Build Server Fundraiser a Success - Thank You!

Wow.

Over the past 3 months, we've been raising money to purchase a build server to help us speed up our development cycle, and the response has been overwhelming.

We've raised more money in 3 months than we've received in donations since Mixxx was started in 2003, and for that, we'd like to thank the 43 Mixxx fans who generously donated to our cause, and our broader community for helping spread the message.

Your gracious donations will help ensure Mixxx can continue to grow and provide the open source community with great DJ software. On behalf of all Mixxx contributors, thank you!

We'll post an update on the build server project as we get our hardware and software configurations together. We've got work to do!

Mixxx T-shirt contest

OK everyone.

The submissions for the T-shirt contest are below. Unfortunately, it seems most of you are much more interested in buying a shirt rather than designing one, so we have only two entries, only one of which is an original design. That said, it's great design, and so we'd like to congratulate Joe Colosimo for his winning entry!

Because one of our developers is going get some stock and handle t-shirt orders for us, we'd still like to know if just a plain Mixxx logo would be a more popular choice. So please take a look at the designs below and cast your vote!

Voting is open until January 10th.

Without further ado, the entries. (Click on each for a larger version.)

Entry #1 (Default):

Entry #2 (Design by Joe Colosimo):

Which Mixxx t-shirt design would you prefer?

#1 - Plain Mixxx logo

#2 - Joe's design

View Results

Create your own poll at Flisti.com

Which T-shirt size do you need?

Small (34-36" chest, 27" length)

Medium (38-40" chest, 29" length)

Large (42-44" chest, 30" length)

Extra-large (46-48" chest, 31" length)

Extra-extra-large (50-52" chest, 31.5" length)

View Results

Create your own poll at Flisti.com

Thanks for your attention!

Beyond Mixxx 1.8

Mixxx 1.8 was a big step ahead, bringing new features like hot cues, looping, and a brand new library, but as we speak, many other new features are being developed behind the scenes. These new features are still in the lab, so to speak, but some of them are maturing rapidly and will likely make it into a Mixxx release. Some of them are even stable enough for the brave to start testing. Although, I wouldn't use any of them in a live performance yet... or would I?

Some of these features include:

• Samplers
• Support for More than Two Decks:
• External Mixer Mode
• Beat Detection
• Vinyl Control Rewrite

Here's a brief overview of some of these new features:

External Mixer Mode (1.9)

Bill Good recently developed this feature through the Google Summer of Code program. With External Mixer Mode, Mixxx will be able to output the audio from each deck through a separate audio channel. This is a heavily requested feature, and is especially handy for vinyl control users. Our internal audio routing code was significantly overhauled during this project, and as a result, we'll be able to add microphone input to Mixxx in the future with relative ease.

Bill has also been helping improve support for FLAC files in Mixxx.

Support for Multiple Decks (1.10)

Since the first release of Mixxx, we've been stuck with only two channels for mixing. Fortunately, we've been rescued by RJ Ryan, who has put in some long hours refactoring anything and everything he can get his hands on so that we can support more channels. Thanks to his efforts, our development version of Mixxx can support any number of decks internally. We're still working on modifying our user interface to support more decks, but it looks like we may rely on 4-deck variants of our skins in the short term.

Sampler (1.10)

Built upon our support for multiple decks, a prototype sampler was developed by Ryan Baker through Google Summer of Code this year. These small miniature decks allow you to play audio samples. For example, you will be able to add sirens, air horns and vocal samples into your mixes. This feature still requires more work on the user interface and some under-the-hood polish, but there's been great progress made so far.

Beat Detection (?)

This feature will use the open source audio library aubio to detect beats. This will allow us to do many things (in theory), including:

• Beat Smashing effects, a la Aphex Twin.
• Quantized Hotcues: your hotcues could sync up to the beat.
• Quantized Loops: automatically create precise loops with X beats.
• More precise Auto-Sync.

The main difference between BPM detection, which is what we have now, and beat detection is that each individual beat will be detected and marked and not just guessed from the BPM. Coupled with a good grid editor and other groovy features this could make Mixxx a truly killer program for mixing and mashing songs, especially those with variable tempos.

~

As you can see, future versions of Mixxx have the potential to be pretty exciting! You can help support development of Mixxx by donating to our build server fund or by getting involved directly. Thanks for your support!

This article was written by Mixxx developer Philip "Madjester" Whelan.

Digital DJ Tips Interviews Mixxx

The Digital DJ Tips blog has just posted an exclusive interview with Adam Davison, our project manager. The interview goes into the project history and gives some insight into how we view Mixxx from a developer's perspective. Check it out!

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.

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!