xwax, the minimal open source DVS for Linux
1.3 of xwax is out! xwax is really awesome. If you’re a vinyl DJ and a linux user I certainly recommend checking it out 
The announcement email on the mailing list
http://xwax.org/ - The homepage
http://wiki.xwax.org/ - The wiki, containing useful getting started information
Ohh and I just got this email- exciting stuff 
Hi oddworld
Do you use xwax?
Hello
I don’t run Xwax ( will check it out again soon) but I’m a opensource supporter so any news from the opensource crowd is good.
I hope I will have time to test it this weekend.
Hello guys! I made a short videyuh on compiling and installing xwax.
edit: replaced with newer, better version. yeahh!
@MrPopinjay: I was just browsing around and saw your post on xwax and checked out your setup. I am interested in checking it out! I am a long-time Linux user and open-source supporter and definitely want to take a look. I have Traktor Scratch and a DN-X1700 mixer (scratch certified) but would definitely want to look into a minimal Linux DVS setup.
I see you use had (still have) the Audio 4. How do you find it, easy to use, install etc. on Linux? If I may ask, what are the hardware specs for your Linux machine?
Thanks,
It’s plug and play
The software mixer doesn’t really work afaik but I’ve never used it, you can change from line to phono inputs with two lines I’ll post below. It presents as 2 sub-devices, which I think can cause some funny problems using it without an .asoundrc file with things like JACK and renoise if you want to use all the ins and outs but since xwax + ALSA wants device names for individual stereo pairs it works perfectly.
To set it to phono:
$ amixer -c Audio4DJ cset numid=1 0
To set it to line:
$ amixer -c Audio4DJ cset numid=1 1
A DNX1700? Cool! It’d be great if we could confirm that it’s soundcard plays nicely with linux (you can just plug it in and select it as a audio output with your desktop environment, right?) We could put together an .asoundrc file for it (which is something I don’t know how to do but hey, gotta learn somehow) and then maybe even give it some midi control since we have generic midi controller support in early development atm.
Personally I dream about getting all the fancy current gen club mixers up and running so xwax can become pretty much plug and play with them. Maybe even make an extensive unified .asoundrc file and fancy xwax startup script that detects what soundcard you currently have plugged in and then launches xwax with the appropriate flags.
My laptop (which is my gigging machine) is a POS but it’s wayyyy more than powerful enough for xwax.
louis@louis-Lenovo-G550:~$ screenfetch
./+o+-
yyyyy- -yyyyyy+ louis@louis-Lenovo-G550
://+//////-yyyyyyo OS: Ubuntu precise i686
.++ .:/++++++/-.+sss/` Kernel: i686 Linux 3.2.0-34-generic
.:++o: /++++++++/:--:/- Uptime: 11h 51m
o:+o+:++.`..```.-/oo+++++/ Packages: 1795
.:+o:+o/. `+sssoo+/ Shell: bash
.++/+:+oo+o:` /sssooo. Resolution: 1366x768
/+++//+:`oo+o /::--:. DE: XFCE
\+/+o+++`o++o ++////. WM: Xfwm4
.++.o+++oo+:` /dddhhh. WM Theme: Greybird-compact
.+.o+oo:. `oddhhhh+ GTK2 Theme: Greybird
\+.++o+o``-````.:open_mouth:hdhhhhh+ GTK3 Theme: Not Found
`:open_mouth:+++ `ohhhhhhhhyo++os: Icon Theme: elementary-xfce-dark
.o:`.syhhhhhhh/.oo++o` Font: Droid Sans 10
/osyyyyyyo++ooo+++/ CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 900 @ 2.20GHz
````` +oo+++o\: RAM: 875MB / 1975MBGotta love a single core 2.20GHz CPU ¬_¬
The xwax requirements are:
[QUOTE]Modest CPU, Pentium III 600 or faster (more the better)
Lots of RAM, typically 512Mb or more[/QUOTE]
Which kind of makes you realise just how bloated Traktor and SSL are for people just after timecode.
I am without a personal Linux machine at the moment, which is ironic since for my work, I have a cluster with 32 compute nodes all running Ubuntu…
As soon as I can resurrect one of my old machines and get Ubuntu running on it, I will try the DN-X1700 and see if it works with xwax. For the time being, I will be limited to running Linux on a desktop as the only spare laptop I had got coffee spilled all over it and now it is dead! Anyway, the fact that I can get a fairly modest system and be able to run DVS on it is a real draw for me!
Out of curiosity, what turntables do you have? and how do you like them for DVS? I may be looking to replace my old decks with something in the future.
I’m currently using one super oem and one tech 1210. They are both fine turntables
I slightly prefer the super oem though I think most people are more into the technics.
louis@Pinky-MKII ~ $ screenfetch
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmds+. louis@Pinky-MKII
MMm----::-://////////////oymNMd+` OS: Mint maya x86_64
MMd /++ -sNMd: Kernel: x86_64 Linux 3.2.0-23-generic
MMNso/` dMM `.::-. .-::.` .hMN: Uptime: 4h 42m
ddddMMh dMM :hNMNMNhNMNMNh: `NMm Packages: 2177
NMm dMM .NMN/-+MMM+-/NMN` dMM Shell: bash
NMm dMM -MMm `MMM dMM. dMM Resolution: 2560x1024
NMm dMM -MMm `MMM dMM. dMM DE: GNOME
NMm dMM .mmd `mmm yMM. dMM WM: Not Found
NMm dMM` ..` ... ydm. dMM WM Theme: Not Found
hMM- +MMd/-------...-:sdds dMM GTK2 Theme: Mint-Z
-NMm- :hNMNNNmdddddddddy/` dMM GTK3 Theme: Not Found
-dMNs-``-::::-------.`` dMM Icon Theme: Mint-X
`/dMNmy+/:-------------:/yMMM Font: Sans 10
./ydNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz
\.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM RAM: 1681MB / 3894MB
louis@Pinky-MKII ~ $That’s my desktop, xwax with a buffer size of 8ms (the default), 2 decks in use and 7 min long tracks loaded into them xwax is using 12% of my processing power and using 170MB of RAM. Working happily while I surf the web and watch youtube videos at the same time (my buddy is mixing).
I wonder how many decks I could have before I started to have problems 
Ewan made a video showing off xwax with his triggerfinger pretending to be a pair of dicers and scratching a live audio input using a few modified scripts (that he’s kindly shared with us on the wiki)
There is now an xwax soundcloud group, currently it boasts an impressive 2 members 
https://soundcloud.com/groups/xwax
If you’re a user (or a fan) I recommend joining and posting some xwax-y goodness.
Holy crap, soon I might be able to run xwax off a smart phone! 
Ooooh, scalable UI. Whenever the rest of the industry catches up with Apple and starts releasing high resolutions displays we will be ready
edit: oh, and I made a facebook group. lol
1.4 is out
A relatively small update, especially when you look at the other stuff that has been in development, like the midi and cue point stuff. Still, we’re ready for the retina-display revolution
I’d like to try and get xwax running on a raspberry pi soon. That’d be cool.
I was gifted an old Asus Eee netbook. Not knowing what else really to do with it, I installed Debian, since I find you can’t have enough Linux boxes around the house… I always need one for something eventually. I’m really, really excited to try out Xwax with an old M-Audio Conectiv on this when I get back home next week.
If all I need is vinyl control of two decks with low enough latency to back cue and beatmatch, why shouldn’t an Intel Atom and 2GB of memory will be sufficient? I don’t play out regularly anymore, so why should I keep hundreds of dollars in hardware interfaces and software licenses around? Xwax and a orphaned netbook seems like the perfect thing to keep on my mixing table since all I want to do anymore is mix records to relax once in a while.
I’ll be back in this thread to share thoughts after I get back home and run it a few times. Hope some other people feel like coming in here and sharing experiences with what looks like the most promising open source DJ software around.
And Intel Atom with 2GB RAM is more than enough. Requirements are Pentium III 600 and 512 MB of RAM. You’ll smoke it. No problem!
Tell me how you find it. Ask me, the IRC channel or the mailing list for help if you need it
Hey popin, do you know anything about using an Audio 8 under linux? I have Installed the ASLA drivers and can play video’s and music using it no problem, but when I tried it in mixxx it will shut down. I would try xwax but the midi isn’t as good.