Monday, April 23, 2012

Google Summer of Code 2012 Projects!


The Summer of Code is upon us! Google has just announced which students Mixxx has accepted into the Google Summer of Code 2012 program. Students were competing for one of four 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 2012:
  • Matthew Mikolay from Rutgers University in the United States
  • Max Linke from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Germany (irc nick: kain88)
  • Scott Stewart from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States (irc nick: smstewart)
  • Varun Jewalikar from the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain (irc nick: neo01124)
Matthew Mikolay will build a pass-through mode for vinyl-control users. This will allow DJs to seamlessly use Mixxx with their vinyl or CD collections alongside their digital collections.

Max Linke will work on improving the Mixxx library by adding a preview player, multiple library paths, and more.

Scott Stewart will pick up where a previous GSoC project left off by enhancing our AutoDJ feature to mix more like a DJ rather than just cross-fading tracks. Here's to robots imitating DJs instead of DJs imitating robots!

Last but not least, Varun Jewalikar will bring harmonic mixing features to Mixxx. This includes automatic key detection using open-source key detection libraries, the ability to pitch-shift tracks on the fly, key-sync, support for multiple key notations, and more.

This summer's Google Summer of Code projects will be a huge step forward for Mixxx both in functionality and polish. We can't wait to get these students integrated into the Mixxx community and get their work into a release. The 4 will be mentored by our mentoring team: RJ Ryan, Bill Good, Daniel Schürmann, Owen Williams, and Albert Santoni. As always, we're very grateful for Google's generosity in enabling this work.

Meanwhile, the Mixxx team is working full-speed ahead on Mixxx 1.11, which we hope to release in early June. At this point all the new features are complete and we're fixing bugs. Look for a beta release in the near future!

11 comments:

  1. Key detection is great feature!
    What about some new sound effects/filters?

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  2. Really disappointed to see the Point-And-Click Controller Mapping project did not make it. The other features are nice but not elementary for live mixing of digital music files and at least to my understanding this is what Mixxx is about.

    Mixxx sets wrong priorities here, in an everlasting circle new controllers drops to the market and even if users would like to map it to Mixxx it is nearly impossible without CS degree. So frustrating.

    How on earth are an ordinary user suppose to fully map a controller? The scripting thing reads powerful on paper but how many of us regulars do know that stuff?.
    I own a lot of controllers and have worked with them mostly in Itch and Traktor but want to map them to Mixxx . I simply can`t for the said reasons and gave up after investing substantial amounts of time trying, probably like many before.

    And this current state Mixxx and Midi mapping means to me - outdated, mostly undocumented existing mappings for only some of the most common controllers and a userbase unable to provide new mappings because it is so darn complicated.

    Your efforts at the highest honor, but make this Midi mapping thing usable please. It is currently a valley full of tears. Get midi and syncing straight so users have a reason not to work with the software that comes with their controllers. Open up a Kickstarter and hire someone, and I bet you`ll have 3k in a week with a little promo.


    Sorry about that mini rant but it seems like the right place to speak out. All the best

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  3. I like those ideas. Passthrough especially. How about more effects? Maybe VST support with a scanner that detects plugin latency...

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  4. awesome, can't wait for pass-through mode! hopefully mixxx 1.11 will help me hold out until then.

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  5. @Anonymous2

    Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you that our MIDI situation needs attention. As for MIDI-point-and-click it will be a part of 1.11 which is scheduled to be released June 1st (so basically before GSoC starts). If you'd like to play with an alpha release of this feature (and all the other 1.11 features), please check out the Mixxx forums: http://mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3678

    Would definitely love to hear your feedback on that.

    This isn't enough though -- our MIDI-learning process is really bad at mapping the most essential things on a controller (e.g. jog wheels). I don't think we'll fix this situation in 1.11 but I agree we should prioritize making the situation better for 1.12.

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  6. @Anonymous1, Senal and rid,

    Effects has been a long-time project of ours and we are getting closer to getting that out into the world. This work will hopefully be ready for 1.12 later this year.

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  7. When will 1.11 be ready? I would like to use it on 14th July.

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    1. Second this, when can we expect 1.11? It's early June so I was hoping for a beta to play with!

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  8. Hi Anonymous / Josh Vickerson,

    Please try out our 1.11 beta release: http://www.mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3834&p=14548#p14548

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Guys, i just wanna say thank you very much. I had all the trouble you can imagine to use my BCD3000 in windows. Worked seamsless with mixxx (1.10 of course) and ubuntu.

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