The last time we mentioned Mixxx was over two years ago. That was the beta for version 2.1 of the free, open source DJ app, and we’re now testing beta Mixxx 2.3. The development has traditionally been slow and steady, with a good leap in features every update, so with this version rolling off the factory floor, we have a fair few toys to try out:
- Hotcue workflow improvements
- Hotcue colours
- Serato/rekordbox collection importing
- Intro/outro cue points
- Deck cloning (instant doubles)
- UI and skin improvements
- Multithreaded track analysis
There’s so much to pack in the announcement that pasting it here would just be ridiculous, so head on over to the release announcement page to see everything that’s been mentioned, though this is what we got in the email.
We have released Mixxx 2.3 beta with hotcue colors & labels, Serato metadata import, Rekordbox metadata import, intro & outro cues, a revamped LateNight skin, multithreaded analysis, deck cloning, and more. More details are in our release announcement:
Mixxx 2.3 My take
I love seeing open source software mature and improve in line with commercial products. I always try the OS alternative with hopes it will work out (hello Firefox, Audacity, LibreOffice, VLC, Atom, and Proffieboard!), sometimes it doesn’t…
With Mixxx, I’ve always made sure to keep an up-to-date install on my computer to play around with. I’ve found the app has its share of issues, but beyond the inconsistent UI, it has features to compete with the big guns of the commercial DJ software sector.
Unfortunately, a brief play with the 2.3 beta highlighted some problems that definitely make this feel like a beta build… Basic stuff like the app not being signed so macOS blocked it from launching, and even just switching skins caused a crash to desktop (not here — Ed). It’s frustrating that one of the touted new improvements (redesigned LateNight skin) has a bug on a major OS that hasn’t been fixed since early May. But there’s time to iron this stuff out.
The list of new toys has a lot of items that would be considered fairly staple in modern DJ apps… With the coloured cues and deck cloning being the most useful for a lot of people. It’s nice to see improvements in migrating your libraries from Serato and rekordbox, though the recent update for the latter might put a dampener on that flexibility.
So what do I feel is still missing? What would draw me in long term?
Well, something that bothers me as a fairly modular DJ is that not only is there no Ableton Link support, but the app doesn’t even have MIDI clock. I’d be coming from Traktor, which offers this modularity, along with very powerful MIDI mapping as one of its core draws.
The recent homogenisation of DJ tech – every app/controller/deck is demanded to have features XYZ (see the shitstorm in a teacup over NI’s controllers without jog wheels) – has highlighted time and again my thought that there’s no shame in being niche. You don’t have to have a billion ‘standard’ features as long as you do your core stuff really well. And arguably, interconnectivity should be a core tenet of DJ equipment.
Another area that I feel could be improved is to not only have more ‘official’ support for various controllers, but to bring this to the forefront. A lot of open source software suffers from the fact that the people making it are engineers, not designers, marketers, writers… I’m sure the Mixxx team has plenty of these contributors, but so often the information is buried, and the user experience isn’t smooth. It’s not enough to throw a huge list in a wiki at the user… you need to make this a guided part of the setup, and promote and grow a thriving, concise community database of readily portable mappings, rather than just a discussion forum.
Mixxx 2.3 Your take
Have you given Mixxx a try recently? What is missing that would convince you to switch?
You can try out the Mixxx 2.3 beta right now! Grab it from the official website.
Mixxx developer here, thanks for the review! It is helpful to get some outside perspective.
MIDI clock and Ableton Link are features we want to add in the future. However, we can’t really support Ableton Link until Mixxx knows where the downbeats are. We’re working on a new beatgrid format and analyzer right now that will detect downbeats, phrases, and sections and support changing tempos within a track. Unlike other DJ software, we’re not assuming that all music has a 4/4 time signature. This will pave the way for lots of useful features like looping over 6/8 bars, scrolling through the track by phrase or section with a controller encoder, and easily lining up sections in different tracks without having to keep your eye on the deck time.
As for controller support, we’re working on a completely new controller system right now. The current controller system had scripting hacked into a simple declarative XML system, which ironically makes scripting a clunky experience. The new system will allow writing the whole mapping in JavaScript without the old XML part which will make it easier to write well organized code. We have updated to Qt’s newer JavaScript interpreter which supports modern JavaScript (ES7), which makes controller scripting more approachable both for novice programmers and experienced JS developers. With the new system, we’re looking to implement some long requested features to improve the user experience with controllers such as hotplugging (automatically loading mappings when a controller is plugged in and handling controllers coming unplugged during a set), showing a manual for the mapping in the application, letting mapping developers design a custom preferences GUI for the controller (like Traktor has for Native Instruments’ controllers), and mapping multiple controllers in one script so they can interact (for example, pressing a button on one controller toggling the other controller to a different layer).
Regarding mappings from the community, we already review controller mappings for the quality of both the code and the design before we include them in Mixxx. Every new mapping is required to have documentation written on our wiki. However, there is only so much we can review without having the hardware to test with. We only started doing this a few years ago, so old mappings may have more quirks and bugs.
Other new features we have in the works are saving loops as cue points, custom effect chain presets, exporting to Denon Engine Prime USB drives, and a new library system with custom faceted tags, somewhat like Rekordbox but more flexible.
We definitely have trouble solving platform-specific bugs, especially on macOS. Most of our developers primarily use Linux and we don’t have many macOS developers who have much time to contribute right now. Unfortunately it is not easy to run macOS in a virtual machine so fixing these bugs requires having Mac hardware. Please get in touch on our Zulip chat if you can help.
The Rekordbox import uses the Rekordbox USB drive format, so it is not affected by the changes from Rekordbox 5 to 6.
We’re working on moving to more reliable build servers and setting up application signing automatically for all builds, including beta builds.
Soon we’ll be launching a fundraiser to sponsor paid internships through the Outreachy program for people underrepresented in technology. We have a few logistical details to finalize before we announce the fundraiser, so stay tuned.
If you’re interested in getting involved, come introduce yourself on our Zulip chat! :)
By the way, scrolling on the DJWorx site is very slow for me in Firefox now. I have to use Chromimum instead.
Scrolling on Firefox could not be faster for myself. Mac.
https://github.com/pestrela/music/blob/master/traktor/README.md#what-makes-mixxx-unique
What makes MIXXX unique?
MIXXX is a professional-level DJ software that is fully open-source software.
This means that ANYONE has the complete freedom to improve MIXXX by fixing bugs, extending features or adding entirely new functionality.
Such is unique among any solution, and is severely lacking in all other DJ software that have bugs unfixed for years (example), possibly forever.
I’ve made a review of MIXXX 2.3 from the point of view of a heavy Traktor user:
https://www.mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13355
New forum link: https://mixxx.discourse.group/t/my-first-mixxx-experience-coming-from-traktor/18419
As a seasoned Mixxx (and Ubuntu!) user, my two cents on Mixxx: it does the job as well as I could ask of it. I use it with a DDJ-SB2 so I could use a mapping out of the box, and while it does freeze here and there, it doesn’t bother me. The only thing that does bother me is the mediocre time stretching algorithms available (but that’s not Mixxx’s fault, and as far as I understand this will probably never be improved). I personally don’t care for bells and whistles when DJing, so Mixxx suits me just fine.
What I am quite excited about is the vague possibility (fantasy?) of Deezer’s Spleeter being integrated into this. It’s open source so it’s not impossible and it has been brought up in the forums: https://mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3018&start=20
Integrating Spleeter into Mixxx’s effects system would probably be quite easy. Because EQs are just effects in Mixxx, it could even be used with the EQ knobs on controllers like in VirtualDJ.
Just recently we have migrated the forum to Discourse. This is the updated link: https://mixxx.discourse.group/t/stem-mixing-in-mixxx-please-add-your-thoughts/11858/21
Thanks for the headsup!
That GUI is beautiful.