External Control surface Automation (MCU)

Rednroll wrote on 5/27/2019, 6:20 AM

Hi,

I just purchased a Behringer X-Touch One control surface. I'm currently trying to get it set up in Vegas Pro 16 as well as Acid Pro 8. I seem to have it setup in the options menus under the midi tab and External Control & Automation tab, as well as enabled external control surface. I've got it setup to use the Emulated Mackie Control Unit interface. It works great in that the control surface is displaying the timeline counter during playback. The control surface transport buttons are all working. The individual track volume, pan, mute and solo work in Vegas.

However, for the life of me I can't figure out how to configure Vegas so that I can record and playback automation such as track volume fader movements. Which seems really odd to me because when I have automation disabled on an individual track, I'm able to control the track's volume fader with the control surface but when I then enable the track to record automation, then the track volume fader no longer responds to the control surface's volume fader. I was expecting to be able to use the control surface to be able to record track volume fader automation in Vegas and then when playing back, Vegas would send those fader movements back to the control surface where I should see the control surface fader move with the volume envelope since the control surface has a motorized fader. I'm having the exact same problem in Acid Pro 8.

Any suggestions on how to get this to work in Vegas? I tried setting it up in Reaper and the control surface works there as expected, so it doesn't seem to be a controller problem. Any ideas on how to get the automation controls working in Vegas?

What am I missing?

Comments

Grazie wrote on 5/27/2019, 8:08 AM

@Rednroll - I’ve got all the controls working using all the setups you’ve done. I’ve got Faders and Envelopes working in both directions. I’m running a PreSonus FaderPort8. I’d like to help you, but I’m at a loss.

Good in AP8 and VP16.

Last changed by Grazie on 5/27/2019, 8:08 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Grazie

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Rednroll wrote on 5/27/2019, 9:43 AM

@Grazie Thank you! It's good to hear it at least works with other controllers.

I just made some recent headway. I did some digging into the manual of the X-Touch One on how to adjust it for different MCU operation modes.

I was going through and trying some of those different MCU operation modes with Vegas. So far what I found is that if I select the "Apple LOGIC" MCU operation mode, then if I pressed the F1 button which is assigned to automation "READ/OFF" for the Logic config, then when that particular button is turned ON, then I could get automation working in both directions for the volume fader in Vegas as you described. Trying the same with the pan control left something to be desired. I'm also unsure at this time what other button functions which may have stopped working when switching to the Logic config mode. I tried the Presonus S1 configuration but no love there.

There is also a "MC User" configuration operation mode where you're suppose to be able to assign certain MC functions to buttons. I still need to figure out how to do that, but it looks like automation parameters may be assignable that way, where I'm hoping at this point that I'm able to get that functionality I've seen with the Logic config by assigning that same automation parameter to the F1 button while not losing the other stuff. I may be SOL on the pan knob, which works great to control the normal pan control in Vegas, but seems to want to jump back to the center pan position when you're trying to use it for recording automation pan control in Vegas and makes no difference if you use "Latch" or "Touch" in Vegas automation Write modes. If I can at least get this configured to at least work with the fader automation and not lose any of the other features I've tried out in the "Standard" MCU operation mode, that at least gets me much closer to where I want to be as I am now.

 

Rednroll wrote on 5/27/2019, 12:35 PM

Ok, I think I've got this about figured out. I've now have to dig into Vegas and figure out which standard MCU command the developers mapped to a particular Vegas function, unless this is published somewhere?

The MCU "READOFF" command is mapped to toggling between the Vegas Automation Fader/Controls and the Non Automation Fader/Controls. On the X-Touch One I went into the owner's manual and it described how to edit the button assignment functions. So I set F6 on the controller to MCU "READ OFF" and now when I press F6, the controller fader now controls and responds to the track fader automation. Turn OFF F6 and it goes back to controlling the non automatible Vegas faders.

Here's what I have so far in regards to the Vegas MCU Mappings. MCU on left, Vegas Function on Right.

 

Grazie wrote on 5/27/2019, 1:12 PM

That’s great work, @Rednroll. I spent an inordinate amount of days figuring this out for my setup.

The next Project is to get Video and Audio FXing being worked by my Faders. 😎

Rednroll wrote on 5/27/2019, 1:40 PM

That’s great work, @Rednroll. I spent an inordinate amount of days figuring this out for my setup.

The next Project is to get Video and Audio FXing being worked by my Faders. 😎

As I continued to explore, I found the MCU "PLUG-IN" command under the MCU "Encoder" adjustment settings list, allowed me to press a button and toggle through selected track FX send level adjustments and the Pan adjustment using the top encoder knob to make adjustments. I have yet to dig further into controlling actual FX parameters so can't help you if that's what you're describing but you may be able to at least adjust the send levels to those FXs through automation with your FP8. If you're able to automate the track pan settings, then you should be able to automate the FX sends on those same tracks.

Vegas doesn't seem to like the X-Touch One's rotary knob encoder for recording pan automation like I mentioned previously, so I will likely have the same problem automating the FX sends.

Rednroll wrote on 5/27/2019, 5:01 PM

Interesting enough, it seems the X-Touch ONE's pan control is working with Vegas but there seems to be a bug. What I've been able to determine is that it doesn't seem to matter if the track pan is in Write (Latch) or Write (Touch) operation mode. Whatever was used last in Vegas for recording Pan automation moves is what Vegas will be stuck at.

For example, if I select Write (Touch) and record animation using the pan control in Vegas, then I go back and select Write(Latch) on that same track and then use the controller to record pan automation, it will continue to record pan automation moves in Write (Touch) mode, although Vegas is displaying it is in Write (Latch) mode.

I can work around that. At least I know the reasons it wasn't working prior. It was stuck in Write(Touch) mode.

Curious if it works properly with the Presonus FP8.

The good news is that I'm getting closer and closer to how I had hoped to work with this controller in Vegas and when it works, it works really well.