Drag and Drop, Downloads, and SCS.3d Videos

Busy week!

I started doing more Mixxx development on Windows this week and I've been trying to fix lots of little bugs. I'm pretty embarrassed at how badly broken drag-and-drop on Windows was in 1.8.0 Beta 2 - Sorry about that guys, we really didn't do much testing of the library stuff on Windows before the release. It's fixed in our 1.8 code repository, but I have no idea when we're going to make our next release. I think that bug  pretty crippling though, so if enough people complain, I'll try to talk our Windows packager into building a new version for you guys.

On Saturday, we woke up to a nice surprise from our downloads.mixxx.org hosting provider. They cut off downloads to Mixxx 1.7.2 for Win32 because we had too many requests to it! We had a couple thousand downloads in one day, and apparently they're unable to provide us with the 5 TB of monthly bandwidth we pay them for because of CPU usage. After scratching our heads for a while, we ended up redirecting users to a temporary download page with links to a mirror site and a torrent. Big thanks to Mark Glines for helping us out temporarily until we find a permanent hosting solution!

Our MIDI guru, Sean Pappalardo, has put a new video this week showcasing the SCS.3d and SCS.3m MIDI controllers in action:

Lastly, check out YouTube user Scratchtometry busting out his SCS.3d hot cueing and scratching skillz with Mixxx in two videos:

Mixxx 1.7.0 Released!

The Mixxx team is proud to announce the final release of Mixxx 1.7.0!

The result of countless contributions from developers all over the globe, Mixxx 1.7.0 features an overhauled MIDI mapping system with advanced scripting capabilities, improvements to vinyl control, and many other tweaks and optimizations.

Our brand new MIDI scripting engine allows both users and developers to easily add complex behaviour to their MIDI devices. Whether you're looking to get more out of your existing controller or want to take full advantage of cutting edge hardware, our 1.7.0 release won't disappoint you. If you'd like more information on MIDI scripting, please see our documentation.

Mixxx 1.7.0 is now available on our downloads page.

Since Mixxx 1.6.1 was released, the following changes have been made:

• Improved MIDI device support:
  
  • MIDI learning wizard
  • MIDI mapping editor
  • Upgraded, faster mapping system
  • MIDI output now fully supported on Windows, OS X, and Linux.
  • QtScript/JavaScript-based MIDI Scripting Environment - Script complex behaviour for your MIDI controller!
  • Added full support for the Stanton SCS.3d and SCS.1m on all platforms.
  • Hercules MK2 and RMX improvements
  • Added Mixman DM2 mappings for Linux and OS X.
• Vinyl Control:
• Scratching responsiveness improved, with needle-skip prevention option added.
• Signal quality indicators added to vinyl control preferences.
• Improved support for soundcards with multiple stereo inputs
• Convenience features:
• The default skin is now widescreen, and fits nicely on netbook sized screens.
• Stereo master VU meter added.
• Cue points are now saved in the library for each track, with "auto-recall" cue option added to preferences.
• Support for more platforms: 64-Bit Windows and a Universal OS X package for 10.4+!
• Over 100 bug fixes and more!

With the release of 1.7.0, we've also transitioned to a more flexible development process. Because of this increased flexibility, we're already hard at work on Mixxx 1.8.0, which will feature looping and an overhauled library. With the release of 1.7.0, we're now able to spend less time incorporating support for new MIDI controllers, and more time working on the features you want the most.

Mixxx's development has always been driven by constant feedback from our users. Whether you're coming up with cool ideas on our forums or even just reporting bugs, we always appreciate hearing from you. Because your feedback is so valuable, we've launched a user survey to help us figure out where you want Mixxx to go. Taking a few minutes to fill out the survey is a easy way to help out the project and will help guide our future work.

Lastly, we're always looking for new contributors, and we hope our recent move to Launchpad and Bazaar for source code management will add more transparency to our development and encourage more people to get involved. If you're a programmer 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.

Mixxx 1.7.0 Beta1 for Windows x64 Now Available!

The Mixxx team is pleased to announce the availability of a 64-Bit version of Mixxx 1.7.0 Beta1 for Windows.

In a dazzling display of masochism and borderline insanity, Sean Pappalardo has been working hard over the last month or so to get Mixxx to run natively on 64-bit Windows. When asked why, he just mumbled, "full power...full power" over and over again as he rocked in his chair. Sean comes from the Commodore 64 programming days of yore when 64 KB of RAM and a 1 MHz CPU was all you had to work with, so he enjoys taking maximum advantage of the available hardware.

While 64-bit versions of Mixxx have been available on Linux for the past year, this is the first time it's been done on Windows.

Why was there no 64-bit version of Mixxx for Windows? As Sean found out, this was not simply a matter of recompiling Mixxx - all of Mixxx's dependencies had to be rebuilt as x64 binaries as well. This process brought numerous headaches and profanity-littered screams because Microsoft's Visual Studio is not always easy to deal with (especially when you're trying to force the free version to compile x64 binaries which involves a hack .) Fortunately a couple of the libraries that Mixxx depends on (libsndfile, FFTW) already had x64 binaries available for download, and for that we are very grateful. The good news is that, unless we decide they need upgrading, the dependencies don't have to be rebuilt in the future, so the hard part is done for now.

Mixxx is now the first and only known DJ software package that runs natively on 64-bit Windows, and this gives 64-bit Mixxx fans improved performance for free. A native 64-bit build also improves compatibility with ASIO devices on 64-bit Windows.

To take advantage of this, you need three things:

1. a 64-bit AMD or Intel processor (eg. AMD Athlon 64, AMD Phenom, Intel Core 2)
   
2. a 64-bit version of Windows (XP Professional x64, Vista x64, Server 2003 x64, etc.)
3. A copy of Mixxx x64 for Windows
   

Install and run as usual, and enjoy! Please let us know if you have any problems or questions.