Today, we’re excited to announce another update to our app.
This is a release that makes life better for all of our live broadcasters. Let’s take a closer look.
One-click live broadcast from your Mac.
At Mixlr, our mission is to make it as easy as possible to broadcast high-quality, live audio. Earlier this year, we introduced virtual broadcasting, which made broadcasting from any Windows app simple.
Now it’s Mac users’ turn. If you’ve wanted to broadcast from iTunes or other apps on your Mac, it’s always been possible to use Cycling74’s excellent Soundflower with Mixlr. But installing it and setting up hasn’t always been easy.
So we’ve saved you the trouble, and built it directly into Mixlr. If you’re running on OS X, you’ll find a new input option: iTunes / system sounds.
The first time you select it, you’ll be prompted to install Soundflower. Just click to confirm:
And enter your system password. Mixlr will install and set up Soundflower automatically.
If you’ve already got Soundflower installed on your Mac, then Mixlr will detect it and skip these steps.
That’s all there is to it! After a few moments, you should be able to play sound from iTunes, Chrome and many other Mac programs directly through Mixlr.
It’s also possible to “play-thru”: that is, keep listening to iTunes through your Mac while you’re broadcasting. (Pro-tip: turn your volume up before selecting iTunes / system sounds!)
Finally, for pro software like Ableton and Traktor, it’s still possible to set up Soundflower channels as you always have done. You can check out our old blog post for help.
Finally, thanks to Cycling74 for the great free software which makes this possible. We hope this makes our broadcasters’ lives easier than ever.
New feature. Introducing Categories.
We’re also rolling out another change this week. Since the earliest days of Mixlr, we’ve tried to make it easy for listeners to find broadcasts by giving the option of adding tags to each broadcast.
Since then, Mixlr has grown significantly. To help listeners navigate the many live broadcasts on Mixlr, we’ve realised that a more structured solution is needed.
So for now, we’re putting tags on the back-burner. In their place, give a warm welcome to Categories.
We’ve introduced a number of music and spoken-word categories: we’ll also be watching them closely over the next few weeks. If you’re a broadcaster, and we’ve missed off a category that’s important for you, then we’d like to hear about it. Hit us on the usual channels: Facebook or Twitter.
We’ll be working on making categories a big part of our listeners’ experience over the next few months. Watch this space for more news.
Broadcasting app: improvements, fixes and more.
While we had the engine compartment open, we’ve made a lot more improvements too. We’ve rewritten the Mac audio engine, and reports from our beta-testers suggest much improved compatibility with many sound-cards on OS X.
We’ve fixed a number of issues on Windows – especially on Windows 7. We’ve gone crazy bug-fixing, and tweaked the UX to hopefully even further improve the experience for broadcasters.
Feedback: send it our way.
You can download our new broadcasting app right away. (If you’ve already got an old copy, you’ll be asked if you want to update next time you open the app).
And as usual, we want to hear how it works for you. If you’re a live broadcaster (and if not, why not?) – send your feedback our way. Say hello on Facebook or Twitter today.
Happy live broadcasting.
The Mixlr team