The Mixxx team is proud to announce the final release of Mixxx 1.7.0.

Mixxx 1.7.0 features an overhauled MIDI mapping system with advanced scripting capabilities, improvements to vinyl control, and many other tweaks and optimizations.

The new MIDI scripting engine allows both users and developers to add complex behaviour to their MIDI devices.

Download Mixxx here. If you’ve used Mixxx, leave a comment with your thoughts!

New in Mixxx 1.7.0:

• Improved MIDI device support:
  • MIDI learning wizard
  • MIDI mapping editor
  • Upgraded, faster mapping system
  • MIDI output now fully supported on Windows, OS X, and Linux
  • QtScript/JavaScript-based MIDI Scripting Environment – Script complex behaviour for your MIDI controller!
  • Added full support for the Stanton SCS.3d and SCS.1m on all platforms.
  • Hercules MK2 and RMX improvements
  • Added Mixman DM2 mappings for Linux and OS X.
• Vinyl Control:
  • Scratching responsiveness improved, with needle-skip prevention option added.
  • Signal quality indicators added to vinyl control preferences.
  • Improved support for soundcards with multiple stereo inputs
• Convenience features:
  • The default skin is now widescreen, and fits nicely on netbook sized screens.
  • Stereo master VU meter added.
  • Cue points are now saved in the library for each track, with “auto-recall” cue option added to preferences.
  • Support for more platforms: 64-Bit Windows and a Universal OS X package for 10.4+.
  • Over 100 bug fixes.

Abstract:

Pd was initiated by American software engineer Miller Puckette, who previous co-developed the well known and similarly structured software Max/Msp. Pd is not commercial software; i.e., it was not developed by a corporation and is not for sale. Instead, it is “open source”: its source code is not the (patented) property of a corporation, but is rather freely available to all. One drawback to this is that a detailed operating manual for users who lack programming experience has not existed until now. In contrast to a corporation— which has a monetary interest in ensuring that first-time users can easily operate new software—the open source movement lacks such a driving force to make itself accessible. This book is an attempt to fill that gap.

This tutorial is designed for self-study, principally for composers. It begins with explanations of basic programming and acoustic principles then gradually builds up to the most advanced electronic music processing techniques. The book’s teaching approach is focused primarily on hearing, which we consider a faster and more enjoyable way to absorb new concepts than through abstract formulas.

The patches described are available for download.

The book can also be purchased as a paperback. Details at the Pd Tutorial site.

Experimental Scene has released DarkWave Studio, a Windows app designed for the composition, synthesis and recording of digital music, as a free and open-source application.

Details below.

Features:

• Virtual Studio – Wire Machines Together As If You Were Using Real Hardware
• Pattern Editor – Quickly Create And Modify Musical Notes In A Piano Roll Interface
• Sequence Editor – Arrange Patterns Into A Song
• Multitrack Hard Disk Recorder – Record Multiple Tracks To Disk For Post Production
• 32-bit Floating Point Internal Audio Path – High Quality Sound Processing
• SSE and SSE2 Optimizations – Blazing Performance On Recent Processors
• Assembly Language Optimizations – Blazing Performance Even On 32-bit Systems
• Native 64-bit and 32-bit Platform Support
• VST PlugIn Support – Limitlessly Expandable With Virtual Instruments and Effects
• ASIO Audio Driver Support – Low Latency Output For Live Performance

Bundled PlugIns:

• MIDI Input – Play Instruments From A Music Keyboard
• ES Mixer – 8 Track Stereo Mixer With 2 Auxilary Tracks, For Mixing And Production
• ES DGenR8 – Synthesize Drum Beats With Roland TR-909 Flavour
• ES BassHead – Top Notch Virtual Analog Subtractive Synthesizer
• ES SpatialVerb – Realistic Reverb Effects With The Smoothest Sound
• ES Stomp – Synthesize That Classic Techno Thumping Kick Drum
• ES AntiAlias – Filter Digital Audio To Make It More Like Analog
• ES QuadDelay – For Trippy Echo Effects

Download here.

If you’ve used DarkWave Studio, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Koblo Audio Software

By making it open source, Koblo is allowing any developer to build upon the Koblo Studio platform.

“Our business model seeks to change the rules of the game” said Michael Logue, CMO for Koblo. “Just like the rules have changed when it comes to music distribution, we are changing the rules around music creation.”

Developers are invited to share their ideas, experiences and questions at the Koblo forums at Koblo.com. Koblo is currently seeking Linux developers who are interested in porting the Koblo Studio to the Linux platform.

The Koblo Studio has also been updated to Beta 0.9 r3041. This newest release introduces beta audio recording and many bug fixes.

Peter Kirn posted an interesting look today at Mrmr - a platform for creating dynamic user interfaces on mobile devices.

The above video shows its use on an iPhone in a recent audiovisual performance and ends with an interview with its designers.

Simply put, Mrmr is a technology that lets you use ordinary cell phones and PDAs as controllers in audiovisual performances, or to participate in interactive museum exhibits, or to use your mobile device in the place of the mouse or trackpad from your full-size computer.

This could evolve into an open source platform for controlling sequencers, DJ and VJ software. 

Mrmr is available now, for free, on iTunes (App Store Link).

dj64 is a new open source DJ application for the Monome, by bitbasic.

Description:

The functions of a typical DJ setup have been modeled in Max/MSP, and are controllable using the monome. As well as this, several effects can be used to add more versatility and creativity to a DJ set.

via monome

Mixxx, the free, open source DJ application for Windows, Mac & Linux, has been updated and is available as a free software download.

According to the developers:

Mixxx 1.6.0 represents over a year’s worth of hard work from our growing development team. The development of 1.6.0 was been driven by continuous feedback from our users, the bulk of which began in May 2007 with our popular user survey. Since then, we’ve taken the features that people wanted the most and focused every effort on developing them. Needless to say, 1.6.0 is light-years ahead of 1.5.0, and our community’s continued appreciation for Mixxx has served as a strong motivator for us throughout its development.

Features include:

• Parallel waveform displays
• Waveform summaries
• MP3, OGG, WAVE, and FLAC playback
• Pitch-independent time stretch (key lock)
• Vinyl emulation
• Wave recording
• Free, open source software
• BPM detection and estimation
• Supported MIDI controllers:
  • Hercules DJ Console MK2
  • Hercules DJ Console MP3
  • Hercules DJ Console RMX
  • Hercules DJ Console Mac Edition
  • Mixman DM2
  • Tascam US-428
  • M-Audio X-Session Pro
  • M-Audio Xponent
  • Evolution X-Session
  • Ecler NUO4
  • FaderFox DJ2
  • Vestax VCI-100
  • Numark Total Control
  • More – see the Hardware Compatibility page.
• Multichannel soundcard support (playback and capture)
• Multiple soundcard support
• Cross-platform (Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X, Linux)
• Adjustable EQ shelves
• Crossfader curve control
• Skinnable interface with extra skins bundled
• Adjustable pitch range
• Multi-core CPU support
• 24-bit/96000 Hz playback and capture
• Crystal clear audio
• Hardware video acceleration
• Vinyl control support for:
  • Serato CV02 vinyl
  • Traktor Scratch vinyl
  • FinalScratch Standard vinyl
  • FinalScratch Scratch vinyl
  • Serato CD

Here’s a list of what’s changed since version 1.5:

• New MIDI mappings for Tascam US-428, M-Audio X-Session Pro, Evolution X-Session, FaderFox DJ2, and the M-Audio Torq Xponent, Vestax VCI-100, Akai MPD24, Behringer BCD3000 (including LEDs), Numark Total Control
• Many Hercules MK2 improvements
• Support for the Hercules DJ Console RMX
• Support for the Hercules DJ Console Mac Edition
• Slick sliding VU meter peaks – Screenshots don’t do this justice (download it and check it out).
• Added the new Natt skin, from Natt from the forums.
• Completely rewritten waveform view by Russell Ryan through Google Summer of Code. This will provide better performance for some users.
• Some very under-the-hood improvements that should fix the odd crash-at-startup and improve performance.
• Fixed keyboard cue keys to use whatever cue behaviour is selected in the preferences.
• MP3 parsing fixes for files with cover art (fixes blips at the start of some songs)
• OGG parsing improvements, fixes some library scanning problems
• Fixed OGG playback on Intel OS X machines
• Completed drag-and-drop support in the library. You can now import tracks to the library by drag-and-dropping a track from outside Mixxx onto the library view. You can also reorder tracks in a playlist or the library.
• Option to disable the BPM detection.
• Added BPM reading from MP3/OGG files which have it embedded in them (ID3), one of several enhancements by Martin Sakmar
• Various accuracy improvements to the BPM detection
• Improvements to the vinyl emulation and pitch-independent time stretch sound quality
• Wave recording support
• Vinyl control with support for Serato, Traktor, and FinalScratch vinyl, as well as Serato CD.
• Added support for multiple inputs on a single soundcard for vinyl control
• Build flags are now cached automatically
• Improved flanger effect, thanks to Enry
• Configurable cue behaviour, which now defaults to CDJ-style cueing. (Thanks to Tom Care)
• Enabled realtime priority with ALSA, improves performance with Linux RT kernels.
• FLAC support for Linux and OS X users (much requested)
• Tons and tons of bug fixes.
• Fixed crashes due to vinyl emulation mode
• Improved compatibility with JACK (some users were experiencing choppiness)
• Players should now only pull from the play queue if in NEXT mode
• Search functionality:
  o Search box now selects all text when clicked (easier to make a new search now)
  o When the search box is cleared, the library view will scroll back to it’s previous position.
  o Search now properly filters directories out
• Library stuff:
  o Double-clicking on a song now sends the song to the first stopped player.
  o Right-click menu cleaned up, much nicer now
  o Library directory rescans on startup when it’s been modified (*doesn’t work when subdirectories are modified yet)
  o Library view now shows directories first
  o Columns in the library view are proportioned intelligently now
  o Renamed the “Playlist” menu to “Library”
  o Added “Rescan Library” menu item.
  o Can select multiple songs (hold shift) and send them to the play queue or a playlist
• Playlist support:
  o Can create, import, delete, and rename playlists
  o Added “Playlists” to library drop-down box
  + Can right-click to send a playlist to the play queue.
• Fixed some bugs in the track properties dialog, and set default values
• Fixed a soundcard channel selection bug when the second device had more channels than the first.
• Added BPM Schemes (need to make some presets still)
• Minor speed optimization
• OS X/Leopard package for Intel users!
• A few build system (dependency checking) fixes
• MIDI LED control on Linux
• A few MIDI tweaks here and there
• Right-clicking on a knob/slider no longer moves with your mouse (it just centers the value)
• Using your mouse’s scroll wheel now changes the values of sliders and knobs (this is cool for laptop users with the little scroll bar at the side of their trackpads)
• DirectSound is now the default API on Windows
• ALSA Sequencer MIDI support courtesy of Cedric Gestes
• A couple of MIDI bug fixes (knobs now center properly, thanks to Sacha Berger)
• Added support for 14-bit MIDI pitch wheel controllers (thanks to Adam Sugerman)
• Hercules support on Linux improved (jog wheels work again)
• Big stability improvements
• Multiple soundcards can now be used for output (master/headphones), in case you don’t have a soundcard with 4 outputs on it.
• Adam’s wicked colour scheme support for skins
• Can now change skins without restarting Mixxx (more hard work from Adam)
• Channel VU meters are now pre-fader
• VU meters are now much more smooth
• Added clipping indicators (courtesy of John Sully)
• Higher quality EQs and other sound quality improvements (also from John Sully)
• Adjustable EQ shelves
• New MIDI mapping format now in XML, supports controlling LEDs
• Better Hercules support on Windows and Linux
• New BPM detection algorithm (Micah Lee/GSoC 2007)
• New media library (Nathan Prado/GSoC 2007)
• LADSPA effects support (not yet enabled – Pawel Bartkiewicz/GSoC 2007)
• BPM Tap tempo
• Ported to Qt 4
• Moved build system to SCONS
• Redesigned preferences dialogs
• Rewritten audio core (Albert)
• Vinyl control support for Serato, Traktor Scratch, and FinalScratch (FS needs work, but the others are good)
• Software preamp for vinyl control (can use turntables without a preamp)
• Track info editor (double-click in library)
• New library browse mode (CTAF)
• Starts in fullscreen mode if launched with the -f flag.
• Several MP3 decoder performance and stability improvements (John Sully)
• Support for merengue
• Reorganized “File” menu
• NEXT mode now works as expected (plays the next track in the table)
• Lots of little OS X improvements
• Improved consistency of fullscreen mode
• Customizable constant power crossfader curve
• Slow fade and fast cut crossfader curves
• Play queue, for creating an on-the-fly playlist
• Revamped playlist interface, editing
• Reasonably intelligent library rescanning

Koblo

Versions are available for Windows and Mac. A Linux port is in the works.

The software is currently in Alpha, and therefore has bugs and incomplete features.

• You must first create a new session, then you can save without crashing.
• The Audio Engine is currently playing back audio, although communication with firewire devices is not yet possible.
• Please import only 24bit, mono, PCM .wav files into your test projects. Other formats are not yet supported
• VST/AU plugins are not currently supported (coming soon!)

Download page