Gsoc2016Ideas

Student Project Ideas for Google Summer of Code 2016

This page lists the suggested projects for students working on Mixxx as part of Google Summer of Code 2016. Each of these projects represents something that we think would make a really big difference to our users and that we as a development team are really excited about. For advice on how to get in touch and how to apply, you should read GSoC Advice.

A GSoC application that simply repeats the project description will NOT be accepted. We expect you to think about the feature and how it aligns with Mixxx's goals, outline potential use-cases and propose a plan for implementing a solution.

Track Meta Data Editor

Mixxx able to display various track meta data like cover, year and genre. Once all these data are available and correct, it is a fun to seek through the library to find a follower track.

Update all track metadata to a consistent state is currently a pain, especially if the track are from different sources. This becomes worse if the tracks have already meta data but wrong, like tracks from an oldies sampler, dated to the release year of the sampler and not the single release year.

Mixxx is already able to fetch meta data from MusicBrainz, but some meta data data is still missing or of weak quality. Other music players or tagging tools does a much better job here. They are able to display meta data form different online source like last.fm, Discogs or similar. The user can compare them and pick the suitable info. Some tools are also able to identify issues like misspelled names or duplicates.

Your proposal should include a clear description of the shortcomings of today's meta data edit features and how you plan to improve it. If appropriate, please include mockups and diagrams illustrating your plans.

Track analysis view and editor

Mixxx already includes some analyses features, but is not able to utilize all of the collected information. The current analysis view is not very intuitive.

Beat and bars: Mixxx should be able to detect, visualize and edit beat and bar information.

Key: Mixxx should be able to detect, visualize and edit changing keys throughout the track.

Cue points: Mixxx should be able to detect, visualize and edit special cue points. Like the first beat, Auto DJ fade start / end.

Your proposal should only focus on a set of features described above. Please describe the issue you focus on. Define how the data will be collected and used inside Mixxx. Include GUI markup of a new analysis data editor.

RTMP or WebRTC support

Mixxx already has Shoutcast support for streaming. But for wider adoption it should at least have HTML5 WebRTC or more widely adopted RTMP-protocol suppport. To achieve this Mixxx recording and streaming API should be reshaped to plugin-style API.

Keyboard Mapping GUI

Editing keyboard shortcuts is currently a pain point for users and requires editing a text file.

This project will move keyboard mapping and processing into the new controller sub-system as a new type of controller (alongside MIDI and HID controller support) and introduce a user-friendly GUI for editing keyboard presets. For backwards compatibility, the keyboard presets should still be stored on-disk in the same text format.

We suggest you check out the MIDI mapping GUI and code in Mixxx 2.0 for inspiration. Another very useful exercise is checking out the various commercial DJ software offerings out there and examining how they allow users to map MIDI controllers.

Something Else!

As always with Summer of Code, you aren't limited to the suggestions we've made here. If you've got a great idea for a project involving Mixxx then we're looking forward to hearing about it. Our bug tracker is full of wishlist bugs and other ideas scattered throughout, so if you browse through it, you may find many more ideas for GSoC projects.

IMPORTANT: You should contact us first to get feedback if you're going to submit a proposal for your own project idea!