Hacker News Reader

Comment by quesomaster9000 | Hacker News Reader

I considered renting out some Pioneer equipment to add RekordBox playlist writing support, mainly because I'm in a similar situation. Mixxx does have support for reading USBs & SD cards, but not writing ;_;

Unfortunately it's far down my priority list given the cost, my unfamiliarity with Mixxx development and that I rarely do anything without Mixx.

But this is absolutely what ecosystem grants/bounties should be for.

View on HN

I think there are two projects who worked on it a bit:

* https://github.com/kimtore/rex

* https://github.com/Holzhaus/rekordcrate (Current status of export: https://github.com/Holzhaus/rekordcrate/pull/103 )

Mixxx dev and main author of rekordcrate here. The issue is that the format is an ancient proprietary format that does not have been reverse-engineered to a degree that we can properly write Rekordbox DBs yet (Rekordcrate is based on the work done here: https://djl-analysis.deepsymmetry.org/rekordbox-export-analy...)

Would be cool if there is Foss firmware to install on pioneer cdj. It just feels better for a lot DJs. Any projects in this direction?

BTW, the DJ collective I'm with has Pioneer CDJ. If anyone need use the hardware let me know. I'm trying to get them to start using open FOSS software, but it is hard.

Haven’t tried it myself but CDJ-3000s have been rooted.

https://github.com/connorworley/cdj3k-root

You could put a lot of time and effort into getting your own firmware for CDJs .. or you could just connect them via USB to an pi running mixxx.

What you mean? Can CDJ be hooked up to a pi using mixxxx?

The whole point is that the DJs in my collective are used to play vinal, so the pioneer CDJs just feels nice on the hand.

Yes some of the newer dj controllers r quite nice, but rekorbox just got to all the clubs first, so it's everywhere. Kinda like how Adobe is the defector for graphics.

You can use CDJs as a controller. Not with Midi, but in HID mode.

I have only tried it with traktor, but AFAIK it should also work with mixxx. Pi, laptop, whatever. And you can keep using the screens on the CDJs.

And the next user can keep using the USB, no hardware or software modification necessary. Much easier then coding a new firmware.

Mixxx, Algoriddim DJay, Traktor, Rekordox, probably Virtual DJ. Connect CDJs and mixer via USB and off you go. If you have an mixer with no build in audio interface, you would need a external sound card (a hassle because a lot of cables) or aggregate all the CDJs into one virtual card.

> But this is absolutely what ecosystem grants/bounties should be for.

I'd be down to fund a bounty/grant for this (and I'm clearly not alone), if anyone is looking for booty :)

See my other comment to parent, there are two libraries who started, but did not finish. Maybe they can be incentivized to start up again.

I'm a bit annoyed by the requirement of having to use rekordbox exports on some DJ devices and would probably chip in to this because I will definitely not try to install rekordbox again :D

> RekordBox playlist writing support

Without the Rekordbox beat analysis, you'd only be getting track names, and you can achieve similar functionality on the Pioneer side by just putting the files for a each playlist in a separate folder.

There's a kaitai bin format parser config file for the usb db file but kaitai isn't expressive enough to read it properly from that.

Pioneer (err Alphatheta)'s stranglehold on the industry is a shame due to lack of interoperability, among other issues with Rekordbox.

An export db with title, artist, album and rough BPM could be useful to interoperate with the native browse and search menus on a CDJ.

Without beat grids have to best match by ear but that’s par for the course for many DJ scenarios.

https://djl-analysis.deepsymmetry.org/rekordbox-export-analy... (and playlist entry rows) should have a complete enough description if someone wants to give it a try

The Rekordbox.xml format [1] is quite simple. Note the `<TEMPO>` and `<POSITION_MARK>` tags.

But Pinoeer can be weird and there's a lot of old (even ancient) equipment out there, so sometimes it's a case of finding the lowest common denominator and sticking to that.

[1]: https://cdn.rekordbox.com/files/20200410160904/xml_format_li...

Could not agree more. I recently made the switch to exclusively using Linux on Desktop machines, yet I now have to have a Windows PC laying around for the sole purpose of updating my USB using Rekordbox.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com