Part II of this series deals how to map control elements of a X-Touch Compact midi controller via OSC to GrandMA3 step by step. The mapping is done by the free software „Chataigne“.

https://benjamin.kuperberg.fr/chataigne/en#about

More: Part I

Note:
There is an error in the spoken comment at 3:24. Should read „control change 9“.

Although I use the Behringer X-Touch Compact, any other midi controller or even a midi keyboard can be used.

A word of warning: I had issues with 3 of the X-Touch devices. Behringer was very helpful, but finally I had to decide to live with it and build a work around. All my devices didn’t initialize correctly afte power on. The faders would only send either „0“ or „127“. I must activate layer „B“ and switch back to „A“ for sending a continuous stream of values between 1 and 100. One error remains. On fader movement a CC26 is sent sporadically.

This is the first video of a series that deal with connecting midi devices like the Behringer X-Touch Compact by OSC to GrandMA3 onPC. Part I gives a general overview. The upcoming episodes will deal with the details and provide configuration files and plugins. Stay tuned!

The software used is: Chataigne for midi to OSC mapping

and TouchOSC MKII

More: Part II

Video transcript below:

This video is about how to control M A 3 by a X-Touch Compact Midi-controller and via iPad or touchscreen using a template in Touchosc.

As the MA3 software does no longer allow direct access to the executors, e.g. the faders, the midi commands from the Behringer x-Touch compact ist converted to OSC messages by the software Chataigne.

The Behringer X-Touch Compact has many control elements that can be mapped to Grand M A using two banks.

Each bank has 9 motorized faders.

There are 39 buttons in each bank.

And there are 16 rotary encoders per bank. Each has also an additional push function that can be mapped separately.

One thing I like with the X-Touch Compact is that one can replicate the typical MA executor assignment with 101, 201, 301, and 401 labelling. So, look and feel is consinstent over the x-touch and the MA onPC executor window.

Please note:

instant feedback is currently one-way only

    from X-Touch to onPC and

    from TouchOSC to onPC

a plugin is available that syncs the X-Touch

and TouchOSC from the onPC fader setting

This is an example preset for the X-Touch compact

The lower most buttons serve as flash buttons

The faders are for controlling sequences and the grand master 

Above the  go plus buttons there are buttons assigned to presets

Positions, Zoom and color presets

The encoders at the right side adjust dimmer, red, green, blue and white, as well as pan and tilt.

Pressing these encoders select groups one to eight

The buttons below are for:

store,  Assign, Clear, and for updating the X-touch and o s c settings.

Now!

How to do the midi to OSC mapping?

There is a software, Chataigne, that is a central hub between almost anything.

Protocols, like TCP-IP, midi, osc

Various kinds of software, and there are a lot of community modules available.

Chataigne runs on a variety of operating systems and it is free!

However, you are welcome to donate to author to keep him motivated further developping that great piece of software.

The link to the homepage is in the video description.

In Chataigne we must select our input and outputmodules

In our case the midi module and the Grandma 3 module.

Select the X-Touch compact as input and output device

Here we see a list of the notes and control changes chataigne is already knowing

 Analog, the settings for the Grandma 3 module

And here is a list of all the mappings already created

So we mapped control chnage one to fader 201 on page 1

And this is the list of all items mapped to Grandma3

This are all the options we have for mapping in the Grandma3 module.

This was just an overview. We will have a build from scratch, step by step tutorial in the next episode.

TouchOSC is another great software, that lets you control your show from anywhere in the venue. Even from the bar. Although I would not recommend that.

We have several pages here.

First the executor pages.

The Encoder page is helpful in programming looks.

Same holds for the „Basic“ page.

The group page holds the group masters and individual groups can be set at any level there.

So lets fire up some sequences from your iPhone or tablet while sitting in the audience.

Do the programming with the remote encoders.

Use „Store“ and „Clear“, bring up the lights

Various things from the group pane.

I hope you enjoyed the video.

The next episodes will cover things in more detail.

Thank you for watching!