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Old 10-31-2022, 08:17 AM   #1
MikeMcK
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Default X-Touch: CSI? DBM4R? Klinke? Or something else?

I swear I searched for a fairly recent comparison on the state of these solutions for an X-Touch (the 8-fader one with the jog wheel), but didn't find much in the way of overall comparisons.

After years of wanting one (I've missed motorized faders since my old BCF2000 finally bit the dust), the exchange rates made ordering one from Thomann a no-brainer. Mine gets here today & I still don't know what implementation I should be looking to use for my needs.

- I mostly need basic mixing (fader, pan, etc.) functionality. The mouse-driven inability to move multiple faders simultaneously drives me crazy
- I have an outdated but real technical background, but would still like to avoid having to do too much "under the hood". What little time I can spend with Reaper, I want to spend on music.
- I have been and will be using a relatively underpowered PC, so resource usage could be a factor (maybe?)

The more I read and watch as video, the more I realize I don't know what to do. Anyone tried all three (or 2 of the 3) with my intended usage and come up with a clear winner? Pros and cons?
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Old 10-31-2022, 08:50 AM   #2
MST
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CSI would be you're best bet.
It supports you're controller out of the box and wil do the things you mentioned of the bat.
And lately SCI had been upgraded (as it constantly is) to get the most out of the x-touch Universal's possibilities.
And when you get in the mood to get under that hood at one point,, you can get pretty wild.
(You do need a 64 bits windows, or MacOS catalina and higher though)
Just check the wiki, it's easy enough, good luck.
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Old 10-31-2022, 09:21 AM   #3
MikeMcK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MST View Post
CSI would be you're best bet.
It supports you're controller out of the box and wil do the things you mentioned of the bat.
And lately SCI had been upgraded (as it constantly is) to get the most out of the x-touch Universal's possibilities.
And when you get in the mood to get under that hood at one point,, you can get pretty wild.
(You do need a 64 bits windows, or MacOS catalina and higher though)
Just check the wiki, it's easy enough, good luck.
Thanks... I'll start on the wiki today.
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Old 10-31-2022, 07:14 PM   #4
MikeMcK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MST View Post
CSI would be you're best bet.
It supports you're controller out of the box and wil do the things you mentioned of the bat.
And lately SCI had been upgraded (as it constantly is) to get the most out of the x-touch Universal's possibilities.
And when you get in the mood to get under that hood at one point,, you can get pretty wild.
(You do need a 64 bits windows, or MacOS catalina and higher though)
Just check the wiki, it's easy enough, good luck.
Got it installed pretty easily, and mostly working, thanks. Thought the rotaries were not working, then realized they're very slow so I spent time trying to figure that out looking through ZON and MST files, then found info in the main CSI thread that it's a known thing. Maybe tomorrow I'll do some music. But I am psyched to finally have a control surface (again).
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Old 10-31-2022, 07:23 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeMcK View Post
Got it installed pretty easily, and mostly working, thanks. Thought the rotaries were not working, then realized they're very slow so I spent time trying to figure that out looking through ZON and MST files, then found info in the main CSI thread that it's a known thing. Maybe tomorrow I'll do some music. But I am psyched to finally have a control surface (again).
Update CSI to the latest Exp build. Rotaries should work there.
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Old 11-01-2022, 07:34 AM   #6
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Update CSI to the latest Exp build. Rotaries should work there.
Thanks... I will try it tonight, but it looks like user andyp24 tried the EXP build and got the same behavior.
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Old 11-01-2022, 07:45 AM   #7
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Thanks... I will try it tonight, but it looks like user andyp24 tried the EXP build and got the same behavior.
I have a theory as to why it didn't work. See my latest post in the main CSI thread. In fact, see my last 2 posts there.
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Old 11-03-2022, 04:47 PM   #8
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I'm also trying Klinke, CSI and DBM4R in parallel with the X-Touch to find out what's best. So far I have used Klinke and still find it great especially because of the comfortable editor that allows to quickly assign FX parameters to rotaries and faders. There is no such thing in CSI, right? So you have to "manually" prepare a zon file for each FX plugin?

Am I right that DBM4R only allows to assign the rotaries to FX parameters, but not the faders?

What is also great about Klinke is that the upper and lower half of each display can show the parameter name (upper half for rotaries and lower half for faders). If a parameter is changed, the value is shown for a few seconds and then it switches back to parameter name. Is that possible with CSI and DBM4R as well or is the display "static"?
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Old 11-06-2022, 10:44 AM   #9
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Hi,

And don't forget folder mode:-)
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Old 11-07-2022, 05:44 AM   #10
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I'll make a case for Smart Knobs 2.

Honestly amazing what Smart Knobs 2 (SK2) is capable of. I don't believe it's as well documented as CSI, but it doesn't use text files to set up which is a plus for me. SmartKnobs 2 should be a sticky on this subforum.

This video from SonicState was enough to persuade me...



You can set up the XTouch to respond dynamically to what you are doing. So, you could for example, have 3 XTouch faders giving you MIDI CC, whilst the other 5 are controlling automatable parameters. Those parameters might be FX on the selected track, another track, a send or bus track. XTouch might then change it's assignments dynamically if you have a plugin window open and focused. Or you might want to control parameters on whatever FX you have in slot 3 or 4 for example.

The amazing thing is that these maps are saved and dynamically loaded with the track name, so if you have a track template with track name of "Serum - echo distortion", where you've mapped faders to Serum and delays and distortion plugins as part of the track template, each time you load that track template, you'll get all of those assignments loaded automatically. And as soon as you select another track, boom, the XTouch loads a different set of assign parameters depending on what you've setup. Of course, you can save an load your assignments too.

Read about it some more here - https://forum.cockos.com/showthread....=Smart+knobs+2

Also, the developer, Leon, is super responsive on the discord support channel.
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Old 11-11-2022, 05:07 AM   #11
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Anyone who can answer this?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dehenry View Post
I'm also trying Klinke, CSI and DBM4R in parallel with the X-Touch to find out what's best. So far I have used Klinke and still find it great especially because of the comfortable editor that allows to quickly assign FX parameters to rotaries and faders. There is no such thing in CSI, right? So you have to "manually" prepare a zon file for each FX plugin?

Am I right that DBM4R only allows to assign the rotaries to FX parameters, but not the faders?

What is also great about Klinke is that the upper and lower half of each display can show the parameter name (upper half for rotaries and lower half for faders). If a parameter is changed, the value is shown for a few seconds and then it switches back to parameter name. Is that possible with CSI and DBM4R as well or is the display "static"?
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Old 12-14-2022, 12:57 PM   #12
Ras Keita
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I've recently made changes to my system had to do a clean reinstall of windows and reinstall all software, huge pain. Now nothing works with my X-Touch & X-Touch Ext set up. I've had to resort to generic setup with very limited functionality. I preference had been DBM.
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