Wired! (Sort Of)
Nov. 6th, 2015 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperThe Behringer X-Touch control surface finally arrived late in the work day. It took a lot of dedication to not leave work and start hooking the beast up.
Then Julie wanted to play video games with me after I left work -- which I did, demonstrating yet another brand of dedication.
After dinner, I finally hauled the beast down to the studio and got it wired up. Fortunately, I had both an extender for the power cable and a couple of really long MIDI cables in the cable collection in the basement, so wiring was possible without actually buying any new cables, which may be a first for a new piece of gear. :)
And after a certain amount of futzing around, I managed to connect it to Cubase and get it started doing something. Then I decided that I really missed having the time code display, so I downloaded and installed the new firmware that fixes that problem.
Then I set out to figure out which button does what.
See, the problem is that the X-Touch emulates a Mackie Control Universal Pro. If you get an MCU Pro, you can get an overlay with the correct names for the functions that the various buttons provide in Cubase as opposed to what's silk screened onto the unit. The X-Touch, of course, does not have such an overlay.
But with a copy of the Cubase manual on the subject open on the screen, I was eventually able to figure out what all of the buttons mapped to. Eventually.
The good news is that I've successfully written automation information into Cubase using the faders and played it back.
And I am strongly considering grabbing my P-touch label maker and making some itty-bitty labels so I can keep track of what these buttons are really doing.
That's a project for another day, along with running all of the wires in a more reasonable configuration now that I'm sure that things are working. :)
Then Julie wanted to play video games with me after I left work -- which I did, demonstrating yet another brand of dedication.
After dinner, I finally hauled the beast down to the studio and got it wired up. Fortunately, I had both an extender for the power cable and a couple of really long MIDI cables in the cable collection in the basement, so wiring was possible without actually buying any new cables, which may be a first for a new piece of gear. :)
And after a certain amount of futzing around, I managed to connect it to Cubase and get it started doing something. Then I decided that I really missed having the time code display, so I downloaded and installed the new firmware that fixes that problem.
Then I set out to figure out which button does what.
See, the problem is that the X-Touch emulates a Mackie Control Universal Pro. If you get an MCU Pro, you can get an overlay with the correct names for the functions that the various buttons provide in Cubase as opposed to what's silk screened onto the unit. The X-Touch, of course, does not have such an overlay.
But with a copy of the Cubase manual on the subject open on the screen, I was eventually able to figure out what all of the buttons mapped to. Eventually.
The good news is that I've successfully written automation information into Cubase using the faders and played it back.
And I am strongly considering grabbing my P-touch label maker and making some itty-bitty labels so I can keep track of what these buttons are really doing.
That's a project for another day, along with running all of the wires in a more reasonable configuration now that I'm sure that things are working. :)