We first covered the [very] long-awaited Mixxx 1.12 update beta back in May, and were impressed by how much extra stuff it had chucked in, to successfully bring it up to parity with some of its commercial competitors. The addition of four-deck mixing, new effects, and key detection, to name a few improvements, is fast turning it into a viable alternative for those on a budget but serious about digital DJing. So what’s happened since May? The team have got some news!
Until recently, Mixxx has been the go-to suggestion for absolute beginners that wanted to try out digital DJing without spending any money. The beta added these heavyweight features, showing just how mature the software is becoming. And to celebrate the teams recognition of the fact, they’ve surprised users by renumbering to reflect the leap, to version 2.0.
Here’s the gossip from their blog post…
Are you ready for a surprise?
The Mixxx 1.12 beta period has been going quite smoothly and we’re almost ready to launch this baby. This release packs a punch. It’s our single biggest release ever and adds more headline features than we’ve ever put in one release. We decided that it was time — time to drop the “1.1” (it’s cleaner):
Mixxx 1.12.0 will be… Mixxx 2.0!
We’ve been working towards this release for many years now. But we still need your help to make this our best ever.We need your help translating and testing.
Today we’re releasing Mixxx 2.0 Release Candidate 1. If all goes according to plan, we’re going to get some more testing in from the community and have Mixxx 2.0 ready for all of your New Year’s Eve parties!
Please help us out!
Available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Help Translate Mixxx
In order to make this release rock in every language we need your help with translations! This is the first release we are offering translations of the Mixxx manual in addition to the app itself. We are currently in dire need of translations for Spanish, Chinese and Japanese (among many other languages).
Check out out Transifex page and internationalization wiki for details on how to get started.Call for Presets
Support for MIDI/HID controllers is historically one of Mixxx’s biggest weak points. If you have built a controller preset for a device, please consider submitting it for inclusion in Mixxx as a community-maintained preset! Check out the guide on our wiki for more details.
Bugs and Feedback
You can help improve Mixxx by reporting any bugs you find. Your feedback plays a crucial role in Mixxx’s development cycle, and even filing a quick bug report makes an important contribution to the project. We want to hear from you! Please send us feedback, file a bug, write us an email, post to the forums, or chat with us.
Join Mixxx
We’re always looking for new contributors who are interested in working on Mixxx. If you’re a hacker, artist, or translator and want to work with a creative, enthusiastic team, hop on our IRC channel (#mixxx on Freenode) or sign up for our developer mailing list.
MY TAKE
I’ll be doing a more in-depth look of Mixxx 2.0 when it comes out, so stay tuned for that. As for the numeric change, I think we can take this as a sign that the team feel the software has come of age, in a way. Progress has been slow recently since there have been some fundamental changes and feature additions, so there was a good couple of years waiting between 1.11 and the 1.12 beta.
As I said in my last story, the glaring weak spot that absolutely has to be addressed is the addition of a top-notch collection of built-in controller mappings. Any DJ software that doesn’t already have its own buy-in (like Serato and Traktor have) lives and dies by its plug’n’play user experience. The development team already have a large and growing list of supported controllers, but there are some glaring gaps, like much of the Traktor Kontrol family and some of the Pioneer range. Some of this is down to how much of a pain it is getting the hardware to work with other software, which is why progress can be slow.
In the end, this is all a move towards changing people’s mindset when asked “I’m thinking of trying DJing, what would I use?” from “try Mixxx, it’s free.” to “USE Mixxx, it’s free and works great”. There’s no delusion that this software can ever pick a fight with the big boys and win, but the hope is that anyone that wants a working DVS system on a very tight budget, no matter the OS platform, they’ll have a very real option with Mixxx.
YOUR TAKE
Have you tried Mixxx yet? What do you think is missing? What would get you to switch?
Download the Mixxx 2.0 release candidate 1 directly from their site.