X-Touch One and Automation

[velanche]

Greets:
I already have a thread about the X-Touch One, but wanted to focus this time on the main reason why I bought it, and that's for automation.

Last week, I tested out Automation Quick Access by remapping the jog wheel to use to draw automation. Beforehand a window pops up, and this has happened every time I tried using Automation Quick Access on a controller, letting me know that the chosen fader or jog wheel I wish to map was already assigned (pre-mapped, I presume) and that it gives me the choice to reassign, keep both, or cancel. In the case of the X-Touch One, I chose Reassign. Testing out the jog wheel to write automation, it worked fine. I then ended up with the problem of wondering how to revert back to the jog wheel's previous MIDI settings.

I ended up reaching out to Behringer a few days ago, and got a reply on how to do so.

This leaves me confused about Automation Quick Access; is it not supposed to be use on a temporary basis? What I mean is, whatever physical feature, fader, jog wheel, etc., that gets AQA, is it not supposed to revert to it previous MIDI setting once AQA is turned off? Please enighten me.

And I also welcome any tips and tricks for those of you who have used the device for automation. 

Thanks! 

[des99]

So you have a good idea to extend the functionality of the XT-One, because otherwise, the fader can *only* write volume automation and cannot get at anything else at all. So naturally, this was the first thing I wanted to do a few years back when I got mine... 😉

So I dug deep into this, and it's possible (with one caveat). Remember, you're not just overwriting an assignment, you're integrating new functionality *within* the design and implementation of how the device already works, as a custom designed control surface.

AQA is really designed to let one control on a generic MIDI controller - like a mod wheel on a keyboard, say - to write automation. That's not what an X-Touch is, it's a control surface, and the fader has been designed to work in one particular way.

There's a GS thread where I went into the weeds on all this, and rather than typing it out again here, I'll refer you there - give me a second to find the link and I'll add it to this post.

Edit: Ok, check out the back and forth between me (mu:zines) and cowudders:

https://gearspace.com/board/apple-logic-pro/1273003-considering-x-touch-one-use-logic-pro-x-3.html

The TL;DR; is, the way I implemented it was that when you press the Master button, the fader instead controls the master fader, which is essentially a fairly useless feature - but the fader does send a different MIDI message in this mode, and so won't interfere with the regular fader assignments, thus minimising the changes to the default assignments.

So, using Logic's controller assignments, you need to find and disable the master fader assignment, and create a new assignment to program AQA to respond to what the fader sends when the Master button is active. There are some wrinkles in this, which you'll find out - again, all this I went through when I implemented this a while back...

[velanche]

Thanks as ever @des99for the info; I'll check out the thread, later on. Seems that I touched upon a desired feature that seems to take some steps to invoke. I will have to gauge and work with it to see how much effort just simply going through the process of automation will be with the XT1. I kinda feel that depending on the amount of steps it takes, I could probably do quicker on my iPad and use Logic Remote in maybe fewer steps? 

I know it's gong to be a process, and maybe have several choices under my belt, depending on what's needed. 

 

[des99]

19 minutes ago, velanche said:

Seems that I touched upon a desired feature that seems to take some steps to invoke.

Yes, indeed. It's "control surface hacking", basically. People forget (or don't seem to realise) that a generic MIDI controller, and a control surface, are *not* at all the same thing.

A generic controller is a box of controls that you can set to send MIDI data - that's it. How you use it, what you do with it are completely up to you - there are no designed in workflows or convenience features, like automatic mapping, fader banks, feedback and so on.

A control surface has been specifically designed to work a certain way, and if you want to change that (where possible), it's up to the user to hack it and figure out how to do it and not break it. It's not been designed to be user-changeable from its implementation - and adding new features to fit within that design is not trivial.

It's like saying I just want my car to turn on the lights and the radio, and set the seat warmers to medium when I press the "Emergency Panic" button, instead of what it normally does. You could probably do it, but you're going to have to rip out the internals, figure out the wiring and control scheme, and figure out how to rewire the controls, and what you're going to do about the Panic feature.

That's essentially the analogy (and everyone loves a good car analogy, eh?) 😄

Also, there are two gotchas with this method, which are a) dealing with the fader reset, and b) you won't get feedback from the automated parameter. You'll need to work out what's important, because again, this device hasn't been designed to let the fader automate any parameter at all (because of the way Logic and the control surface implementation works, plus, they didn't think it's was an important enough feature for that product to implement it) - so user hacks are just that - nerds trying to get more value out of their gear... 😉

Good luck!

[velanche]

Last night, I tried working out using Automation Quick Access with the XT1. I did the proper mapping on the fader, but then did not get the proper response when I actually tried drawing automation on a test track. After trying out things that did not help resolve the issue, I noticed the little screen being completely black. So after unplugging and then plugging the power adapter, the screen returned to life, and I was then able to draw in automation of the volume via AQA.

 

I then tried using the "Autoselect Automation Parameter in Read Mode" option. While I was able to click on the desired parameter and the it switched from Volume to that parameter. But as soon as I moved the fader, the parameter snapped back to Volume. 

Has anyone else had better success, and what might I be doing wrong if so?

 

Thanks! 

[des99]

It should work as long as you're using TBA. If you're using RBA, as you can read in the other thread on this, AQA is bugged for RBA, which is probably the behaviour you're seeing (assuming you set the controller assignments up correctly etc).