Behringer X touch

Looking forward to your review Lightbox

Update:
Thomann changed availability info for the X-Touch to "Due back in stock on 18.08.2015". So I'll probably get mine 5 days from now.

In my (long) experience with Thomann, they are pretty serious about the projected shipping dates. A few days plus-minus always happen so I don't mind they didn't get them today (by the end of last week they had projected the14th of August).

I wonder if Thomann, Germany is getting them first. In the United States the full X-Touch isn't even available for dealers to purchase yet. They don't even show incoming inventory.

The X-Touch Compact is still on the slow boat, but no date of arrival yet.

The X-Touch Mini has been available for a couple months.

Quote from benvigil

I wonder if Thomann, Germany is getting them first

Wouldn't be surprised if Thomann gets them first. They are the biggest music gear retailer in Europe, they easily sell huge quantities. Kemper likes them as well (for this reason at least, hehe).

I wonder how it'd go with Digital Performer.

Back in the day, anything that could emulate the Mackie Universal Controller protocol would be right as rain...

It seems this would just be what I was looking for... A control surface which didn't require my blood...

The Eagle has landed (at Thomann)!
Got that notice today and called them to confirm.
My X-Touch will leave Thomann later today and should be here by tomorrow or day after tomorrow.

What would you more experienced guys suggest in terms of which model to choose among the three? I mean, apart from the lower or higher number of sliders there are also different services on each of them.
how useful (or critical) wojld you say they are for the money? Usually, a noob like myself discovers what he actually needed... after purchasong the wrong tool! LOL

Ok, without having the unit here yet, I will tell you a few things that made me choose the big one instead of the Compact version:

1. I hate to have buttons below the faders. You can't rest your hand on the unit if there's buttons, right?
2. Just from watching the pictures, I have a feeling of the compact only being able to switch between 2 layers (A and B) while I think I can toggle through as many fader banks as I want on the big one.
3. I do prefer some description/function printed near the buttons, the Compact looks VERY raw.
4. The additional rotary encoders on the Compact are nice but I don't need them because I can continue to use my BCR2000 if I need more buttons and encoders.
5. I plan to get rid of my Jog/Shuttle wheel (Contour Shuttle Pro) and use the Jog/Shuttle on the X-Touch instead. The Compact has only VERY basic transport buttons.
6. I want to use the X-Touch mostly for recording automation data (fader movements). The big X-Touch has the necessary Automation buttons (e.g. Read/Write) while the Compact doesn't have this at all.
7. I like the fact that I will have 2 footswitch inputs instead of just 1 on the Compact. Hope I can use it with the Boss FS-6 for Record / Stop / Rewind kind of stuff for hands-free recording. Probably difficult to do with just one footswitch.

We'll see how it works and how it will fit into my workflow. I'm very curious to see what I can do with the Encoder Assign block given the fact that I never use the Cubase Channel Strip EQ. I've completely switched to FabFilter plugins for EQ and Compressors / Limiters.

Here we go, just a simple unboxing video. More to follow.

Quote from lightbox

Ok, without having the unit here yet, I will tell you a few things that made me choose the big one instead of the Compact version:

thanks, most apprecited! Looking forward to hearing more impressions of use

Before I start recording some videos, I would like to mention that there IS some nasty issues! But so far these issues seem to be related to the DAW I'm using (Cubase 8 Pro - build 8.0.20). Looks like this software has some bugs regarding Mackie Control protocol compatibility at least on my Windows workstation. Have to check on my Mac as well.

Can't blame the X-Touch for these technical issues at the moment! And since I don't own a Mackie Controller to compare, I will have to stick with my findings regardless of which part is the culprit (Cubase or X-Touch).

So far, if you're running Cubase 8 on a Windows machine, wait before you buy the X-Touch. I will try to demo and explain the issues as soon as possible.

Cheers
Martin

740 € @ Thomann

Here's my "first impressions" video using the X-Touch with Cubase Pro 8 (latest build, Windows workstation).
Please excuse the slightly clipped sound. Made a stupid mistake when I connected my Sennheiser wireless pack to the DSLR camera. Will be better in future videos.

Remote control channel strip EQs using the Behringer X-Touch with Steinberg Cubase 8 Pro:

Thanks Martin, really appreciated!

A Polish guy (from SinMix' crowd IIGIR) advised the following:

Quote

If the size isn't an issue I'd go with Icon Q-ConPro (G2 if you can wait for it :D). It's well worth the extra 200-300e more than X-Touch.

What do you think? I'd like to get some feedback from more experienced users

The Qcon Pro G2 looks interesting as well, of course. It quite a bit bigger and heavier though and I don't like this huge meterbridge.
Just 12 LEDs for metering and the LCD scribble strip really don't require this size (height), imho. Also from watching some videos of the prototype it looks like the lower LCD scribble strip has the same issue the X-Touch has. The LCDs are way to deep inside the housing. Watch the images below to understand the downside of this.

Behringer X-Touch:

Top view looks nice but from sitting perspective they are just bad.

Icon Qcon Pro G2:
[Blocked Image: http://www.delamar.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/icon_qcon_pro_g2.jpg]
If the unit is on top of your studio desk, you can barely read the LCDs. I have no clue why they build it like this but it's not exactly optimal.

Yet another video demo using the Track mode of the X-Touch rotary encoders with Cubase.

A quick look at the Send mode of the Behringer X-Touch encoders using Cubase 8 Pro.

Made a little mistake saying that Pre is default for Sends instead of Post. Sorry about that, I added an annotation in the video.