In terms of beat mixing/matching, how does xwax compare to mixxx? They seem to be about the same age, but xwax seems a lot more lightweight/barebones compared to mixxx, is xwax perhaps not meant for end-users?

xwax /is/ meant for end-users, but right at the beginning it only had actual live professional use in mind. I was literally DJ'ing in clubs at the time and I wanted the digital equivalent of playing vinyl records.

I was collaborating with a friend on the early versions, to see if it could be commercialised to provide a "house" system for radio studios and clubs (much like the house provides CDJs or turntables). Today that's superseded by DJs bringing their own laptops, of course.

I don't know much about Mixxx these days; that project was always much better set up to grow through a range of contributors (eg. with its scripting engine). But I think it's technical architecture is probably quite different.

Whereas, xwax was designed from day 1 with the idea it was a realtime system with very tight latencies, taking input from one audio interface and responding to it on another. That was fun on Linux (and FreeBSD!) systems of the early 2000s.

From what I’ve read on Wikipedia, mixxx apparently uses the xwax source code. As does PiDeck. It would be really interesting to know what else uses it.

Serato DJ Pro and Traktor probably

Amazing work. Thanks for sharing xwax with the world!

Are you aware of Rasteri’s SC1000? It uses a magnetic rotary sensor with a modified version of xwax instead of time-coded vinyl. I wonder if xwax has support for other DIY jog wheel controllers? I didn’t see anything in the docs.

GitHub - rasteri/SC1000: An open-source digital portable turntablist instrument https://github.com/rasteri/SC1000/ « the scratch wheel is handled by an Austria Microsystems AS5601 magnetic rotary sensor »

It's something I have seen before! Seeing xwax reduced to very small hardware is interesting. Thanks for sharing here.

I owe you a huge thanks! As a music + open source nerd, XWax was magic for my teenage turntablist brain. That era with Ms. Pinkys (https://mspinky.com/vinyl/) was just such a special time. <3

It was magical and very exciting seeing these things emerge!

Thank you for your contribution to open source music production/dj'ing!

I used Final Scratch about 20 years ago. These days I use Recordbox DVS as all my kit is Pioneer.

The infinite music catalogue in digital format with the analogue feel of mixing vinyl is the perfect match for me. It’s been fun introducing friends to DJing by loading up anything they want into Rekordbox and seeing the delight on their faces after a first successful blend of their favourite music.