Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Mixxx 1.8.0 Released!

The Mixxx team is proud to announce the final release of Mixxx 1.8.0!


Mixxx is free, open source software for performing live DJ mixes. Developed by a diverse community of DJs, Mixxx is a complete replacement for a conventional "turntables and mixer" DJ setup, and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

"Deere" skin, new in Mixxx 1.8.0

Mixxx 1.8.0 is now available on our downloads page.

This new release includes a year's worth of contributions from over 30 developers and artists, and is our most exciting release to date. Mixxx 1.8.0 includes much anticipated features such as looping, hot cues, support for multiple MIDI devices, and a brand new database-powered library.

Since Mixxx 1.7.2 was released, the following changes have been made:
  • Looping
    • Loop-in, Loop-out, and Reloop/Exit buttons added to our main skins.
    • Loop point indicators on main waveforms and waveform summary displays.
  • Hot cues
    • Most of our skins gained 4 hot cue buttons, and Mixxx now internally supports up to 32 hot cues per deck.
  • A brand new database-powered library, with:
    • iTunes library and playlists access (Windows and Mac OS X)
    • Rhythmbox library and playlists access (Linux)
    • A brand new, faster library scanner
    • Crates!
    • A simple Auto DJ mode, which crossfades to the next track in the Auto DJ queue.
    • Analyze view, which allows you to run bulk BPM detection on your songs
    • Featured Artists bundle (Windows and Mac OS X)
    • Revamped Song Properties dialog
    • Re-arrangeable, hide-able columns
  • Tons of new artwork:
    • New Deere, Shade, Phoney, and LateNight skins
    • Better descriptions in tooltips and snazzy new look
  • MIDI
    • New PortMidi-based MIDI device backend, supports using multiple devices at once
    • Timers in the MIDI scripting engine
    • New MIDI mappings:
        • Hercules DJ Control e2
        • DJ TechTools MIDI Fighter
        • Reloop Digital Jockey2
    • Updated MIDI mappings:
      • Hercules DJ Control MP3, RMX, MK2
      • Stanton SCS.3d, SCS.3m
      • M-Audio Xponent
      • Behringer BCD3000
      • Vestax VCI-100
      • MixMan DM2
  • Other stuff:
    • A massive rewrite of our internal mixing engine
    • More intelligent disk access to help optimize audio latency
    • Optimized waveform rendering at 30 fps
    • Ramping pitch-bend option, smoothly applies temporary pitch adjustment for nudging
    • Import comment tags from MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC/WAV metadata.
    • New library and preferences icons
    • Improvements to UTF-8 handling
  • Over 50 bug fixes and more!

Ubuntu Users
We have great news for Ubuntu users: Mixxx 1.8.0 is avaiable in Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) directly from the Ubuntu Software Center! We also have a PPA containing Mixxx 1.8.0 for Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) users, accessible from our downloads page.

Audio Playback Plugins
We've also added an audio playback plugin architecture to Mixxx, which allows Mixxx to playback extra formats with third-party plugins. Since audio formats like M4A/AAC are encumbered by software patents which restrict distribution and usage in certain jurisdictions, Mixxx cannot natively support them. However, the good news is that a licensed third-party can now develop and distribute an M4A plugin for Mixxx. We'll be posting some of our own audio plugins to the Mixxx Add-ons wiki page in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back again soon.

Fundraiser
We realized in the course of packaging 1.8.0 (by hand) that since we're planning on speeding up our release cycles, now might time to purchase a dedicated build server that will allow us to create nightly builds and automate our releases. Money raised will go to cover the cost of the server, and any leftover money will cover other ongoing expenses like web hosting, and otherwise help keep Mixxx rocking!

Click here to lend your support to: Mixxx 1.9 Build Server Fundraiser and make a donation at www.pledgie.com !
Bugs
We depend on feedback from our users to guide Mixxx's development, so let us know what you think of the new release! Also, please remember to report any bugs you discover to the Mixxx bug tracker.

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.

38 comments:

  1. Keep up the good work!

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  2. who ever invented open source was the MAN
    we love you MIXXX

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  3. Cool & thx !!!
    I'll test it tonight !!

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  4. I cannot get it to work with ALSA on Ubuntu 10.04.

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  5. Oh man, this is freakin' great. Very solid, guys.

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  6. Thanks ! Congratulations to the dev team !

    Much improvement from 1.7.2, keep up the good work :-)

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  7. I cannot impress how happy I'm right now. Mixxx 1.8.0 is so much faster, and the sound is really amazing.
    DJing on linux with my Hercules DJ Console Mk2 is now a real pleasure.
    Thank you!

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  8. Really good. I'm impressed, really. Great work!

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  9. After all this time and still no broadcast features in the release version. A-mazing...

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  10. All my music is in AAC format - I can't wait until there is a MIXXxxxxxxxxx plug-in that works!

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  11. Finally!!!! We love you!

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  12. Seems not to be compatible with DJIO and windows 7.
    Sorry.

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  13. I love Linux and I love my Numark NS7. I wish they could both get along !

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  14. I want Mixx to will have functions as Native Instruments Tracktor v.3.0 or higher!!

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  15. wow, i'm currently a traktor pro user but these release notes look really impressive. congrats! will switch to mixxx as soon as there's a fool-proof way to set up my Audio 4 DJ in Lucid.

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  16. Where can I find a plug in that will make my iTunes collection work in Mixx? Are you planning to include this plug in for iTunes as an upgrade soon?
    Glen

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  17. Thanks guys! I do appreciate all your hard work, and the results of that! Now excuse me, i would have to drive myself, to download section!

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  18. But you don`t have any drivers for Audio 4 DJ in Lucid ---for Linux :))) Lol!!!!

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  19. Absolutely lovin' the 1.8!!!! Keep up the great work MIXXX!!! Can't wait for some t-shirts to get made, too. I'll buy when you get em up on here! KEEP ON MIXXX'in!! ~DJ Skol Train

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  20. Had alot of issues with mixxx before but this version is the bomb! THANK YOU!

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  21. I use a PowerBook (PPC G4, Mac OS 10.5) as my DJing machine, and I know quite a few other DJs that use iBooks and PowerBooks (some cause they want too, others, like me, cause its all we have). By ending all PPC support you have forced me to switch to a paid application. When Apple stopped making PPC software when at least a third of the Macs still in use are PPC, I thought OSS would fill in the gaps, I guess I was wrong....
    It has been nice using your software, if/when I get a new Mac I may come back and try it out....

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  22. Hi guys,

    Thanks for the kind words! We're working on a 1.8.1 release which will improve performance for users who are experiencing glitches on track loads, among other bug fixes.

    DJ Slave: Two of our developers spent over a week just trying to build a Mac OS X Universal binary for Mixxx 1.8 based on the procedure we had followed for 1.7.2. We were left with a bunch of problems and we didn't know how long they were going to fix, so we released Mixxx 1.8.0 without a PPC version because it was the last thing we had to do, and it was holding up the release.

    I estimate that less than 5% of our users are on PPC for Mac, and I'm not willing at this time to try building a PPC version because it might take me two weeks of fiddling to make it work. I have no idea how much time it's going to take, and I have to justify stopping work on Mixxx 1.8.1 and 1.9 (which will benefit the other 95% of Mixxx users) while I work on the PPC version.

    A compromise I thought of yesterday was that if we were to invest the time into building Mixxx for Mac OS X PPC (I emphasize that this is a legacy platform), we could make the PPC version available for some small fee, say $7.50. This allows the PPC version to benefit the other 95% of Mixxx users because some of the money would go towards supporting general Mixxx development (eg. build server), and the remaining 5% of users would get their PPC build.

    What are your thoughts on an arrangement like this? (Nothing is set in stone, it's just an idea, but what matters most on this feedback from users like you.)

    Since I take it you'd be willing to beta test any Mac OS X PPC versions for us, please get in touch and send me an email at alberts [///at////] mixxx [///dot///] org.

    Thanks for your comments!
    Albert

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  23. does mixxx run on ppc linux?

    i'd have though that ppc linux would be the best way to keep using ppc mac hardware.

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  24. I absolutely love this software and I've tried just about every DJ program on the market. Right now I'm running Mixxx on Windows 7 (although i plan on installing the new version of Ubuntu Studio when it ships. Can't beat a realtime kernel when it comes to audio) with an M-audio xponent and the responsiveness even beats the Torq program that ships with the xponent.

    Unfortunately I'm running into a lot of audio quality bugs even when I set my latency higher (pops and skips and what not) using M-audio's ASIO drivers with Mixxx. I love this program and I hate to look a gift-horse in the mouth as they say but I simply can't use it until the audio bugs are worked out. Hopefully a switch to Ubuntu Studio will iron things out for me.

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  25. Anonymous and DJ Slave,

    Really sorry about the PPC build. As Albert said, it was holding up the 1.8.0 release because none of us could get it working, so we released without it. If we were a proprietary software company, you would be out of luck. The power of open-source is that you can download the Mixxx source yourself and build it for your particular machine. Mixxx runs on PPC Linux and PPC OSX, you simply have to compile it. Our wiki has detailed instructions on how to compile Mixxx. See this page: http://mixxx.org/wiki/doku.php/compiling_on_os_x

    Jman:

    We will be releasing a version 1.8.1 very shortly to deal with some critical audio skipping bugs that were occuring when loading a track to a player. Can you describe your audio problems some more? Ideally in a bug report at http://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx (the comments section of a blog post is not very conducive to bug-fixing :) ) and we can investigate your setup problems a little more.

    RJ Ryan

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  26. i'm running mixxx under windows 7 starter, till i get the program running successfull on ubuntu 10.04 netbook remix. at the moment i cannot activate the headphone output. :-(

    hope you work on a netbook skin of the deere design. it looks very awesome. good work guys.

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  27. please get a map sorted for the vestax typhoon!!!

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  28. I've upgraded my mixxx 1.7.2 on my ubuntu 10.04LTS to the latest version 1.8.1. This version is really nice. The problem is that every time I launch the new version of mixxx 1.8.1 the sounds from rhythmbox, flash videos will mute or stop producing sound. I think there's a bug in this version. I tried changing the sound preference but it doesn't fix the problem. Please fix this.

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  29. Julius: Try running "mixxx" from the console.

    When you run Mixxx via the GNOME launcher, it tells the PulseAudio sound daemon (which handles audio for apps like Rhythmbox and Flash) to suspend itself. In our experience, this is necessary in order to get low latencies so that Mixxx feels responsive.

    We'll keep our eyes on this problem though, in case anything changes in PulseAudio that allows us to have lower latencies.

    Thanks,
    Albert

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  30. I keep getting this error sign every time I try to use my music from iTunes. "'The file 'C:/Users/Captain Redbeard/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Deadmau5/Ghosts N Stuff - Single/01 Ghosts N Stuff.m4a' could not be loaded"

    Any help would be really appreciated asap.

    feel free to email me nielsen920@hotmail.com

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  31. Sorry, Mixxx 1.8 didn't have support for M4A on Windows. Mixxx 1.9 (or 1.10?) and later do support it though, so try upgrading!

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  32. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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