It’s clear that we live in a culture of more. People aren’t happy unless an updated thing brings all manner of all new bells and whistles to something they already use. But sometimes it’s not about more but most definitely about better. And that’s the case with Inklen’s just announced MixEmergency 3 video software.
First the words from Inken:
PRESS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEInklen releases MixEmergency 3 – Faster. Cooler. Lighter.(Rotorua, New Zealand) – March 30th, 2015 – Today Inklen released a major update to their industry-leading Video DJing software, MixEmergency. MixEmergency 3 is the result of many months of work, testing, and optimisation – and the results are truly impressive.The optimisation of a number of areas, including the addition of further GPU-accelerated decoding of video, brings significant improvements with regards to CPU, GPU, and RAM usage on compatible Apple Mac hardware. The benefits of these changes are numerous: the CPU is freed up for use for other tasks, users won’t need to upgrade older compatible hardware to mix Full HD videos, users can use lower-priced hardware for basic video mixing, and laptops run cooler (reducing wear on hardware).“MixEmergency 3 is a huge upgrade in terms of performance” said Nick Feisst, Director of Inklen. “Full HD Video DJing is now within the reach of Mac users with lower-powered hardware, such as the MacBook Air.”Inklen has tested videos from, and worked closely with, Promo Only, SmashVision, VJ-Pro, and Xtendamix, to ensure that MixEmergency 3’s new accelerated video decoding will be compatible with their content. MixEmergency users can have confidence in gaining the best performance possible when using content from these sources.MixEmergency 3 is available now for $199 USD and is officially compatible with Serato’s Scratch Live and Serato DJ software. MixEmergency 2 users are eligible to upgrade to MixEmergency 3 for $89 USD before the 1st of May 2015 (regular price $99 USD). Information regarding upgrades can be found here: http://www.inklen.com/mixemergency/upgradeOfficial video: https://youtu.be/1QEuDuXByYQDownload link: http://www.inklen.com/mixemergency/downloadNew in MixEmergency 3:
- Significantly optimised MixEmergency’s use of CPU, GPU, and RAM.
- Added new Folder Mode to the Media Bank to scan and load from a folder of clips.
- Added Delay Compensation Helper tool.
- Added new MIDI Pick option when learning a new MIDI control.
- Added improved Anti-Aliasing mode.
- Added a Tiled Scroll effect for overlays.
- Adjusted cache size range from 200MB to 1GB.
- Added playback support for .ivz files.
- Increased the minimum supported version of Mac OS X to 10.7.
- Added + and – buttons to allow increased delay compensation values.
- Added opacity sliders for Sample Player and FX Sequencer windows to the Preferences.
- Quartz Composition inputs are now handed through to Quartz Compositions played from the Sample Player.
- Improved display handling.
- Fixed a display issue when frame blending was enabled.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the first frame to flash in the Sample Player when playback finishes in the regular playback mode.
- Added workaround for some Quartz Composition rendering issues that could stop some compositions from rendering correctly.
Requirements:
- Mac (2010 model or later)
- Mac OS X 10.7.5
- Scratch Live 1.9.2 or Serato DJ 1.6
MixEmergency 3 — video for everyone
Audio needs quite a bit of power to do properly. But when you add video into the equation then that processor is beginning to seriously groan under the pressure. So it’s a good move for Inklen to take a look at the code and make some improvements. I speak from experience in knowing that while the first approach to code works, there’s always a better way.
That’s not to say that there aren’t new things, but the focus of MixEmergency 3 is to make it faster and more accessible to people with older machines too. It’s good business sense — more users equals more income, which in turn can fund the more that users crave.
This update is very expensive for nothing more, but only Faster, Cooler, Lighter.
I will wait for next update with a real more new functionality.
Sorry Inklen, but it’s a marketing mistake at this overprice update. :(
You’re right in some ways – it doesn’t have the “big-shiny-new-feature” that everyone instantly feels they need every time there is an update, but the new additions are quite significant. It’s only $89 – and if you think for a while about what this potentially gets you: it may save you having to update your computer for another few years, or enable you to purchase cheaper hardware next time (instead of buying the $2,499 MacBook Pro with discrete GPU you can mix HD videos from a $999 MacBook Air).
I think for some people, the idea is a little hard to get your head around. If I told you the update made your CPU 10x faster, I’m sure you would be excited, but if I tell you (after a tonne of work) that it can use up to 10x less CPU it somehow isn’t so useful.
Anyway, you can’t please everyone :) People complain for days about, and often monitor closely, their DJ software’s CPU usage (trying to avoid the dreaded ‘drop-out’) – but when you give them potentially huge CPU savings they complain about features. We can’t win, haha ;)
The next update hopefully won’t be too far away – maybe it’ll have something that interests you.
I’ll be happy with the next update definitely.
I was just saying that buyers need more “shiny feature” to pay $89 more … in a marketing way ;)
I just bought a MacBook Pro $ 2,499 because my MacBook Air i7 2014 did not work so well with ME … I should have to wait another month.
I hope I can have the same discount at the time of the new release ;)
But I’m sure you know what new “shiny” function in ME are expected.
BTW, thanks for your work, ME is mad :)
The price of the upgrade goes up to $99 on the 1st of May, sorry.
If it makes it easier to think about, paid upgrades so far have occurred around once ever 3 years – so if that trend continues, this current upgrade works out to a little under $2.50 per month.
I just made the jump to ME3. I’m stoked to see how it performs at my gig tonight. Don’t forget, ME was created to work with Scratch Live not the CPU hog that is SDJ. Mixemergency is still lightyears ahead of any other VideoDJ software out there and Nick knows his stuff better than anyone. If he says he’s optimized it so much that it represents a full digit upgrade then I’m willing to bet the performance is gonna be spectacular.
Of course we want new features but, mostly DVS users of SDJ want stability at this point. Although Nick can’t do much about Serato, he can make sure that his software works flawlessly and doesn’t add too much to the massive stress on CPU.
When ME2 (2.2) was released it had a few new features. Mostly a refreshed GUI though. People made the jump and then were surprised to see tons of new features in the next few updates for free!
2.4 – Official SDJ compatibility
2.5 – Major MIDI improvements
2.6 – Mixer FX
2.7 – Sample Player, HAP & GIF
If you think Inklen is cashing in and giving up with this new release, you’re misguided. New features will be coming and I’ll be ready on day 1 now that I’m a ME3 user.
Also, why wouldn’t you wanna buy now at a discount and then get upcoming new features for free? If you wait till the next version (after May 1st) then you’ve actually lost a $10 bet. (betting that Inklen will never add new features)
I just did my upgrade and I am very happy… Think you Inklen for making ME even more CPU efficient! Now I got more CPU power for Arena…