Also I did not realize the layouts are quite different between the full-size and the compact. In particular the 8 additional encoders on the right are not handled at the time.
We will need a short experimentation phase to make sure which button is what on the compact… And I’ll take any idea about what to do with the new encoders and few buttons on the compact.
We are going to make this work. Like I said in my email, need to dig out my midi cables first!
Following as I want to buy an X-Touch.
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I strongly recommend you get a full-size X-Touch. You get the VU LEDs on each channel, the old-school LCD, all the nice buttons and jog wheel to control Renoise with, and an ethernet port. I’m planning to support ethernet mode in addition to MIDI.
Presently, the state in the git repo is as follows:
- All features of the X-Touch are supported (faders, color scribble strips, VU LEDs, LCD…)
- Driver supports multiple “programs” (mappings), the default is the “Mixer” program.
- Mixer has four pages:
- Mix: standard mapping for mixing
- Devices: view and edit all devices in the device chain of selected track
- Params: view and edit all parameters in selected device
- Sends: manage sends (create, delete, move, edit) in selected track
- A dialog show all X-Touch mappings in a program
- X-Touch Compact support is experimental
- X-Touch Mini is not yet supported
I want to add ONE more feature before I release an alpha version (I’m saying alpha just so I still can change everything in the code, but the API to define programs should be mostly stable now):
- a program can declare some stuff that can be user-configured, and this should show in the main tool dialog.
Until then, you can simply clone the git repo in your user scripts directory and enable the tool in the tool browser.
Because all the other DAWs only support the X-Touch in MC mode, I believe we’re headed towards the BEST DAW SUPPORT EVER for the X-Touch. 
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You are about to write history man! Amazing job! I haven’t tested it yet as I don’t have the controller (yet). It would be very good if you post a short video, demonstrating very briefly what it is like to control Renoise with X-touch.
Have you managed to draw the device’s names and paramater names from the API to the X-touch screens? not asking for track names, but say Instrument Automation device parameters? What about the time code monitoring screen? Can you edit/ control the matrix slots with the arrows or Jog wheel?
Seems like everyone’s gonna get a behringer this year! 
I really want to make a video but I only have a phone or a tablet to record it. Don’t want crappy shaky underlit footage /o\
The answers to the questions respectively are yes, yes, yes (I mean, the LCD shows the edit/play pos, currently pattern.line), no but I like the idea. Can you elaborate more?
I just posted the tool announcement in this topic over there.
I hope everyone’s getting an X-Touch, it’s an awesome controller 
It’s already working on my X Touch Compact!
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Sick! As for what I asked regarding the matrix, I don’t know, I just thought you might have thought of something. From seeing the X-Touch has arrow keys - maybe you could copy and paste in the matrix view, or the sequencer view (left column). I normally do EVERYTHING using shortcuts, so it’s not that I can’t move inside Renoise and I need a daw controller, but if it’s like “touch the fader and you are focused on that track” ,that alone is really handy. Editing device parameter is wicked too, but how many values do we get per fader (is it only 127 values or uses NRPN for how many?). I am most definetely getting one X-touch very soon.
The faders are sent using Pitch Bend messages, so that gives us over 16000 values.
I’ll think about editing the matrix. There’s got to be a nice mapping to make there.
Regarding “touch the fader”, it is a thing, but I haven’t mapped this event to anything. There’s the select button just above, and a fader touch might lead to an unwanted fader move, so I’m not sure what to do with that.
Nice to know the exact number of values available for controlling levels.
The Matrix thing is secondary at the moment in my opinion. But, yes, see what actions/applications are available first and then we (you, that is )could implement them with a control page.
I don’t own the unit yet, so I can only guess what it’d be like , to touch faders (event) and whatnot. If you could map the event to Track Focus, I reckon that’s the number one use, isn’t it? I imagine if one is on Mixer mode, then touching a fader should bring focus on that track. Then, switch to Device mode, and control the device’s parameter, and navigate thru devices with the arrows left and right, while up and down arrows would fold/unfold the device.
Please record a short video with your phone or something. No talking is necessary. Just show us how it is mapped. I can’t decide on which model to get. I am sold for the little screens because I 'm afraid I’ll be getting lost without a description. On the other hand, let the money aside, the X-Touch - not the compact- looks a bit intimidating with so many buttons, 92 , if I remember well… But, thinking I’ll be also using it with Reaper, I see the potential use of the unit. I also have to admit that the 44 euro worth Behringer X-Touch Mini could very well be handy and simple to use - I imagine using it with macro controls, rather than all parameters. Just, the screen, the screen, the screen. It must say what the controller is assigned to. That is proper Total Recall of projects.
Questions:
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Does ‘double-tapping’ count as a distict event? double touch so to speak. Like with nob (nobcontrol.com) you can double tap on the switches and undo stuff or whatever.
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Which buttons are not assigned or not available for use with Renoise?
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What is bi-directionally controlled as of yet?
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Lastly, what is the best usage you have found you would miss without it? i.e What has become easier/better to do with it?
The right side of the full-size is not that intimidating when you look at the button groups. There aren’t that many in the end. Not that I’m saying that it was not a pain in the posterior to write down all the initialization and MIDI mappings for just over a hundred controls total into lua tables, mind you. I really think the extra buttons, color screens, and VU meters are worth it. It really comes to life.
The Compact get 8 new encoders and keeps the transport buttons in exchange for the color screens and VU LEDs and all the other buttons. There’s an option in the driver to replicate the scribble strips on-screen. I made it possible to navigate between the X-Touch pages using encoder clicks.
I agree regarding the Mini. I think it should be seen as a plain assignable MIDI controller and not bother using it through a tool like mine.
Then there’s the X-Touch One. I’m not sure how handy it is. But it’s kind of closer to the full-size than even the Compact in a way.
Now to try and answer your questions:
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I had a long conversation with myself (a team meeting) about double-clicks and decided against it. I rather use the notion of
long press. I have a few issues with the notion of click/double-click:- in a live situation, it can be easy to slip a bit and multi-click the button you wanted to press, which can be annoying.
- after a click, the driver has to wait until the double-click timeout before it is certain the event is a click and not a double-click, which delays interaction.
I prefer to respond to ‘press’ events whenever possible so that the interaction is immediate. But ‘press’ is not mutually exclusive with
long press. Aclickon the other hand is mutually exclusive with along press: after apresshappens, a timer starts counting down until thelong press durationexpires. If areleaseevents happens before this, the event is aclick. If the countdown finishes before areleasehappened, then it’s along press, not waiting for the finalreleaseto happen. This combination in my opinion makes for the tightest interaction, as opposed to theclick/double-clickway.
Controls where I respond tolong pressare not for real-time things but like changing page for instance. So the little change in behaviour (clickinstead of simplepresseverywhere else) is not a bother. -
All buttons and controls are available in Renoise. There’s actually one thing I’m hoping is missing, is the ability to change the palette for the scribble strips. But there’s no documentation I know of on this. Currently there’s no mapping on the FUNCTION, AUTOMATION, UTILITY groups, and the top row of the TRANSPORT group. I may let users write their callbacks for the FUNCTION keys if I can make a simple GUI for that.
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I’m not sure I understand the question. The only bidirectional control is the fader. Faders are mapped to pre/post volume in the Mix page and device parameter values in the other pages.
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I haven’t put everything I want into it yet, but already the Sends page. I’ve always found it cumbersome (yet powerful) to instantiate and configure a Send device each time I want to send something somewhere. And the source is muted by default. With the send page it’s a breeze to add sends, tweak them, move them around. And they’re colored after the current receiver. I plan on adding the same create/destroy/shuffle-around mecanics to the Devices page. Also, not the most critical thing ever, but a feature I love, is monitoring the gain structure (from Pre to Post, and the output level of each device in between) on the VU LEDs in the Devices page.
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Thank you for answering the questions man, really appreciate your time. Regarding the bidirectional control, you said only the faders are controlled this way, but the endless knobs? I mean, I don’t know the template how it is, but if say, you control a device, do you have the controls on knobs or on the faders on a ‘Device’ Page? Is the actual knob indicator pointing to the software value and vice versa? or does it jump to the value? Do we take advantage of the endless knobs? It must be possible considering the Faderport did it (using Airmann’s driver though).
Niceone for the Sends page! Are you using the footswitches? I planning on using both. Having the ‘edit’ (escape button) controlled by the second footswitch. Is it possible? getting into edit mode when pressing the pedal?
I don’t know which one to buy first. The nob control or the X-touch and a footswitch?
Thanks again for your clarifications - you really hep the community with this work on the X-Touch. Reason to buy it ,really, for a Renoise user. thumbs up!
By bidirectional I meant the value edits are sent both ways. There’s no internal value for the encoders, they just send +1 -1. So when we change the corresponding value in Renoise, there’s nothing to update on the X-Touch (except the LEDs of course, but I don’t count that as bidirectional 
The encoders are used everywhere. Panning in Mix page, parameter selection in Devices page (for channels 2-7. I mapped channel 1 to PreFX panning or width with SHIFT pressed and channel 8 to PostFX panning), value edit in Params page, panning or move (with CONTROL) or receiver selection (with SHIFT). The encoder LEDs show the value with a left-right or centered strip. Encoder clicks have an effect everywhere too
Hey thanks for mentioning the footswitches. I hadn’t thought about them. I have to check how they’re mapped and add them to the driver. It’s definitely possible to switch edit mode (that’s already mapped to the REC button) and I like that idea. What would you use the other footswitch and an expression pedal for?
I could also just not interpret these MIDI messages and let them be mapped directly in Renoise. But that will be an issue with the Ethernet mode as they won’t be incoming MIDI messages in the first place.
Excellent!
The footswitch is normally used for start/stop and that’s why I thought the 2nd footswitch could be rec/edit for automation or note playing. Else, it could be an expression pedal for groove maybe? Nah…
Foot 1 = start/stop
Foot 2 = Rec/edit mode
What do you think?
So do the colours work? The jogwheel? If so, this X-touch is a must.
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Start/Stop and Edit On/Off, that works for me. The expression pedal is probably better left as is. I’ll add that
And yes, the colors work (beware, the X-Touch only knows 7 colors and black, so we have to match the closest color), and yes, the jogwheel moves the play/edit pos through the entire song (I put a little bit of an acceleration curve so we can both scroll one single line when rotating slowly and quickly through the song when rotating faster).
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I’m ready to order the X-touch and a second footswitch ( Lead Foot LFD-10) Already own one of these and it’s spot on. I’m going to beta test this tool/driver adn get back to you with suggestions most definetely. How is not everyone on this boat? I mean, this is pretty evolutionary here! 
For now, I am experimenting with 3 monitor screens, of which the middle one is sitting vertically (25"). I have the pattern editor and sequencer there. The mixer screen is on my left and the x-touch will sit underneath. On the other hand on the right screen I have the renoise instrument and the midi keys under it. Will post a picture when the X-touch arrives.
I am saying this because I encounter a small problem with this setup. Everything is absolutely fine working with three monitors and it is not as tiring as I imagined. I have tuned the mouse pointer’s acceleration and precision to fit the workspace and it is just fine.
The problem is that I used to move around in Renoise’s windows using the computer keyboard only, whereas now, having detached both the mixer and instrument editors, the window switching shortcuts don’t work as they did. Say, I want to switch focus from the pattern editor to the dsp devices(which now sit below the mixer, only) on the other screen, it will not work. I will have to explicitly use the mouse to set the focus. Or, even then, I found that you can’t switch to the adjacent dsp device using the arrow keys if the mixer window is detached! This is something that the X-touch must take care of. This means, that pressing the INST button on the X-touch must bring focus to the renoise instrument.
OK - after going back to look at the front panel of the x-touch, here’s what I propose.
The xrni instrument can be a Plug-in (button PLUG-IN) / a sample based instrument (INST button) or MIDI (MIDI TRACKS button on the X-touch). That’s all I have thought of for this post of mine today.
The X-Touch has just arrived. I am still trying to figure out what the Xctl is. The download files from Behringer are pure rubbish “Mac apps”. I downloaded them files to find there is no editor or drivers whatsoever. So, I have installed the Tool, which by the way does not come out in Searches…, (I searched for X-Touch in Tools and nothing comes back - tried Google then and I found it). Now, to the point, I have also enabled ToolDelveloper mode just so I can reload tools when they crash. Also, copied the github extracted zip into the Scripts folder. What else am I supposed to do to get it working?
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Great news!
To configure the X-Touch, keep pressed the leftmost SELECT and turn it on. XCtl is the “native” mode to communicate with the mix-air or whatever it is called. So, choose XCtl instead of MC or HUI or hybrid. Mode is on the first screen/encoder, Interface (Ifc) to choose between MIDI and ethernet on the second.
On the tool side, select the proper MIDI devices and press the Reset button. You should be set! (If something goes wrong, try reloading the tool after you have set up the MIDI devices.)
I’ve been a bit busy elsewhere but I’ll go back to developing the tool very soon
Yeah, I actually have no idea how to add the tool or request it added… It’s not an official tool yet /o\