Mixxx170
Photo courtesy of Mixxx.org

August 22nd, 2009 – The Mixxx development team has brought version 1.7.0 out of beta. For those of you unfamiliar with Mixxx, it’s an open source DJ application. It supports a wide variety of MIDI controllers and soundcards, and is free. It is constantly in development and each iteration brings better stability and responsiveness.

I’ve posted about Mixxx before, but today was the first day that I actually sat down and explored its feature set. Those of you used to using Traktor Pro, Scratch Live and Ableton, will be disappointed by the lack of extras in Mixxx. It does not have assignable cuepoints to allow interesting juggling routines, nor does it have effects beyond a flanger and EQ adjustment.

I also find the library to be a tad finicky. I told it to read a certain folder for songs but the list did not update; it still showed my old list. I could still drag and drop songs manually though. If I deleted the XML library file, I’m sure I could start a fresh list. This is minor nitpicking as I would probably set up a clean library before a real gig anyways.

The interface sports a clean dark design with all the information you need to straight up mix tunes. I like the design quite a bit and even for a beginner like me, things are where you’d expect them to be. Actually, Mixxx is ideal for a beginner because it’s so focused. It has nothing extra, just the basics which means that you can’t get overwhelmed by its feature set. After playing with it for a couple hours today, I already feel more comfortable with DJing concepts.

One great bonus about Mixxx is that recording your live mix is very easy. You just select the file name you want it saved to and the format; it’s quite straightforward. I tried using my Mixman DM2 with 1.7.0 and I’m still having problems, but when I get the full set up running, I think that I could actually go out and do basic gigs. I won’t be able to do any cool routines that I might have been able to do with a VCI-100 and Traktor Pro, but for straight up mixing song together, it’s a solid package. It’s also free, so if you want to try out DJing, there’s no reason not to give it a try. Overall, Mixxx is a solid piece of software and I like it quite a bit. Two thumbs up!

Mixxx.org

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 pm.
Categories: Asides, DJ, Software Review.

7 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. DJSDive

    i hear 1.8 is going to improve things in the hot cue and loop department. the biggest feature that mixxx brings to the table is that its fullly scriptable and that it has a sane xml config format, which will let you manage your configuration a lot better than this pseudo xml binary crap traktor pro uses.

    Aug 23rd, 2009

  2. Sean

    @DJSDive : Yeah, XML is much easier to deal with for sure. Any idea of when 1.8 will be released? 1.7 took quite a while (at least by open source standards) to be released. Any support for effects beyond flanger and EQ?

    Aug 23rd, 2009

  3. DJSDive

    Here is the development roadmap, which isnt fixed atm, doesnt look effects are on the roadmap atm:
    http://mixxx.org/wiki/doku.php/development_roadmap

    Supposedly they are planning quicker release cycles now. In the past they spend a lot of time on adding support for new MIDI controllers, which thanks to the addition of MIDI learn is now taken over by end users.

    I have been meaning to dive into Mixxx. As I am still somewhat of a n00b anyways when it comes to DJing and mightily annoyed at Traktor Pro’s totally closed eco system and lack of scripting support. Then again bome’s gets you around some fo the main issues in the scripting support.

    Aug 23rd, 2009

  4. Sean

    @DJSDive : Awesome…thanks for the info. Mixxx was easier for me to get the hang of right off the bat, so if they can seriously contend with Traktor Pro feature-wise, I’m all for it. I’m actually trying to learn both right now but I find that I enjoy my time in Mixxx more at least for now. Of course, this may have something to do with my inability to take advantage of a lot of Traktor’s at my current skill level.

    Aug 23rd, 2009

  5. DJSDive

    Well they will not be able to compete with Traktor Pro on a feature by feature comparison, but I think they could even beat Traktor Pro for certain types of DJs. I need to ponder this some more, but with the stuff they have planned for 1.8 all that is missing to become the premiere DJ app for controllerists is adding a sampler and then of course more effects. A sampler isnt too far off, I talked to one of the developers and one of them has been working on something like that. Adding more effects will be more difficult I fear. But with a sampler I think most people can live with “just” 2 decks.

    Aug 24th, 2009

  6. DJSDive

    Correction, it seems that mroe effects is closer than I thought. 1.8 is looking to add support for LADSPA, which would give Mixxx access to a nice list of plugins:
    http://plugin.org.uk/ladspa-swh/docs/ladspa-swh.html

    That being said, there already seems to be a success for LADSPA in the pipeline called LV2, which is already supported by Audacity.

    So that means after 1.8 is out, controllerists only need a sampler to be in a world of bliss .. provided this all works stable :)

    Aug 24th, 2009

  7. DJSDive

    I have organized my thoughts a bit more:
    http://ifnotwhynot.me/mixxx-18-controllerism-galore

    Aug 24th, 2009

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