Monday, December 6, 2010

Mixxx 1.9.0 Beta1 and 1.8.2 Released!

Hot off the heels of 1.8.1, the Mixxx development team is pleased to announce the release of Mixxx 1.9.0 Beta1!



This public beta is intended to give (brave) Mixxx users a chance to try out some new features and help us find bugs. We do not recommend using beta software for live performance because there will be bugs. You can help improve Mixxx by reporting any bugs you find.

Important: Mixxx 1.9.0 beta1 will upgrade your library to a new format. This will make it incompatible with Mixxx 1.8.1. In order to try out Mixxx 1.9.0 beta1 you should upgrade to Mixxx 1.8.2, which we are also announcing today. You can switch back and forth between Mixxx 1.9.0 and Mixxx 1.8.2 with no trouble.

Among the new features in 1.9.0 Beta1 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.
    • Record in MP3/Ogg - Now your recordings can be saved in either MP3 or Ogg/Vorbis format.
  • New MIDI mappings:
    • Vestax Typhoon
    • Hercules DJ Console Mk4
    • Numark MIXTRACK
    • Pioneer CDJ-350
  • Updated MIDI mappings:
    • Hercules DJ Control MP3
    • Hercules DJ Control e2
    • Hercules DJ Control Steel
    • Vestax VCI-100
    • Reloop Digital Jockey 2
  • Tons of bug fixes and performance improvements!

Mixxx 1.8.2 has a wide variety of bug fixes, performance improvements, and the same MIDI mapping updates that 1.9.0 beta1 has.

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

Fundraiser
We're making great progress on our 1.9.0 Build Server fund, but we still need your help! This project will finance a dedicated build server that we will use to create nightly builds and automate our release process. This means the development team will have way more time to focus on making Mixxx better instead of dealing with packaging. 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 !

New Ubuntu PPAs
We've moved our official Mixxx repository for Ubuntu to a new PPA to increase security. The old repository is still online for now, but Ubuntu users will have to follow the instructions on our downloads page (click the Ubuntu download link) to get the new versions of Mixxx we've just released. There's also a separate Mixxx betas PPA, for brave souls.


Bugs
We depend on feedback from our users to guide Mixxx's development, so please file any bugs you find in this beta release on the Mixxx bug tracker. If you don't file a bug for the beta, don't be surprised when it isn't fixed in the final version!

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.


18 comments:

  1. Awesome can't wait to try out 1.9. Keep up the great work it's really appreciated!

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  2. Superb News.
    Can we get a detailed changelog for 1.8.2 please?
    Would like to update Mixxx' listing on my favorite download site
    but beeing required to provide a changelog.
    Thanks and keep up that good work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi anonymous,

    Here's a 1.8.2 changelog:

    * Bugfix in AutoDJ playlist
    * Fullscreen shortcut fix on OSX
    * Able to MIDI-Map hotcues 5-32
    * Fix loop-indicator on waveform to be correct on track load
    * Fix waveform overview to update loops details on track load
    * Allow multiple MIDI mappings per control.
    * Fix some memory leaks
    * Fix bug where removing items from playlist removes only half the selection
    * Improve button responsiveness of cues, hotcues, and loops.
    * Add backwards-compatible support to schema
    * Performance improvements in core mixing engine
    * Fix browse-mode on Windows so '..' works.
    * New MIDI mappings: Vestax Typhoon, Hercules DJ Console Mk4, Numark MIXTRACK, Pioneer CDJ-350
    * Updated MIDI mappings: Hercules DJ Control MP3, Hercules DJ Control e2, Hercules DJ Control Steel, Vestax VCI-100

    Cheers,
    RJ Ryan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just to complete the list of 1.9 features:

    * you can record to ogg and mp3 now
    * you can edit the table cells in the track table

    Tobias

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  5. Whoops, thanks Tobias. I updated the post to include those.

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  6. Great. Awesome. I've been waiting for an real external Mixermode for a long time.Is there a way to hide the crossfader, headvolume, mainvolume, etc. if I use an external mixer?

    Thanks Julian

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  7. Julian: Not yet, but we hear you! We're still planning an overhaul of the way our user interface works, and making certain widgets like the crossfader hideable is one of our goals.

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  8. Will this software support M-AUDIO TORQ CONNECTIV ?

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  9. @Julian: There is a new skin that could fit in there
    http://mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1812

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  10. 1.8.2 simply rocks the boat. Mixxx is a world-class DJ studio now.

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  11. @Cedric Plantaz,
    Your Torq Vinyl isn't supported yet, but I don't know if the connectiv work with mixxx.

    @Albert, a "Widget-Interface" would be very nice.
    In my next holidays I'll try to create a own skin.


    Greetings Julian

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  12. When will you release a patch for aac/mp4 support? thanks, very valued programme indeed

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  13. I still need iTunes / AAC support.

    There must be a way. . .

    joel in Dallas

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  14. I'm always amazed how quickly you all are able to fill feature requests and bust out new versions of this software. Much appreciated!

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  15. You say you support the Hercules MK4 now. Does the "old" MIDI driver from the Hercules site work for MK4 on Linux ?

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  16. @StoneCut

    No, see http://www.mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1560

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hello,
    i searching a slackware pkg for mixxx 1.9.0 or 1.9.2
    i install 1.10. from slackware pkg but not work :(

    can u help me ?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hercules Mk4 now is working!!
    http://mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5064&start=10#p19358
    hope will be ready for 1.11.1

    bye bye

    ReplyDelete