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Inklen’s MixEmergency 3 — not more but better

Mark Settle·
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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 RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Inklen 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/upgrade
New 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.