Behringer X-Touch Mini

Tuskastuin Korgin Nanokontroliin ja etsin sille edullista vaihtoehtoa. Tämä tuli vastaan ja on kyllä tuhat kertaa parempi kuin Korg.

Korgissa on kivat sliderit ja nupit, joiden laatu on kyllä tätä Behkua parempi, mutta koska Korgin sliderit eivät ole motorisoituja, oli itselleni säätäminen ainakin jotenkin haastavaa. Jos säädin kanavan volyymia pelkän kontrollerin avulla ensimmäisenä onnistuttiin hukkaamaan se lähtötilanne kun slider oli missä sattuu asennossa ja säätäminen oli absoluuttista, ei suhteellista lähtötilanteeseen. Behkussa nupit pyörivät loputtomasti molempiin suuntiin ja valot kertovat joka kanavasta missä säädöissä ollaan, joten pelkän kontrollerin avulla säätäminen on huomattavasti helpompaa ja mielekästä. Pisteet myös siitä, että on helppo ohjelmoida eri toimintoja säätöjä varten, kuten gain, pan, efektisendit yms.

Kyllähän tämä vähän tuntuu siltä että se hajoaa palasiksi vähänkin kovemmassa tuulessa, mutta tähän asti kaikki on ainakin toiminut hyvin. PLussaa myös siitä, että laite oli oikeasti plug-n-play Macilla. Korgin kanssa sai tapella vaikka kuinka kauan, että sai sen kommunikoimaan oikein Logicin kanssa.

Vahva suositus!

The most capable mini desktop controller so far.
Using it for Logic in Mackie Control mode for track control
and MainStage in User mode to control live instruments.

Pros
LED-collar pots are not very common in backpack-sized controlles,
but does it's job well and really helpful to make small adjustments on the fly and not get lost among patches and tracks pre-sets.

Cons
The app to re-assign User A/B layes is Windows only.
While not used very often after initial setup and not a big deal,
it's still a shame for a good product with creative folks in mind.

Programming

Logic is ready to go out of the box with no adjustments at all.
While many of "full sized" Mackie Control functions can be reached in need, actually using them blindly without "big brother" LCD screen can be tricky, except you already know all of them by heart. Using basic functions such panning, muting, soloing and navigating track marks is as simple as it can be.

MainStage takes some time to assign knobs and buttons for live patches, but finally can be tailored as much as you bother to think about.

Another cool feature, controller can be switched from Mackie mode to User mode externally, which let you program assignable button to instantly activate Logic app to scroll through the track or adjust some track channel strips, and switch back to instrument controls without need to reach your computer controls!

Active knobs and buttons for MC and User modes remembered separately, so they remains as they were when switching from one mode to another and back.

Re-assignable User A/B layer controls found it's use to assign essential functions be active on both A and B layers at the same time.

All in all, this small gadget does way more then can be expected
from portable controller and quite handy for rehearsals or even live sessions whether you feel like less reverb or more modulation is appropriate.
For studio work, however, the preference is on studio sized LCD text consoles.

Bought two X-Touch minis cause seemed to be just what we needed so our 2 guitarists could have their own FX board in our live electronica setup.

I was looking into using the MC mode but it's not really scalable as you can only control devices of one single track in Ableton - and they also sing and play keys and need to control more than 1 track. There are some painful and bit technical ways to workaround plus you need some desktop app – only for Windows (:O). So I ended up linking all midi manually.

The device has A/B mode, so when connecting two at the same time, each of the guitarists chooses and controls their own profile with the corresponding configuration. So you can't really add a third or fourth one, but they can actually control each other's FX by switching A/B, which is quite fun :)

Build is decent and has macro controls with lights, good for dark/club environments. When not connected via MC, the led lights do not work so well but get the job done.

Overall, it worked fine for our setup and actually gave a lot of power to the guitarrists for 60€, so pretty happy with it.