Behringer X-Touch integration

[Joschic]

Hi there, I’m new to Cantabile and started my first Baby steps. Feels promising to reach my goals.
My Setup: 2 master keyboards and VSTs from Steinberg and NI (mainly Halion nad Komplete) and Behringers X-Touch.

I managed to bind the device and also got the motor-faders to react. Now my questions:
Did anyone manage to control color set of the faders and the text in the display?
How can I calibrate the faders (i.e. 0 db in Cantabile fits to 0 at the controller?

[dsteinschneider]

There is a discussion on this forum about binding rotary encoders that show the VST’s knob position using lights that increment around the knob.

UPDATE:

Behringer BCF2000 (Generic) MIDI Controller Sliders to Object Volumes

Terry, I have an x-touch mini which has similar rotary encoders with LED position indicator. I have the problem where if I adjust the knob, then the LEDs also adjust using “local control”. Like you, I also have a binding that sends the midi value back to the LED lights for that knob. The problem is that the local control and the received midi fight each other, especially if I have any curves applied in C3. Same race conditions problems with lit buttons. Does the BCF2000 have the same issue, or…

Controller Select

Hey Guys, Thanks for this discussion - very useful. This all falls under a bunch of MIDI handling improvements I’m planning. These changes fall into two groups - those that rely on some re-design in the binding framework: Binding “take-over” support Binding Reflection (ability to reflect an internal parameter value back out via MIDI) Binding MIDI to MIDI Binding Relative Encoder support (ie: rotary encoders) Better support for bindings to be processed on the audio thread eg: MIDI to MIDI bi…

Visual Feedback/Display of Controller Status

I’ve just started trialing Cantabile (loving it) and I too need some way of grouping a visual indication of the changing status of various different parameters (across different plugins) in one place on the screen. I’m playing around with a little Behringer X-touch mini and the rotary encoders actually work very well with Cantabile - 2-way communication works really well and the LED rings around the encoders show the current status. But it’s not particularly easy to see what’s going on at a gla…

Also relating to config of rotary encoders:

New Feature: Controller Defaults

This is a pretty advanced topic, but hopefully useful to some… You can now provide a JSON file that describes the default binding behaviour of incoming controllers. This is particularly useful for configuring particular CC’s to always be rotary encoders, buttons etc… See the guide for details. Available now in build 3624.

[Joschic]

Wow. Overwhelmed. Thanks for the responses. Now I have some study before doing the next steps. Regarding the “Controller Select” topic - would love to see this in the product!!

[Joschic]

Did some studying but I’m it didn’t answer my questions.
Is there a way to use the Display-Stripes and the timer/counter display?
Are there some templates for the ControlerDefault.json file for common controlers (or some detailed examples)?

Did get the motored fader to work (both ways) but the displays are black.

[dsteinschneider]

There’s a professional keyboard player here, Christian, @FantomXR , who builds workstation keyboards. He knows way more about controller binding than I do. Hopefully if he’s not too busy he could chime in.

[FantomXR]

I’m afraid I can’t help much here. The X-Touch totally lags on documentation. There is no implementation chart. I think it uses the Mackie Control Protocol. So maybe it’s good to check the MCU documentation.

[Joschic]

Hi FantomXR, thanks for the fast answer. Yes, it utiulizies on Mackie MCU and HUI (currently configured with Mackie Control). I works well as Mackie Controller in my DAW (Cubase).
My problem is, that I don’t have a clue how to utilizie the displays (LED stripes) and the counter display. Asuming it follows the Mackip Control protocol, what do I need to do?

[The_Elf]

I’ve created a MIDI Designer Layout that responds to Mackie protocol timer display messages. I have a Behringer X-Touch and used it to figure out which characters were which.

Here: X-Touch emulator

They are just simple MIDI messages denoting a display character.

Can’t help with the LCD strips, though.

[Joschic]

Made some progress but now I’m stuck.
To address the LCD Display I must send SysEx commands to the Controller.
I used the binding and entered the SysEx command - but nothing happened on the Controller after pressing the play button (in Cantabile) for that event.
I checked with the MIDI Monitor and it shows that it’s sent.
Now comes the funny part: I exported the SysEx command and executed the File via MIDI-OX and that worked.

Anyone an idea what I’m doing wrong???

[Joschic]

Anyone here who can help me?
I’ll try to describe my problem again:
I would like to use “Binding” to add text to the LCD display of my Behringer X-Touch.
The X-Touch works in “Mackie Control” mode. I know the SysEx code that I have to send to the X-Touch. It works with MIDI-OX as well, but not with Cantabile. I have configured the Binding Object in the same way as the Master Fader (though this is not SysEx) and it works.
This means for me: The basic addressing of the X-Touch in Cantabile is correct and works. Only the SysEx command does not arrive correctly at X-Touch.
What am I doing wrong? Every idea is welcome!

[The_Elf]

Can you show me the Sys-Ex string? I will try it out here.

[Joschic]

x"F0 00 00 66 14 12 00 48 65 6C 6C 6F F7"

sure, it send “Hello” to the first line.
I also tryed the following in the sysex editor:
x"F0 00 00 66 14 12 00"
utf7(“Hello”)
x"F7"

[RackedBrain]

I use the x-touch compact with Cantabile. I don’t use Mackie mode (it’s optional). I used the editor to set the 9 faders to cc80 thru cc87 and cc90 for master all, on ch16. These have been my standard cc numbers since Forte and now Cantabile. I use BlueCat’s MIDI mixer in a rack that handles the mixing functions. The BlueCat lets me see the mix onscreen when I don’t have the x-touch.

Yes, Behringer docs are terrible. You have to read between the lines. I’ll share my racks later if some one wants to try some experiments.

BTW, I do use Mackie mode with Studio One. You switch back and forth by holding the bottommost, leftmost button on power on. The mode is indicated by an led above the master volume.

Richard

[Joschic]

Hi Richard,

thanks for sharing your setup.

I need the Mackie control mode to use the LCD Display and the counter bar display. There is no other way. The X-Touch is used to level volumes between the different sounds I’m using.

Maybe this sounds a bit old fashioned but using a touch display (or even worse a mouse) is not fitting for me in a live gig situation.

I want to switch songs (working), control the volumes by faders (working) and set some information on the displays (not working).

Beat counter and scribble strips would be the final step to be happy.