Behringer Xtouch mini -> Xair midi control using companion

Software Stream Deck & Companion
1

Hi - after a little bit of head scratching I’m successfully using a Behringer Xtouch mini midi controller via companion and generic midi module to act as a simple controller for a Behringer Xair 12 as a very basic PA in a local community hall. I thought I’d write it up below in case others are looking for inspiration. I couldn’t easily get this into a forum post so have added a PDF below. In short,

  1. Make sure it’s in Mackie Control mode and connected correctly
  2. I set it up with Bitfocus companion buttons to do the actions and generic-midi triggers to press / rotate left/ rotate right the buttons. You could probably just link the actions to the triggers and ignore buttons in most instances, but it would be tricky to use feedbacks to light up the mute buttons if you don’t use buttons.
  3. I used Events / On variable change / Variable to watch / Last Message Received (generic-midi:lastMessage) => condition either generic-midi: CC or generic-midi: Note On depending on whether it was an encoder /knob (former) or button (latter)
  4. Encoders use CC messages (Value 65 or 1 depending on direction turned), Channel 1, Controller 16 -23 depending on the encoder, left to right). There are also other values if you turn them quicker but I chose to ignore them for this application.
  5. Midi buttons on first row are generic-midi: Note On. Channel 1, Velocity 127, Note numbers 90, 90, 40-45, left to right.
  6. Midi buttons on second row start at generic-midi: Note On. Channel 1, Velocity 127, Note 87,
  7. Feeding back encoder LED values is a bit tricky. Channel 1, Controller 48 (for far left) to 55 for encoder 8, Value between 33 and 42 for a fan effect. I used some code to set a variable which reflected the Xair channel level which I could then use in the midi command. Unfortunately it didn’t seem like I could use expressions when sending the midi value back to the device, but this is possible with the variable.
  8. Feeding back midi button status leds is easy. Set midi note at same one as sent to companion. Velocity 127 for lit, velocity 0 for unlit.
  9. I also set up a slightly ancient Hitachi CPX 705) projector to be controlled using this. Hex codes are in the PDF, and are here:
    Projector on BEEF030600BAD2010000600100
    Select HDMI: BEEF0306000ED2010000200300
    Select component: BEEF030600AED1010000200500
    Select video: BEEF0306006ED3010000200100
    Projector off: BEEF0306002AD3010000600000

Xtouch mini bitfocus write up.pdf (241.0 KB)

Hopefully this will help someone! I’m sure that there are better ways of doing this, but it is working reliably.

Thanks

Matt

1 Like
2

Very cool! Thank you for writing that up.

Does the XTouch not control the XAir natively?

3

Hi Andy

Sadly not the Xair 12 as far as I could see as it doesn’t seem to have the right kind of usb port to connect directly to the midi controller. I think the larger model Xair 18 works directly and behringer also make a usb to din device which could work if you tweak the mapping on the device itself and don’t use Mackie mode. I’m not sure whether feedbacks like the led rings would work for this though.

Other options would be to use mixing station or osimidi which are both good (I was using osimidi but it didn’t handle long uptime well on the raspberry pi).

Thanks

Matt