You'd Think These Things Would Be Simpler

After today's Capricon meeting, I had some free time that I used to take the Behringer X-Touch Extender down to the basement so I could try hooking it up. Naturally, I read the manual first. It was not of as much help as I might have hoped it would be, as it showed two setups. One connected the X-Touch Universal to the computer via USB and cascaded the X-Touch Extender through the first X-Touch; the other connected both units to a network hub.

Of course, my X-Touch Universal is connected via a couple of MIDI cables that run through my Midisport 4x4, because I was never able to get the USB connection to work. Well, let's see what happens.

I connected the Extender to the Universal via USB. Nothing recognized it.

Well, let's try updating the firmware on the Universal. That took a while, but when I was done, it still didn't recognize the USB connection to the Extender.

Ok, let's put them both on the network.

Yeah, that took a while to configure. I couldn't get it to work either.

Maybe I can get the USB connection to work if I connect the Universal to the computer directly. Of course, it still doesn't recognize it.

Let's open Device Manager and see what's going on. Oh, look! There's the old Tranzport remote. I guess I should uninstall that. The computer still doesn't see the X-Touch.

Oh, to heck with this. I'm running out of USB ports on the computer. I've got two of the Steinberg dongles, so I'll move all of the licenses to one of them and that'll free up a port. That didn't take long.

Now, let's unplug everything and start plugging it back in. You there! Midisport! You are the weakest link. I only needed you to talk to the ADATs anyway.

Look at that! Suddenly the computer sees the X-Touch.

And when I go into Cubase, it sees both the X-Touch and the cascaded extender.

I think I'm going to declare victory.

I hate hardware/software conflicts...