xwax is an open-source Digital Vinyl System (DVS) for Linux. It allows DJs and turntablists to playback digital audio files (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC and more), controlled using a normal pair of turntables via timecoded vinyls.
It's designed for both beat mixing and scratch mixing. Needle drops, pitch changes, scratching, spinbacks and rewinds are all supported, and feel just like the audio is pressed onto the vinyl itself.
The focus is on an accurate vinyl feel which is efficient, stable and fast.
Latest news
12th May 2023
xwax 1.9 updates some of the ALSA audio handling to generally prefer smaller buffers and lower latencies. It also adds compatibility for the musl C library used by Alpine Linux.
18th August 2021
A new release, version 1.8 gathers together a few smaller changes and fixes that have been available in development versions for some time, and is a recommended upgrade. See the CHANGES file and commit messages for details.
19th January 2018
A little 1.7 release adds locale support for international track and artist names, as well as some minor fixes.
3rd September 2017
A nice writeup of the PiDeck project is in print this month! The latest issue of the MagPi magazine explains how to get xwax up and running on a Raspberry Pi.
23rd October 2016
64 Studio has anounced its PiDeck project; an open source project to retro-fit the Raspberry Pi and xwax onto any DJ turntable. There's a couple of awesome demo videos and it's even been picked up by DJworx and CDM. Excellent work by Daniel, Chris and everyone involved.
3rd October 2016
Rather a late announcement (on the website at least!) of the 1.6 release. For the adventurous, there's a new tool to make your own timecode signal.
Archived news
For earlier announcements, see the archive.