Mixxx 1.9.0 Released!

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

Download Mixxx 1.9.0 Now!

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.

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!

Download Mixxx 1.9.0 Beta1 and 1.8.2

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!

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.

Feature Preview: Shoutcast Broadcasting

One of our newer contributors, Wesley Stessens, has been hard at work on Shoutcast/Icecast broadcasting support for Mixxx.


It turns out Shoutcast support was a little bit more complicated than we had been expecting, but Wesley's done a great job of tackling all the problems that have come up. Wesley also wrote a modular Ogg Vorbis encoder for the Shoutcast code, which we hope to reuse in our recording code in the future.

As a sub-project, adding Shoutcast support to Mixxx has been interesting because it's one of the nice modular projects we listed as a "Weekend Project" on our Wiki. When Wesley came along and said he was interested in coding Shoutcast support, I had already sketched out what work needed to be done and was able to help him get started writing code for Mixxx right away. If anyone's interested in adding a particular feature to Mixxx, come join our IRC channel (#mixxx on chat.freenode.net) and talk to one of us developers. We'd be more than happy to help you get started writing code.

People who want to use Mixxx for live broadcasting will appreciate not having to use crazy routing through JACK in order to broadcast now. For example, our friends over at Radio Olympus have been looking for new live broadcasting software, and we hope Mixxx will soon be a candidate to replace their existing software. Be sure to check out their newly relaunched online radio station, broadcasting live from the UK.

Depending on how much work we can get done this weekend, Shoutcast support may or may not make it into 1.6.0 Beta2. However, Shoutcasting should make it into the final 1.6.0 release. (There's at least one more surprise coming for Beta2 though...)