitled to obtain and use any playback plugins provided by a third-party.

Although we don't have any official audio playback plugins available yet, we'd like to invite developers to post their plugins on the Mixxx Add-ons wiki page.

The Road to 1.8.0
Over the next month or so, we'll be wrapping up development of 1.8.0. We've still got many bugs to fix (and could use your help), but we think this latest beta release is a big improvement over the previous one. Give it a shot, and please report any bugs you find! Enjoy, and stay tuned for more news as we finally approach Mixxx 1.8.0.

27 comments:

  1. is the download size for ubuntu 64bit correct?
    beta2 5 mb
    beta1 20 mb

    or is there anything missing

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  2. Hi Zen,
    We didn't bundled the Featured Artists songs with this beta release, so nothing to worry about. :)

    Thanks for checking this though,
    Albert

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  3. thank you ALBERT, very good program

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  4. Is anyone working on an AAC plugin? I would love to be able to mix some .m4a files.

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  5. Is 1.8.0 gonna support Mac OS 10.4.11 on a G3 PPC CPU? I know its an old system but its all I have right now and I use it weekly to DJ, and I love Mixxx for DJing. I will stick with 1.7.2 if I have to, but I am liking some of the listed features of 1.8.0....

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  6. I like the irection this program is going.
    Unfortunately, it stays unusable for me:
    (Using 1.8.0B2 für Win64 on Win7 64Bit)
    I want to use it as DJing program for ballroom dancing. That way I whish to get rid of alcatech BPM studio (http://www.tonilecoq.com/images/bpmstudio.jpg)

    - ID3 Tags keep being mixed up (Year is Date and Album becomes Year.. It just seems unable to read the Tags correctly!)
    - Playlists are pretty much useless as it is because you cannot add anything to them inside the Program. With external File Manager, it is possible - but thats just not an option!

    These two problems are THE reason why I cannot use it. And I am quite sure I am not the only one in this position. If you could improve the handling of ID3 Tags (and of the Database! I always have to delete the file when something has changed and reload it completely!). And if you could impove the creation of playlists, I would really be happy and promote your software to my colleagues in Germany.
    And propably donate :)

    Cheers,
    Clas

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  7. Downloaded it. the changes to it can be clearly see on the layout and to be honest i'm pretty impressed with it. haven't had the chance to try it out properly, but soo far soo good. If there are any probs with it, ill be sure to let u know. Cause as we all know Mixxx is a great open source program for us all and it has great potential to be the best in its field. can't wait till u release the final 1.80 version. Really looking forward to it.

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  8. I can't compile the 1.8.0Beta2 dependency portmidi on x86_64 OpenSuse 11.2; it is known to be a 32 bit only program. Worked fine on my 32 bit system and I loved the BPM update analysis! If I figure it out I'll post it, but I would be surprised if this hasn't been figured out by someone! I would think most of us are using x86_64 platforms ...

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  9. can you make a mp3 file from the mixes you make?

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  10. hey i wanna get into djing is this the program i need to start?

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  11. I LOVE MIXXX
    I'm A DJ MY PROPER DJ NAME IS JJ-MAN
    AND MIXX LET'S YOU DO WHAT YOU NORMALLY CAN'T DO AND IT'S FOR FREE!

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  12. Love your product..Only one addition i wiashing for. When your are recording wishing for a mp3 file. Thanks guys
    Coolmusic

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  13. Hi Mixxx Development Team,

    Your software includes shelf equalizers – are there plans to incorporate a multi-band graphic equalizer instead? Especially wider (10+) band graphic equalizers allow for a more customized equalization of the audio, and this is one reason I use a competing free software – it’s graphic equalizer is just 5 bands wide, but the equalization is more effective than Mixxx’s shelf equalizer…

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  14. Anonymous: Great question about EQs!

    Right now, we have no plans to incorporate additional EQs. I think many of our developers would agree with me if I said that EQs are not our strong suite.

    We're also very much limited in our screen space right now, which is why we'd like to pursue a new skinning engine. I think something like a 5 band graphical equalizer would be contingent on a new skinning engine that gives us more screen space for widgets.

    That said, we'd be more than happy to help mentor anyone on EQ development. I'd definitely encourage anyone who'd like to see changes to the EQs in Mixxx to just dive in and hack something! (It's a lot of fun) :)

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  15. Albert,

    Thanks for your response.

    Excuse my earlier wording, but mine wasn’t a hope that a graphic equalizer would be incorporated in addition to the existing shelf equalizers – the hope was that a graphic equalizer might replace the shelf equalizers!

    Though I’m no techie but just an end-user, I basically understand the limitations you mention…

    The competing software I use does the job, but has no manual and the developers offer no online support…which is another attraction to Mixxx…

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  16. I think it's unlikely that we'll ever replace the existing shelf EQs with a graphical equalizer because most DJ controllers and hardware mixers use the same shelve EQs we do.

    It's important for Mixxx to be user-friendly for DJs coming from vinyl or our competitors' software.

    Is the competing software you mentioned designed for radio DJs? When you're radio DJing, the keyboard and mouse are generally more accessible than they are if you're DJing live in a club. I would expect more complex audio controls in radio DJ software for that reason....)

    Thanks,
    Albert

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  17. Thanks again, Albert,

    I don’t doubt Mixxx is designed as a free alternative to the industry’s commercial alternatives (and therefore offers standard industry features). Though I’m no professional, I’m something of an audiophile and find I can customize audio more effectively for a better sound using especially a wider band graphic equalizer (i.e. at least 10 bands) than through the only shelf equalizer I’ve manipulated, which is that of Mixxx. Considering Mixxx’s conformity to industry standards, I hope there’s perhaps a more effective way to manipulate audio (than a graphic equalizer offers) using the various functionalities available than I’m so far aware of, perhaps?

    The competing free software I mentioned isn’t touted for any specific use other than general DJing…but it has an ‘optimized’ mode for live DJing – in that mode (when ‘response times, buffer length and CPU usage are critical’), EQ controls and sound FX are disabled, and buffer length is 50ms…

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  18. is there an easy way to move the itunes library into the standard library(dragging). Or otherwise drag maps into the library
    i prefer this above scan option because when i scan i get a load of samples in the library and that is not what i want!!

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  19. …I’d just add that I never use the free software I mentioned above in ‘optimized’ mode as it performs well in ‘non-optimized’ mode…and sounds much, much better too (with the audio customized)!

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  20. Jee-Bee: Sorry, I don't entirely follow what you mean. We currently don't "import" your iTunes library because it's tricky to keep it Mixxx in sync with it if you change it in iTunes. Can you rephrase or elaborate what you mean about dragging? Dragging from where to what?

    Anonymous: I'm not sure you're really doing anything wrong. DJs are an interesting bunch - Some of them are hardcore audiophiles but most of them aren't. That said, the reason I'm a little bit defensive of our EQs is because the last time we changed them, we found out people are super picky about them. :)

    If you're on Linux, you might be able to route Mixxx's output through an external equalizer program using JACK. "jack-rack" is a useful program that lets you add LADSPA effects to a rack, and there's probably some good LADSPA EQ effects that'll let you do what you want. (Sorry I didn't think of this earlier!)

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  21. Thanks, Albert,

    I’m not on Linux (I guess unfortunately for me…as I mentioned above, I’m just an ‘end-user’, i.e. reliant on a closed source OS), but good to know in case I ever should be!

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  22. as a pro dj who uses mixxx for those gigs where there are no turntables (my preferred interface) or cd players i have to say that albert's explanation/defense of the shelf eqs is right on. the last thing i want to deal with on a gig is a graphic eq--during live mixes they are a nightmare if you're doing it all from the laptop...

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  23. i'm just "hobby-dj" .. i often dj at camfrog and at parties ...
    but i agree totally with T-Bird. if you live-mix the last thing you want to deal with is a complicated user-interface. you need all your attention to deal with the tracks and look at the people. as Albert said .. on linux just use JACK for audio-postprocessing purposes if you want.
    i like the nCut-Interface. its very easy to use and i hope it will not get lost in future versions of mixxx.
    i run mixxx on linux it works fine. you guys did a great job.

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  24. hey zup welz i was tryin to download dis software but it seems that its not complete do u know if its capplebe with my windows 7

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  25. just checking in with some feedback about the beta:

    search function is MUCH nicer now with more options & configurable columns! however, i notice that generally it works better if i have it use my itunes library. not sure why, but for some reason the library field goes blank after a while unless i load my itunes library.
    i know crashes are to be expected (it's a beta!) but i had to re-install the previous version because it kept crashing at my gig. initially, i was probably asking too much of it (several programs open, surfing web simultaneously, etc...) but i noticed that after a while that sometimes routine track searches would crash the program. also, once the program had crashed it took FOREVER for the window to close so i could reopen the program...
    looking forward to the next full release with the new search engine implement!

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  26. Love this project it's already really good. Quick question, is there any way to change thte colour of the waveforms to different colours, can get a bit confusing when everything's moving..

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  27. @Bkicker
    How to change the size or color of the waveform
    http://mixxx.org/wiki/doku.php/creating_skins#skin_faq

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