With all the recent talk about Serato DJ and Traktor, new shiny controllers powered by them, and everyone buying everyone, it’s easy to forget there’s still a vibrant and enthusiastic corner of the industry that works hard to keep pushing features. One such company is Mixvibes, who, apart from making pretty much the only Android DJ app, has a solid and competitive Windows/Mac version of Mixvibes Cross.
Not only does Cross have all the major features you’d expect from DJ software, they also use the excellent KeyFinder software to analyse root key of all your tracks. The latest update to version 3.3 brings several new features and under-the-hood improvements. The most noticeable of which is the new Track Match feature, which takes on Traktor DJ’s recommendation engine, and more. On top of the boring old key and BPM match, Cross DJ suggests music based on what you played in the past, and manually chosen matches for those “oh yes!” moments while in the zone.
Another addition is a 64-bit version of the software, which future proofs Mixvibes Cross for the foreseeable. The lack of obvious change to the user doesn’t do justice to how much work is involved in this upgrade, but long term, it means a more stable software, and general improvements in performance, particularly for video, according to the press release (I’d imagine video uses up a lot more RAM than audio).
Here’s the press release, with all the important changes…
Paris, France – October 14th, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Mixvibes Cross DJ 3.3: Track Match & 64-bit
Mixvibes introduces Cross DJ 3.3, a new version of its Mac/PC software, with huge performance improvements and a new feature to help selecting the next track.
All new Track Match feature
On the right side of the music library, a new pane displays a list of suggested tracks. There are 3 modes: Automatic, History and Manual.
- Automatic Match: Displays the best tracks to be mixed with the currently playing track. Our algorithm uses a combination of BPM and key compatibility.
- History Match: Displays the tracks already played with the track currently playing. So you don’t have to note on a random piece of paper the killer combo you just made.
- Manual Match: If you play 2 tracks that go well together, and want to remember this combination, hit a simple button to ‘match the tracks’. Those matches are kept in memory, and displayed anytime you play one of those tracks.
64-bit version
- Better overall performance, especially for video mixing
- Improved stability
- Better audio quality
Enhanced Collection
- Sync BPM & Key of tracks in Files, iTunes and SoundCloud tabs based on collection BPM and key.
- Navigation History: widget in the top left corner of collection + back/forward commands
- Exact search, using double quotes
- Smarter column sorting, waterfall search
Other improvements
- More reactive MIDI control
- Options: search a MIDI controller by tapping its name
Pricing and availability
49€ / $49 for Cross DJ 3.3
129€ / $129 for Cross 3.3
Free update available for Cross DJ & Cross.
Get it now: http://www.mixvibes.com/products/cross
About Mixvibes
Mixvibes has been developing DJ apps for Mac, PC, iOS and Android for more than 10 years.
My Take
With a large part of the DJ tech industry conglomerating in what is effectively becoming cartels under the Serato and Traktor banners, it’s refreshing to see some of the smaller guys pushing hard to keep up with the pace. I’ve said it before, privately, but it needs to be said publicly… There are so many smaller companies out there, and they’re doing great work, that stays too unseen. Mixvibes makes a solid product, that’s easy to use and feature rich. These smaller companies need to start working together, using pooled resource to create products that either compete effectively against the big boys, or fill a niche that isn’t economical for them.
Jared should be along with a full review of the software (including DVS, right Mark?) sometime soon, so hold on to your hats.
As I said earlier, we won’t really notice much of a difference between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the software, but it’s no less important than any other major feature addition. To put it in perspective, neither Serato nor Traktor run 64-bit yet, and neither even make use of multithreading outside of analysing tracks (which Cross does).
The Track Match system is clever, intuitive and really quite handy. I’ve only had a quick play with it, but it seems to work much like my brain does while I’m constructing and playing sets. And having KeyFinder built in basically cuts out several steps in my workflow.
Everybody loves Easter Eggs
And here’s a little easter egg, straight from the guys at Mixvibes to keep you entertained:
Just for kicks, play Pong: enter the Konami code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B) and use the pitch faders to control the paddles. Even works with mapped MIDI controllers and CDJs.
Get the software direct from Mixvibes, 49€ / $49 for Cross DJ 3.3 and 129€ / $129 for Cross 3.3.