Behringer X-Touch

I was quite tired controlling DAW with mouse or Boss BR-800 when practicing or recording so I was started to search for "true" solution. One of my friends is using X-Touch Compact and advised me for Behringer as out of box solution. So I made a decision.

Once it arrived I connected USB to my Mac, quickly configured my DAW (very easy) and started testing. All functions are working by default, there is also possibility to use some software to remap X-Touch, but I did not found it useful for me. Faders are great responsible (that was one of the main point), small screens are extremely useful the layout is intuitive. I am very happy with it. As device has MIDI interface there is possibility to control other devices I just roughly tested with great results.

My band have Behringer X32 rack for IEM and small venue mixing, X-Touch is very useful as a full compatible hardware mixing surface.

The device is nice built and seems to be robust enough to be not just a home studio piece of gear.

As I am not a professional user of recording equipment I was looking for reasonable price solution and in my opinion that is the absolutely best what you can get with low budget.

My use case for the X-Touch is as a DAW controller for Cubase in a home studio. I use it for transport control, setting markers, volume and panning, and other DAW control (e.g. arming tracks, metronome toggle (custom shortcut), monitor toggle (custom shortcut))

I don't use the faders and knobs for plugin control etc., I use my master keyboard for those since that allows me to change the CC numbers more easily.

The positive:
- Since I started using this in Cubase, I can't work well without it anymore. It speeds up my mixing workflow so much compared to just using mouse+keyboard. It's also much easier to control the recording process with the X-Touch when I'm playing guitar or keyboard. Need to record DI + wet signal to separate tracks? Just press both 'rec/arm' buttons on the X-Touch at the same time.
- Build quality feels very solid, faders feel sturdy.
- Reliable, no issues in operation yet after 4 months of intensive use.
- The touch sensitive faders are useful for automatically selecting channels, no need to press a button first. However, that option does exist as well, if you want to select a channel without touching the fader and risking a volume change. It's great to have both options!
- Great integration with Cubase, the customizable shortcuts open up a world of possibility.
- Has 2 pass-through USB ports, which I use to connect some other music-related gear, allowing me to turn all of it on/off with a single switch - the X-Touch power button.
- Uses a standard power cord which is therefore easily replaceable.
- Motorized faders just look awesome in general.
- Much cheaper than an actual Mackie yet I don't really see a reason why that would be better. In fact, I prefer the X-Touch' separate track displays to the Mackie's combined track display. The X-Touch also shows the volume per channel during playback with a typical volume 'bar', which looks great in the total channel overview, while the Mackie just shows it using a single LED.

The negative (X-Touch specific):
- The track displays are not readable under an angle, but I solved that by tilting the whole X-Touch, which somehow feels more natural to control that way for me as well.
- Toggling between parameter names and parameter values in the track displays is a non-sticky option. I prefer to see the values, but the default is to show the parameter name. Every time I switch fader banks (or restart the device), I have to re-set that option if I want to see values instead.

The negative (Mackie-protocol limitations):
- The track display hardware supports different colors for the backlights, which would be an awesome feature to even more quickly correlate the channels to the ones in my DAW. However, this does not work with a DAW due to limitations in the Mackie protocol. This is NOT actually a limitation in the X-Touch itself; the much more expensive Mackie controllers have the same limitation. It only works over ethernet when connected to a Behringer X32 (have not been in a position to try that, so I cannot verify it)
- Buttons can have different functions in different DAWs and applications, so you may have to find and print a template to put on it for easier use. The standard names don't map well to Cubase, which I'm using.
- Faders sometimes do not appear to go very smoothly. This is not a hardware issue, but it is because some DAWs send Mackie updates with a relatively low frequency (so instead of a 'diagonal line' when increasing volume, the controller receives a 'staircase' from the DAW). Luckily there is a free tool floating around online that can intercept and interpolate these updates, which improves smoothness.

Useful note:
- The protocol is MIDI-based, which makes it universally compatible with many things. However, if you only plan to use the faders and knobs for volume/panning, like me, you may want to disable this device in your DAW's regular MIDI inputs to prevent unintentional changes to your virtual instruments when pushing buttons and moving faders/knobs :)

Overall, this is a nice piece of kit to help you free your hand from the mouse. I've had this for a few years now and it's still going strong. It's well built (mostly) and for the price, you do get a lot for your money. That said, there are a few niggling issues I'd like to point out.

Now, I use this for interfacing with my DAW and if you (like me) were/are swayed by the fact that the LCD scribble strips can change colour, then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed as this feature is only available if you're using it with the Behringer's X32 products. Whilst this isn't entirely the Behringer's fault (as it is technically impossible to get them to change colour through the Mackie protocol without some technical knowledge), their product pages and publications all show multi-coloured screens with no mention of the feature only working with other X32 products. It's not the biggest issue in the world, but when you're working with loads of tracks, it would have been nice to have some way to change the colour of the screens.

On the subject of lights, it seems to me that there is no real way to clear the LED clip lights if you peak as they do not seem to respond if you clear them in your DAW. This means it can be quite confusing if you use them in conjunction with your onscreen mixer. It would have been nice if this could be fixed in future firmware updates but considering I've not seen a firmware update in the five years I've owned this, it says to me that Behringer has probably forgotten this product exists. Also, I find that certain lights randomly stay on when you close your DAW down which is rather annoying.

Secondly, whilst the jog wheel is a nice addition, it does feel quite cheap when compared with the rest of the (mostly) metal construction. I love the illuminated ring around the wheel, but I notice friction at some points where the wheel makes contact with the outer ring which makes accuracy a bit of an issue if you're using it for fine scrubbing purposes.

The biggest flaw I have found though, is through the reliability of its connectivity to the computer. The X-Touch has three ways to interface with the computer; through USB, MIDI or through the network. I'm using this with a 2016 Apple iMac installed with the latest version of Logic and connecting it through the USB is by far the most unstable option, with it regularly dropping connection and me having to cycle the power to get it to connect again. The network option is a little better but there is a lot of setting up and additional hardware (a router) involved and it still dropped connection occasionally. In my opinion, the best way is to connect it with old fashioned MIDI cables. In my case, I have them connected through my NI Komplete Audio 6 interface and so far (touch wood) it's not dropped out.

So yeah, it's an okay bit of kit for the money, but I can't help but feel it could have done with some more refinement on the software side to make sure it was truly was user friendly. The build quality is mostly excellent with a lot of it being solid metal and it does get the job done if you like the tactile workflow, but perhaps with a few more tweaks under the hood, it could be even better.