Remote Script for Behringer X-Touch

[RobrechtV]

Hurray! Glad you got it working, thanks to jellybelly57! And yes, for use in Live, the Xtouch was meant to simply piggyback on the Mackie Control scripts, and the updated scrips are still based on that.

Anyone tried this yet? Press Track five times to reach a new mode where the rotary knobs set the color for each track!

By the way, I've added a fifth page to Track mode. The first four pages already existed in the Mackie Control script: they allow you to set each track's input and output type and channel using the rotary knobs. Press the Track button one more time and you enter the new color mode: each track's scribble strip displays the name of the current color and you can use the rotary knob to change it.

Fun fact: some time ago I experimented with flipping between colors as quickly as possible – I was hoping to expand the limited palette (black, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow and white) by "mixing" colors using persistence of vision. You know, flip between red and white to create pink etcetera. Unfortunately, it's just not possible to send the SysEx commands quickly enough, so it just looked like flickering. Oh well. I still think the eight colors really help to identify tracks at a glance, especially if you make sure not to use shades of the same color in a row.

[jellybelly57]

RobrechtV wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:16 pm
By the way, I've added a fifth page to Track mode. The first four pages already existed in the Mackie Control script: they allow you to set each track's input and output type and channel using the rotary knobs. Press the Track button one more time and you enter the new color mode: each track's scribble strip displays the name of the current color and you can use the rotary knob to change it.

GREAT! I didn't know that.

[Kik07L]

hello everyone !

If u want to help making this project better & add features, you can discuss with the main dev here or try pushing your edits on the github project : https://github.com/Kik07L/Behringer-X-Touch-for-ableton for the github users.

have a greate day !

[astridsumpter]

I have a X-Touch One and I'm getting no response from it at all. It turns on and that's all. I did install the scripts but so far nothing. Any ideas?

[RobrechtV]

Is your X-Touch in MC mode and did you set the remote script correctly in the settings?

Your X-Touch needs to be set to Mackie Control (MC) mode and the Ableton midi control surface to the updated X-Touch scripts. This is mine but please ignore the highlighted entry.



Here is how to change the X-Touch Mode:

To set the mode on a Behringer X-Touch controller, turn off the device, then press and hold the "Select" button on channel 1 while powering it back on; use the rotary encoder on channel 1 to choose the desired mode (like Mackie Control or HUI) and then release the "Select" button to confirm the change.

[Badpixel]

AMAZING work. Thanks so much for this. Been using an older version of this profile for some time. Just recently upgraded my setup and had to re-install everything. .. The addition of the coloured strips is something I thought would be minor but from a workflow standpoint it's such a massive improvement!

I've been noticing a curious behavior and wondering if anyone else has seen this. When selecting this XTOUCH profile in the midi devices, the MIDI out signal indicator in Ableton (blue) is flashing rapidly and continuously regardless of what's happening in the daw or on the device - the MIDI in indicator (yellow) is behaving normally. When the MC profile is selected the flashing stops and both in and out signal indicators appear to behave normally. I'm probably missing something and the behavior doesn't appear to currently be affecting anything but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[jellybelly57]

I've been noticing a curious behavior and wondering if anyone else has seen this. When selecting this XTOUCH profile in the midi devices, the MIDI out signal indicator in Ableton (blue) is flashing rapidly and continuously regardless of what's happening in the daw or on the device - the MIDI in indicator (yellow) is behaving normally.

Yes, mine does this. Basically I suspect Ableton is polling the X-Touch and providing real time feedback so that the X-Touch indicators and time displays are always correct. This is common in other sorts of communication between 2 devices.

[RobrechtV]

Huh, so the normal MC script doesn't show those continuous MIDI messages? I'll see if I can find a reason for that in the X-Touch script.

The addition of the coloured strips is something I thought would be minor but from a workflow standpoint it's such a massive improvement!

(And yes, it's surprisingly useful even with the limited color palette, isn't it?)

[Badpixel]

I remember noticing this in live11 as well... and with an older version of the script on a different machine.

I didn't check the MC profile on the older configuration though... My new config is a fresh install of everything with XT firmware updated to 1.22 from 1.21

[gregjar]

Hi. Has anyone ordered an overlay for X-Touch with the amendments from this script? It would be great to see.

[RobrechtV]

I remember noticing this in live11 as well... and with an older version of the script on a different machine.

I didn't check the MC profile on the older configuration though... My new config is a fresh install of everything with XT firmware updated to 1.22 from 1.21

I think I found out why the X-Touch script was constantly sending MIDI and the original Mackie Control one isn't.

My code for sending the colors to the device is in the same place where the scribble strip text was already being sent, so I assumed I couldn't do any harm by simply adding one more SysEx transmission where there already was one.

But it turns out the function invoked to send the text checks whether the text string has changed since it was last called before actually sending the SysEx message, something I overlooked before. So I just needed to do the same in my own function for sending the colors.

I think that fixed it, I'm not seeing the constant MIDI activity anymore. New version in my signature, thanks for reporting!

(Kik07L, I'm not sure how I should update the Github project, I'll try to learn once I find the time...)

Hi. Has anyone ordered an overlay for X-Touch with the amendments from this script? It would be great to see.

Thanks for the link, that looks like a good place for overlays! I've been thinking about that but I'm not sure I'm done adding/tweaking button functions yet. There are so many possibilities, especially using the Shift/Option/Control/Alt buttons!

Apart from the additional functionality I am having consistent crashes when X Touch is powered up before loading Live since the most recent Windows 11 sp H24 so am hoping this more refined script will get round that AND provide a better experience.

I also have this phenomenon, but only if the “Remote Scripts” folder exists or has been created. It does not occur for me before or otherwise.

Stefan, do you have any more insight in this? Does it happen as soon as the “Remote Scripts” folder exists, regardless of the scripts it contains? I get the same crashes but I've only ever used the X-Touch custom script so I can't compare. I want to find out if it's a general bug in Live or something I could try to fix in the script (though I wouldn't know how).

[gregjar]

Even what has already been done is amazing.
I understand, all color possibilities have already been used? It is not even possible to make white letters on a black background?

[RobrechtV]

Even what has already been done is amazing.
I understand, all color possibilities have already been used? It is not even possible to make white letters on a black background?

I've been looking all over for a way to invert the text, which is possible in Xctl mode (i.e. when controlling a Behringer X32 or similar). But as far as I can tell, there is just no way to do it in MC mode – meaning that Behringer hasn't provided a SysEx command for it like they have in Xctl mode. If anyone knows otherwise, I'll implement it right away: it would be a great way to distinguish groups from actual tracks, for instance!

And I'd love to have more colors than the current eight, but like I mentioned above, there's no way to "dim" the red, green and blue LEDs. So you only get the full-on colors and their mixes: red, green, blue, cyan (green + blue), magenta (red + blue), yellow (red + green), white (all three) and black (none). If it were possible to dim the LEDs , you could create any possible color in-between. I tried a kind of rudimentary PWM by turning them on and off as quickly as possible using a stream of SysEx messages but it was nowhere near fast enough, and it wouldn't have been an elegant solution anyway.

[shaunyshaun]

Any indications on where to find the API Python documentation for the MackieControl scripts ?

[RobrechtV]

Any indications on where to find the API Python documentation for the MackieControl scripts ?

All built-in scripts and API documentation can be found here (thanks to StefanL for posting that link).