Mixxx is
free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
for
DJing
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio
Music radio is a radio format in which music is the main broadcast con ...
.
[James, Daniel. "Drafting Digital Media". Apress, 2009, p. 213.] It is cross-platform and supports most common music file formats. Mixxx can be controlled with
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
and
HID controllers and timecode vinyl records in addition to computer keyboards and mice.
Overview
Mixxx is a DJ Automation and digital DJ performance application and includes many features common to digital DJ solutions as well as some unique ones: It natively supports advanced
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
and
HID DJ controllers, is licensed under the
GPL-2.0-or-later and runs on all major
desktop
A desktop traditionally refers to:
* The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor)
Desktop may refer to various compu ...
operating systems
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also inc ...
. The project was started in early 2001 for a doctoral thesis as one of the first digital DJing systems. Over 1,000,000 downloads of the program occur annually and as of Mixxx 1.10.0, 100 developers and artists have helped create Mixxx. Recent versions support
harmonic mixing
Harmonic mixing or key mixing (also referred to as mixing in key) is a DJ's continuous mix between two pre-recorded tracks that are most often either in the same key, or their keys are relative or in a subdominant or dominant relationship with ...
and
beatmatching
Beatmatching or pitch cue is a disc jockey technique of pitch shifting or timestretching an upcoming track to match its tempo to that of the currently playing track, and to adjust them such that the beats (and, usually, the bars) are synchroni ...
, both manually and automatically.
Format support
Mixxx can read most popular audio formats, including
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
,
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in conjun ...
,
Opus
''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.).
Opus or OPUS may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...
,
AIFF
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...
and
FLAC
FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software p ...
. v1.8 introduces a plug-in system to be able to read other formats, including patent-encumbered ones whose decoders cannot legally be distributed in binary form with Mixxx, such as
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is an audio coding standard for lossy digital audio compression. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves higher sound quality than MP3 encoders at the same bit rate.
AAC has been stan ...
(AAC). Any such plug-ins are automatically loaded at run-time if present. Mixxx can also play
module file
Module file (MOD music, tracker music) is a family of music file formats originating from the MOD file format on Amiga systems used in the late 1980s. Those who produce these files (using the software called music trackers) and listen to them f ...
s when compiled with the
modplug=1 build flag, and can use
LV2
LV2 (LADSPA Version 2) is a set of royalty-free open standards for plug-in (computing), plug-ins and matching host applications. It includes support for the audio synthesis, synthesis and digital signal processing, processing of digital audio and ...
plugins for effects.
Hardware
Any
sound card
A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio i ...
that is supported by the operating system is usable in Mixxx. Mixxx supports various software APIs for using sound cards on different operating systems, namely
ASIO
''Asio'' is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and S ...
,
WASAPI
Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Windows "Longhorn") has many significant new features compared with previous Microsoft Windows versions, covering most aspects of the operating system.
In addition to the new user interface, security capabilities ...
, and
DirectSound
DirectSound is a deprecated software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system, superseded by XAudio2. It provides a low-latency interface to sound card drivers written for Windows 95 through Windows XP and can h ...
on Windows;
OSS,
ALSA, and
JACK
Jack may refer to:
Places
* Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community
* Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community
* Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA
People and fictional characters
* Jack (given name), a male given name, ...
on Linux; and
CoreAudio
Core Audio is a low-level API for dealing with sound in Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. It includes an implementation of the cross-platform OpenAL.
Apple's Core Audio documentation states that "in creating this new architecture on M ...
on Mac OS X, all via
PortAudio
PortAudio is an open-source computer library for audio playback and recording. It is a cross-platform library, so programs using it can run on many different computer operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. PortAudio supports ...
.
For external hardware control, Mixxx can support any
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
or
HID controller as long as there is a mapping to tell Mixxx how to interpret the controller's signals. Mixxx includes mappings for many DJ controllers and users can create their own mappings as well.
[Mixxx Wiki](_blank)
hardware compatibility page. Retrieved on 4 Nov 2011. It is the only DJ software capable of using a fully featured programming language,
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
, for creating mappings with advanced controller interaction and feedback.
Turntable
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
s and
CDJ
A CDJ is a specialized digital music player for DJing. Originally designed to play music from compact discs, many CDJs can play digital music files stored on USB flash drives or SD cards. In typical use, at least two CDJs are plugged into a DJ ...
media players can control Mixxx with the
timecode control sub-system which is built on
xwax
xwax is an open-source vinyl emulation software. It was initially developed in 2006 as proprietary software. In May 2007 xwax was licensed under the GPL-2.0-only, making it the first open source software of this kind.
Unlike the software suppl ...
. Like xwax, Mixxx supports timecode vinyl made by several manufacturers.
Reception
One of the free and open-source applications available in the
Mac App Store
The App Store (also known as the Mac App Store) is a digital distribution platform for macOS apps, often referred to as Mac apps, created and maintained by Apple Inc. The platform was announced on October 20, 2010, at Apple's "Back to the Mac" ...
, in less than 48 hours from debut in February 2011, Mixxx became the #1 Top Free App in the USA, Germany, and Italy.
Mixxx has been accepted as a mentoring organization in
Google Summer of Code
The Google Summer of Code, often abbreviated to GSoC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to contributors who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during the summer. , the program is ...
2007–2008, 2010–2014, 2016–2018, and 2020.
[ Mixxx in Google Summer of Code:
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See also
*
List of free software for audio
This comparison of free software for audio lists notable free and open source software for use by sound engineers, audio producers, and those involved in sound recording and reproduction.
Players
Audio analysis
Converters
DJ software
...
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://mixxx.org/
Audio mixing software
DJ software
Free music software
Free audio editors
Electronic music software
Audio software that uses Qt
Linux media players
Cross-platform free software
Audio software with JACK support