X-Touch usefulness

[rAC]

I recently bought this as a replacement of a BCF2000 (which probably could be repaired if Behringer let anyone have the circuit diagrams).

It has a much larger footprint but I’m finding it very useful in some ways that I didn’t anticipate eg it’s great for zooming. However, as it seems with all Behringer products, the documentation is poor. And I’m surprised that the photos of it showing coloured scribble strips haven’t been pulled as misleading advertising, however the mono colour display appears to be quite well done.

Learning how to extend the default abilities of it will take me some time I am sure - sofar I’ve identified that I want to, if possible, assign Logic Pro’s default action for the Enter key to a pad/switch on it.

Any suggestions, pointers to tutorials online or advice would be great fully received.

[des99]

I don't know which X-Touch you have (there are different variants), but the MCU protocol, which they support, support and enter key which confirms dialogs and the MCU supports this by default - I'm not sure whether your particular XT will have that button.

[rAC]

I have the actual X-Touch (not the compact or One) it does have a button on it labeled enter but if I try to use it Logic gives me a message saying something along the lines of as you have no MIDID region selected the command couldn’t be executed. 

I know from this forum that you have a highly specialised cs setup - I’m at the other end taking baby steps.

I mean my by that my expectation is that if the project is not playing then pressing Enter should reset it to the start of the project if the tracks area has the focus - it doesn’t. 

EDIT I just found that its transports controls will reset to 1 1 1 if you press stop twice. So that gets rid of my first bugbear:-)

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by rAC

[rAC]

I’ve decided that I shal use this as a sort of of blog so that others who embark on this journey shall at least avoid the pit falls I undoubtedly will encounter. Mods and particularly @David Nahmani is that okay?

[David Nahmani]

5 minutes ago, rAC said:

Mods and particularly @David Nahmani is that okay?

Sure, that's fine! :)   

[rAC]

Okay stand by for more - I will go back to Ch 1 of your book and make posts as I work through it trying to show where a cs is an advantage.

I’ll also try to document any cs changes I try to make/ do make.

[des99]

1 hour ago, rAC said:

I have the actual X-Touch (not the compact or One) it does have a button on it labeled enter but if I try to use it Logic gives me a message saying something along the lines of as you have no MIDID region selected the command couldn’t be executed. 

Ok, it should work then. When you have a dialog box on screen, say, you try to Save As and get the same dialog, you should also get that dialog displayed on the screen of the MCU device, and Enter actives the return key in those dialogs, just as it does on your qwerty keyboard.

1 hour ago, rAC said:

I know from this forum that you have a highly specialised cs setup - I’m at the other end taking baby steps.

This is a standard function of the standard MCU setup, no customisation required. Nor would I recommend trying to customise an MCU configuration, before you've even learned how the MCU works and what it can do. Baby steps are right - and learning your way around the MCU, and what you can do it, come first - and there's a surprising amount of depth, it's not necessarily that intuitive once you get past the basic functionality.

1 hour ago, rAC said:

I mean my by that my expectation is that if the project is not playing then pressing Enter should reset it to the start of the project if the tracks area has the focus - it doesn’t. 

No, that's not what the return/enter key does - your expectation is incorrect. That's what the Stop key does. First press stops the project. Press it again, it resets the playhead to the beginning. (Although these behaviours are a little configurable).

1 hour ago, rAC said:

EDIT I just found that its transports controls will reset to 1 1 1 if you press stop twice. So that gets rid of my first bugbear:-)

Oh, there you go, I could have saved myself a paragraph if I'd read on first..! 😉

Edited July 21, 2023 by des99

[rAC]

Well here goes with some observations etc on the X-Touch with Logic Pro - I’m going to be using 10.7.9 on a Monterey iMac Pro and using @David Nahmani’s excellent book on Logic Pro X 10.5 for this and abbreviate the X-Touch to cs.

The Save button on the cs works when a new project is loaded to open the save dialogue and repeat saves also work.  Undo, screen set recalls (F1-F8) all appear to do exactly what they are saying. Looking the Controller Assignments (No Zone) shows two more options for the Cancel and Enter buttons as well as some regarding the leds and scribble script displays.

Navigation on the cs of the Loops browser’s upper window does not appear possible, however the bottom panel responds to the Navigation buttons but stopping the preview sounds from playing doesn’t. Dragging a sample into a cell, and you can select it with the Navigation buttons - but the cell does not appear to be playable from the cs.

Okay no real surprises there I guess given Live Loops came to Logic not so long ago. The Navigation buttons work to select tracks and if the track has a cell in the first scene it will select that cell but they don’t appear to able to select any other cells. With cells anything I tried doesn’t seem to queue or lay them.

I did like the Save button turning red when a change to the project has been made - its a nice visual reminder and its easy to hit it and save.

 

 

[rAC]

Okay, not much to say today about the X-Touch except that I am find the Navigation buttons incredibly useful for zooming into things. Last night’s bedtime read was the Control Surfaces Support Guide for Logic Pro specifically Mackie Control which is finally starting to make some sense to me. I suspect it will be my bedtime read for a while as I try to establish a working comprehension of it. 

[Alan Shields]

I bought an X-Touch when they first came out, replacing my BCF2000. I found it a vast improvement over the BCF. Forget about the Behringer documentation, everything you need should be in the Control Surfaces Support Guide as you seem to be finding out.

There are some videos on the Behringer site where a guy called Phil takes you through a fairly good run through of the X-Touch's capabilities. Nothing extremely in-depth but a very good overview, It certainly cleared up a lot of things for me in the beginning. 

The colour scribble strips are not false advertising. They are colour strips when used with some other Behringer equipment - I can't recall the specific ones. The fact that they are Black & White with Logic is due to Logic's implementation of the MCU protocol and not the fault of the X-Touch. 

Overall I am very happy with the X-Touch, It suits my needs perfectly. In fact the only negative thing I can think of to say is that the jog wheel feels a little cheap and plasticky in an otherwise sturdy construction.

One point of note: the faders are touch sensitive by default. Meaning that when you put a finger on one it will select that track. I had to disable that feature and use the track select buttons. I like to put a finger on each fader and move each of them individually when mixing or pre-mixing. Doing this with touch sensitive faders had the track selection jumping all over the place on screen. This may not be a big deal if you're a one-track-at-a-time kind of person- in that case why have a multi fader controller? Wouldn't the X-Touch One would be more suitable?

Alan.

[des99]

4 minutes ago, Alan Shields said:

One point of note: the faders are touch sensitive by default. Meaning that when you put a finger on one it will select that track.

To clarify - XC/MCU faders are touch sensitive - this is a good thing, as you can write automation by just holding your finger on the fader, without moving it.

What you are referring to is a behaviour preference - Settings -> Control Surfaces -> General -> Touching fader selects track - you generally *don't* want this.

Touch sensitive faders are a different thing to the "touch fader selects track" preference, and I also don't find that preference useful (but *love* touch sensitive faders).

[Alan Shields]

Ah yes, my terminology was somewhat off course there but des99 has explained it perfectly.

To clarify my position:

touch sensitive faders - Love 'em.

touch fader selects track - Can't work with it.

Thanks for the correction des99,

Alan.

[rAC]

Just to say that I haven’t forgotten about this project of mine. It’s had a significant delay due to my biting the bullet and subscribing to EW’s ComposerCloud, finding out about Synthesizer V and having some major surgery.

Pain level dependant I hope to add some more to this later today.

[rAC]

No update today - spent it learning to walk without crutches instead.

[Alan Shields]

I hope that you recover soon.

Alan.

[lookatthisguy]

On 7/21/2023 at 7:57 AM, rAC said:

I just found that its transports controls will reset to 1 1 1 if you press stop twice. So that gets rid of my first bugbear:-)

Late to the game here, but… That's just Logic's protocol. Pressing stop twice always resets to 1 1 1 1. I routinely use that with my Korg nanoKontrol2.

[rAC]

47 minutes ago, lookatthisguy said:

Late to the game here, but… That's just Logic's protocol. Pressing stop twice always resets to 1 1 1 1. I routinely use that with my Korg nanoKontrol2.

Yeah - I had “learned” stop as space bar and then enter to return to 1 1 1 1. A habit I’m now breaking.

[rAC]

Okay so this project is on hold for a while - turns out the physical setup I had which had the Xtouch to the side of my organ - where I could twist and reach it easily is not possible when you have just had a hip replaced 😞

On the positive side I do have a custom piece of furniture in the course of being built, it will have space for my 88 key synth on a slide out drawer, a 30 degree slope centre piece big enough for the Xtouch, a computer keyboard, mouse and trackpad and flat spaces either side for displays.

[rAC]

Okay so a small update on this, I keep getting distracted by some new toys, babysitting duties etc. Lesson 3 - and the ability to select a track by touching the fader, together with the ease of soloing (and shift soloing) all worked great and I think were faster than keyboard/mouse combination. Shift + Spacebar for Play from Selection doesn’t appear to be mapped in the MCU settings - I’ve left that for another day to see if I can successfully add Shift+Play to Play from Selection to the X-Touches repertoire.

Now the desk is here and today’s delivery of cables [you always seem to have to buy more when you rearrange stuff - I needed 4] I am hopeful that I’ll actually post some more with more substantial content soon.

 

[rAC]

Addendum: My surgeon’s restriction of no surfing expires on Thursday so that will probably take some precedence then. 🙂 

[des99]

7 hours ago, rAC said:

Shift + Spacebar for Play from Selection doesn’t appear to be mapped in the MCU settings - I’ve left that for another day to see if I can successfully add Shift+Play to Play from Selection to the X-Touches repertoire.

Logic's play button has a range of configurable behaviours, and the MCU play button will trigger them just the same as the onscreen play button. Right-click on the play button and choose the Play behaviours you want, including things like "Play for selected region".

You can map up any favourite key commands using the function keys and user modes if necessary. I can't remember offhand if the modifiers affect the play button, as I don't have my real MCU's rigged up to refresh my memory...