Mixxx T-shirt contest until Dec 15!

Hello everyone!

While we're hard at work on Mixxx v1.9, we're going to order a batch of Mixxx T-shirts for you to buy but we need something cool to put on them. The plain Mixxx logo would look awesome, but we wanted to open this up to you, our users and fans to see what you come up with that might be even better. The winning design will end up on the shirts and the submitter of the winning design will receive one shirt free!

So here are the rules: PLEASE READ!

• The name "Mixxx" must be prominently displayed (but feel free to stylize it however you want)
• No obscene, profane, offensive or violent graphics or text. (We want Mixxx to inspire good feelings. If you wouldn't show it to your grandmother, don't submit it.)
• All artwork must be original (and/or you must own the rights to use and submit it (and be able to prove it.) If you're not sure or don't have proof, don't use it.) Of course you have permission to use the Mixxx logo.
• All submissions become property of the Mixxx development team
• Feel free to submit as many designs as you like
• The shirts will be printed in full (process) color, so use as many colors as you like
  
• File format: anything The GIMP or Inkscape can open (SVG or other vector format preferred)
• Size: 12.00" x 12.00" or 305mm x 305mm or 2100 x 2100 pixels
• Resolution: 175 DPI
• Specify the background color of the shirt: White, Gray, or Black
• Send your submissions in an E-mail message to D.J. Pegasus: spappalardo atnospamplease mixxx.org
  
• The last day for submissions is December 15, 2010 (by 23:59 UTC+1)

High-resolution logos are available on our press page.

The Mixxx development team will review the submissions and will post them for public voting on our forums or blog to determine the winner.

Thanks for your attention and good luck!

(Also see the forum post on this topic for the most up-to-date information.)

Mixxx 1.8.1 Released!

The Mixxx team is pleased announce the release of Mixxx 1.8.1!

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.

Mixxx 1.8.1 is now available on our downloads page.

This release is a recommended upgrade for all users of Mixxx 1.8.0, and addresses some important bugs:

• Reduce glitches on track load (major improvement for some users) 
• Waveform generation speed drastically improved on Windows
• Stability fix when using vinyl emulation
• Adjustable EQ shelves can no longer be equal
• UTF-8 fixes for Rhythmbox track source
• Fixed duplicate promotional tracks from appearing in library
• Fixed MIDI learning wizard on OS X
• Fixed minor delay in setting hot cues with MIDI controllers during playback
• BPM tap activates on mouse-down instead of mouse-up.
• Read ID3 tags in FLAC files on Windows
• Reduce crackling during playback for some Windows users

If you're upgrading from Mixxx 1.7.2, be sure the check out the large list of improvements made in Mixxx 1.8.0.

We're happy to report that we've made great progress with our build server fundraiser, but we still have a ways to go! We're looking to purchase a build server in order to help us speed up our development cycle. With a build server, we'll be able to improve the amount of testing that Mixxx receives by producing nightly builds of various branches.

In other words, brave testers will be able to try new features like our vinyl control improvements sooner, and help give us important feedback while we're developing new features. We'll also be able to decrease the amount of time it takes for us to close bugs, since we'll be able to get confirmation from testers that our bug fixes work on Windows and Mac OS X faster. We're aiming to produce nightly builds of as many branches of Mixxx development as possible, so there should be lots to play with.

But first, we need your financial support to purchase a dedicated build server to enable the production these nightly builds.

Big thanks to everyone who's contributed so far! If you haven't yet had the opportunity, a donation of any amount will directly support Mixxx development and be greatly appreciated!

Stay tuned for more news about Mixxx 1.9.0!

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!

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.

The Mixxx Class Diagram

Sorry, I just had to post this.

I'm scraping together a press kit for the new 1.8.0 website and I came across this awesome class diagram in the "The Mixxx Paper". Tue Haste Andersen presented Mixxx and that paper at a conference back in 2003, and this diagram represents Mixxx's internals at the time. You're looking at a snapshot inside one of the earliest versions of Mixxx, which has since grown to be the world's most popular free DJ software.

The diagram you're looking at is a standard tool software engineers use called a UML class diagram, and it lets developers effectively communicate their ideas about code layout. If we had to make a new UML class diagram for Mixxx in 2010, it'd probably cover one of the walls of my apartment. Although the MixxxApp, ControlObject, EngineObject, and SoundSource classes still exist (!) and might even be recognizable from their original incarnations, pretty much everything else has changed drastically.

The Mixxx architecture has expanded to accommodate an arbitrary number of sound devices, MIDI controllers, and soon, and arbitrary number of decks. Good things are in store.

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 1.8.0 Beta 2 Released!

The Mixxx team is pleased to announce the second beta of Mixxx 1.8.0! This release brings a large number of bug fixes, performance improvements, and even some small new features.

Download Now!

Here's a summary of the changes in this release:

• Library:
• Massive optimization of the new SQLite database-powered library, including:
• Faster searches
• In-memory caching layer which minimizes hard disk access
• Faster library scanning
• Fixed some Auto DJ bugs
• Added tooltips to library table
• Polished up song Properties dialog
• Library search now looks at album names too
• Fixed minor library rescanning bugs
• Fixed crate and playlist creation bugs
• Fixed drag-and-drop from network shares on Windows
• Show iTunes playlists as sorted
• Audio:
• Added plugin architecture for audio playback
• Fixed some cueing bugs with pitch-independent time stretch
• Improvements to vinyl emulation sound quality
• Improved performance by optimizing hard disk access for audio decoding
• Legacy 1.7 library importer now imports cue points
• Faster MP3 loading
• Improved reliability with certain MP3s and OGGs
• MIDI:
• Improved scratching with the SCS.3d
• Timers now available in MIDI scripts
• Fullscreen key changed to F11 to conform to de-facto standard.
• Tons of other bug fixes!

Hotcues
Since everyone's been waiting ever so patiently for this release, we decided to slip a bonus in for you. Mixxx 1.8.0 Beta 2 adds hotcues, which are cue points that start playing when triggered. These are handy for impromptu drumming and remixing because you can trigger different parts of a song quickly. Although our default "Outline Netbook" skin doesn't yet show the hotcue positions on the main scrolling waveform display, the hotcues do show up in the smaller waveform summary.

The keyboard shortcuts for hotcues are Z, X, C, and V on Player 1, and M, <, >, and ? on Player 2. Now go chop some beats! (Update: Forgot to mention that using the Shift key in combination with the above keys clears the hot cues.)

Audio Playback Plugins
The new audio playback plugin framework lets you to install third-party plugins that give Mixxx the ability to playback extra audio formats. Sometimes support for an obscure audio format is difficult to maintain or may be legally encumbered in certain jurisdictions, either of which would preventing us from supporting it. However, third-party developers can now add support for extra audio formats to Mixxx at their own discretion.

The Mixxx Development Team will not distribute audio playback plugins that carry legal uncertainty for us. The responsibility is solely yours to ensure that you are legally entitled to obtain and use any playback plugins provided by a third-party.

Although we don't have any official audio playback plugins available yet, we'd like to invite developers to post their plugins on the Mixxx Add-ons wiki page.

The Road to 1.8.0
Over the next month or so, we'll be wrapping up development of 1.8.0. We've still got many bugs to fix (and could use your help), but we think this latest beta release is a big improvement over the previous one. Give it a shot, and please report any bugs you find! Enjoy, and stay tuned for more news as we finally approach Mixxx 1.8.0.

Turning the Mixxx Blog into a Blog

Near the end of each release cycle, we try to round up as many developers as we can and have a giant meeting to figure out what we're doing for our next release cycle. And by giant, I mean usually four or five people tops.

This time, however, we managed to get eight Mixxx developers spanning thee continents and five timezones together for a Skype meeting to discuss the future of the 1.8 series and beyond.

If you want to check out the full details of our meeting, we've shared some slides that directed the meeting along with our meeting minutes, but I'll try to briefly summarize what we discussed.

One of the big topics was our project management style. Instead of cramming several large new features into one release, we're going to try to focus on one or two features and try to do stable releases more frequently.

We also talked about our next few set of releases, but the only release we can talk about with any certainty is Mixxx 1.9, which will probably be the release that integrates streaming Shoutcast broadcasting via Icecast. We're also going to try to get this out much faster than our previous releases.

Lastly, we want to actively recruit more developers and artists. We need way more help with Mixxx, and we need to be more active at recruiting new contributors. As part of that effort, we'd like to be more open about how development is progressing, and so we're encouraging our developers to blog more. Rather than posting formal-sounding news updates, we're going to start making the blog a bit more fun. We won't hesitate to ask people for help with projects we're working on, and we're going to try to write up some easy projects on the wiki for new contributors to work on.

And if you read this far, we're working on building Mixxx 1.8.0 Beta2. Hopefully we can get it out this week. We usually have to rebuild our releases a few times after we decide a release is finished (yeah, yeah), and I've already rebuilt the Ubuntu packages 3 times, so that's probably a good sign. :)

What I'm listening to: