Throw me a bone? (I've got an idea for a modification)

[hairblz]

1st post here, I hope this isn't inappropriate. I thought since this is open-source software that maybe one of the programmers wouldn't mind giving me a hint on this question:

What do you predict the minimum system requirements would be, to simply select, play, and pitch shift / time-stretch and speed-nudge an mp3 file from a USB stick? So like if you stripped away all the features from a system, leaving a DJ-able MP3player / Ipod.

My reason for asking, is that I'm an irate DJ. I don't want to DJ from a laptop - I just don't enjoy it, and my only other option that will have a good jog wheel/pitch accuracy costs £1500 and has a pair of God-forsaken CD players attached (thanks Pioneer, Numark, etc).

I reasoned, with the release of the raspberry pi minicomputer that costs $35, mp3 players cost $35, wouldn't it be really cool to be able to play, repitch and nudge songs as I play them, without paying hundreds of dollars for a shock resistant, fast-loading, repitchable/loop playback CD player? Isn't it quite a practical, logical idea?

[rryan]

The lowest spec we've heard of modern versions of Mixxx running on was a Pentium 4 ~2GHz computer. It works acceptably on some netbooks with low-speed Intel Atom processors too. I'm not sure if it will work well out of the box on a raspberry pi. Maybe when I get mine I can play around with improving Mixxx's performance on it.

[hairblz]

Do you think it would significantly reduce the requirements, if one was to remove all graphical data except for: track name, time, file browser and pitch, as well as removing all of the features except timestretchable playback?

Do you know what the system requirements were for the oldest, most basic versions?

IMO, this budget DJ MP3 player idea is one that has to be explored - you could get the same experience as using something that costs $1500, for what, surely not much more than $400! Without having to DJ with a laptop!

It seems only around and possibly 400MHz are needed to play audio and video (MPlayer), which would work on the R-Pi, right? Surely something like Mixxx could be stripped down considerably . . . I'm not clued up on these issues, but for those of you who are, do you think my ball-park figure speculations are somewhat accurate or . . . . ?

[ywwg]

This is a very cool idea, but I think the amount of overhead in Mixxx for graphics, the library, and audio processing might be too much. Another way to approach the problem would be to look at the open source MP3 firmware http://Rockbox.org. They support a ton of mp3 players and they already have some code to change playback speed. It might be possible to take the existing rockbox code and add a "DJ mode" which makes the FF and REW buttons into pitch shifters. Some mp3 players even have a jog wheel which could be used for primitive pitch adjustment and scratching.

It looks like some people have had the same idea (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=11638.0) but nothing came of it.

I would pay money to see someone DJing with a mixer and two Sanzas

[hairblz]

It looks like some people have had the same idea (http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=11638.0) but nothing came of it.

Fantastic link, thanks for your replies.

Just now I have made more progress in researching this idea than the past 4 months of internet searching!!

That thread was started in 2007, and last updated in october 2010! I think there is hope for me

[IDE]

You are not alone. I have plans to use this board with Mixxx as well.

I gotta get myself started with providing low latency audio over USB.

[Gary Littlemore]

I'm too looking at this, there maybe some mileage with this post... viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1686 It maybe able to run from a SD card.

Another bare bones computer into the mix... http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/22/c ... _pi_alike/