Behringer X-Touch with 2 extenders: second extender not working

Cubase
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1

Hi there. I have read every relevant forum I can find about this, but haven’t come to a solution.

Long story short, I have a Behringer X-Touch and two extenders. All 3 show up under Midi/Midi Port Setup. When I go to Midi/Remote Devices and add Mackie Control, the main unit connects fine. Then I add Mackie Control 2, and the first extender (either one I choose) connects fine. But when I add Mackie Control 3 and try to connect the other extender, it thinks I’m trying to connect the first extender again (you can hear the inner mechanics of that device get triggered), leaving me with 2 out of 3 units responding to Cubase properly. The dropdown boxes initially show you what you want to see, but after applying and clicking between Mackie Control 2 and 3, they end up showing the same device.

I have tried renaming the extenders to be unique from each other in Midi Port Setup ‘Show as’ column (see my screenshots where I’ve called them A and B), but this has no effect on the issue mentioned above - even though I thought that would be how to solve it. And you can’t rename them in the ‘Port System Name’ column at all.

Changing the order of how I connect them also has no effect.

I have also tried using USBdeview utility to ‘forget’ the midi ports/driver installations, and connect the devices fresh, as well as trying different USB ports (and not using the X-touch hubs, etc.) But however I connect these devices, they always just show up as:
X-Touch
X-Touch-Ext
X-Touch-Ext
… without a unique delineation between the last two.

I also tried using USBdeview to change the ‘Friendly name’ data of each device, and had success with this in the ‘Windows Device Manager’ view, but it still had no effect on how it showed up in Cubase, and the same connection issue still happened.

I read one forum that said you can change the names of these in the midi utility on Mac, but I am on PC, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to change this. Ultimately, I think I want to be able to change how they appear in the ‘Port System Name’ column in Cubase, or find some other way for my computer to recognize these devices and completely separate things with unique names.

I’d be eternally grateful for any ideas or fixes.
Thanks in advance! :upside_down_face:!

screenshots
screenshots795×792 33.3 KB

2

Hi,

Does Behringer support this setup? Are you allowed to use 2 Extenders?

3

Thanks for your reply. Yes, from their website:

“As your production needs grow, you can combine multiple X-TOUCH and EXTENDER units to emulate a large-scale control surface – all you need are a few standard USB cables.”

4

Hi,

On the screenshot, I can see the X-Touch-Ext B is inactive. Are you sure, you set the Mackie Control 3’s input to X-Touch-Ext B, please?

5

100% sure. And I’ve done in dozens of times, in different orders, starting from scratch etc.

You can select B from the drop down, but it then (incorrectly) communicates with the A device. You can hear it inside the mechanisms of the device itself too.

6

Hi,
Have you previously run all three in any other version of Cubase?
If not, my guess would be that even if Behringer allows multiple units, Cubase may run only 2 instances of Mackie Control at a time.
I myself had to move to Mackie Control because in setting up my own control program in Cubase, it wouldn’t allow me to program variable functions like faders and rotary knobs. Just on/off functions like the push button controls so that tells me that the Cubase/XTouch functionality is limited.

7

Hi,

Myself I was using 3 Mackie Control Pro (the original hardware) with Cubase for several years with no problem. Now, I’m using software emulation of 3 Mackie Control units with Cubase. So Cubase can handle it and does support it.

8

Thanks, good to know.

9

Does anybody have a solution? I am in desperate need of one.

10

I use an x touch, x touch extender and an x touch compact.

I had the same problems with only 2 mackie controls working. Sadly, I cannot remember what I did in detail to fix it but it involved setting up the x touch as one mackie control while ensuring the other two mackie controls were set as ‘not connected’ and being careful to press both ‘reset’ and ‘apply’.

In this manner I did get the devices working in the right order.

My big problem is that pressing ‘shift’ on the X-touch Cubase template (ie the key with ‘enter’ on this X Touch as shipped) causes Cubase to crash.

Otherwise, the set up is an enormous help!

11

Seems that both extenders have the “same name” witch seems not allowed with Cubase
Check this… it seems to work with 2 extenders with this workaround :

12

Just thought I’d add to my post in Dec 2020 above. I have just moved to a MacStudio with Cubase 12 and the only problem I had was, firstly, getting my X Touch Extender and X Touch to stop mirroring each other. And, secondly, to get the Extender - which is on the left of the X-Touch - to show the first 8 tracks.

What worked for me was to connect the USB on the MacStudio to the extender. Then cascade the connection to the X-touch. The first Mackie Control is the X-Touch (X-Touch INT on Midi Inout and Midi Output). On both Midi input and output Mackie Control 2 is X_Touch-Ext X-Touch_Int.

A key step then is to sync, in my case, MixConsole3 to the X-Touch MixConsole. That sync setting is accessed by the = button towards the top of the left control zone. That then lines up the Extender and X-Touch to the Visibility in that left control zone. Starting with the first track on the extender.

Hope that helps someone!