I have a ton of Vegas Audio tracks to mix down and purchased a Behringer X Touch Compact control surface over the holidays.  Vegas boasts full Mackie compatibility, and the X Touch offers this mode.  It's connected to the PC thru a USB port.  It actually works well EXCEPT in the mode needed: Audio Mixdown.  This is a VEGAS PRO 23 DEFECT REPORT.

Setup:

Plug the X Touch into a PC USB port.

In Vegas preferences: Midi In and Out shows X Touch Compact (so Windows 11 recognizes it as a Device).  Check both of those.

Then in External Control and Automation select Mackie Control in the Available Devices dropdown, click ADD, then double click that entry in the Active control devices table to get to the Configure Mackie Control page.

In the Configure Mackie Control page click SCAN, then select Emulated Mackie Control Device, then in the MIDI IN & OUT set X-Touch Compact.   Click OKAY, then Ok or Activate out of Preferences..

Under Vegas Options click on EXTERNAL CONTROL, I believe an undocumented and key option that turns hours of frustrated trial and error into the X Touch  device becoming alive.

The X Touch needs to be ON and setup in Mackie mode before you run Vegas.  The X Touch’s MC lite stays on after you turn on the device.   The X Touch Editor software (free download from Behringer) updates the firmware to 1.14. 

WHAT WORKS WELL:

If you load a Vegas project or just create a single Audio track you can instantly see the X Touch and Vegas cross-communicating.  For Audio tracks (my primary interest)

·        The X Touch Faders control the Vegas Vol slider for that Track.  Correspondingly, moving the Vegas Vol slider moves the X Touch fader.  THey are motorized. Beautiful.

·        The Audio Pan slider on Vegas is reflected on the X Touch’s rotary knob LEDs, which circle to the left or right in increments for left or right pan.  Correspondingly, the X Touch Pan knob now adjusts Vegas Pan slider. 

·        Additional correspondences: the X Touch buttons lite up and work on Vegas and vice versa:  STOP, PLAY, RECORD, Track  SELECT, SOLO and MUTE, TRACK RECORD ENABLE and many other features are reflected one to the other.  Very cool.

·        The X TOUCH has a Midi In and Out light, so you can see when its sending and when its receiving Midi (Mackie) commands from Vegas.

The FATAL FLAW: VEGAS 23 DEFECT

Vegas disables cross-communication during the most needed mixdown mode: Automation.  Like Track Automation Enabled for Latch or Touch. 

If you create a Volume Envelope in an Audio Track and enable Automation like “Automation Write (Touch or Latch), Vegas stops communicating with the Track Faders and Pan knobs completely.

This means:

·        The X Touch faders go limp (no resistance when you move them, fader motors I guess are turned off). 

·        Adjusting the Vol and Pan sliders in Vegas will add control points to the volume or pan envelopes as normal.  However, the faders don’t track those changes (what you need for mixdown).  The faders don’t move. 

·        On the X Touch side, moving the faders when Vegas is in PLAY mode don’t add control points to the envelope when you adjust them. They don't in RECORD mode either, but you don't mixdown in RECORD mode, only in PLAY back.

This is a huge bug in Vegas and a huge disappointment. Now I’ll have to return the X Touch since it simply doesn’t work with Vegas.  I have alerted my X Touch device vendor and Behringer.

I found no way to submit a trouble ticket directly. If the developers read this, let me know if this can be fixed, otherwise I have to return what looks to be a wonderfully working mixing console. X Touch Compact.