Setup Behringer X-Touch MIDI Controller For Myriad Anywhere Pro (Cloud Hosted)

When you are presenting a live show remotely using Myriad Anywhere Pro (Cloud Hosted), you can more closely mimic the studio experience by use the Behringer X-Touch midi controller to remotely control the volume of microphones and media players as well as as some key control features such as pressing go!

Whist the Behringer X-Touch is more expensive than some MIDI controllers (see Korg nanoKONTROL2), the main advantage is that the faders mechanically controlled which means as Myriad changes volume in software, the mechanical faders on the controller will automatically move to match the volume. This is especially useful when you have two or more presenters as changes made on one controller will be mirrored on the other connected Users X-Touch (which is really cool!)

Before we get started, the video below shows the X-Touch in action (along with the nanoKONTROL2) to give you an introduction to using a MIDI controller with Anywhere Pro.

Setting Up

Setting up a X-Touch is simply a case of plugging power and a USB cable on your PC or Mac, and then configuring Anywhere Pro to use it.

Follow these steps:

1. Plug your X-Touch into a spare USB port on your computer and connect the power (and switch it on of course).
2. Login to Myriad Anywhere Pro.
   
   
   
   
   
3. On the Launchpad, click on Connect to Studio.
   
   
4. Click on the Anywhere Icon to access the drop down list, and select Options.
   
   
   
   
5. In the Options window, click on Studio Control option in the list on the left hand side.
   
   
   
   
6. In the Controller Settings section, select the Behringer X-Touch option.
   
   N.B The first time you use a MIDI device, you will be asked to allow MIDI control by the browser. Make sure you agree otherwise your midi controller will not work!
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. This will add two new drop down options for Midi Input Device and Midi Output Device. Make sure these are both set to X-Touch.
   
   
8. Click on Save to save the settings and close the window.

This will trigger Anywhere Pro to reload in your browser but you will not have to login again.

Using the X-Touch

Once you have configured Myriad Anywhere to use your X-Touch, you will be able to control the following features by the controller interface:

• Microphone Fade Volume (mics 1-4 inc remote mics)
• Mic Channel On/Off (mics 1-2 inc remote mics)
• Mic Channel Selection (Talk/Live for mics 1-4 inc remote mics)
• Media Player Fader Volume (players 1-4)
• Media Players Play /Pause (players 1-4)
• Log Go
• Toggle Chain Type (for currently playing item)
• Dump Current Playing Item

Controls for the above features are hard coded to certain buttons or faders on the X-Touch and cannot be customised. The control assignment is outlined below.

Button / controller functions:

1. Microphone channel volume control fader (dedicated fader per mic channel).
2. Switch microphone channel off (dedicated button per mic fader channel
3. Switch microphone channel on (dedicated button per mic fader channel)
4. Logged in User name.
5. Switch microphone channel between Talk & Live (turn all way to left for Talk and all way to right for Live).
6. Media Player volume control fader (dedicated fader per Media Player).
7. Toggle Media Player Play/Pause (dedicated button per Media Player channel).
8. Media Player Number & Track Title.
9. Toggle chain type (red square / green circle) for currently playing item in Dashboard (live mode only).
10. Log Go - moves on to next item in the Log.
11. Dump current item (and stop playing)

None of the other buttons or controls are mapped to functions in Myriad Anywhere Pro and so will not do anything if you press them.

LED lights on buttons

You will also notice that the LED lights on some buttons will light up when they are in use or if they are available to press as an option.

Take a look at the image above. You will see that several buttons are illuminated to provide extra information about that functions are active or available.

These include:

• Mic On 
• Mic Off
• Mic Channel (Talk / Live)
• Log Go
• Media Player active (flashes as item reaches end)
• Toggle Chain Type (shows red when Stop is set)
• Dump

Other things to consider

Using MIDI controllers to interact with Myriad Anywhere undoubtedly makes the process more intuitive and much closer to a traditional studio experience but please keep in mind that when you move the faders on a MIDI controller, what is actually happening is that your web browser is sending a signal to Myriad Playout in your studio telling it to change the position of the volume fader in software, Myriad then needs to signal back to Myriad Anywhere that it has completed the task. If you are monitoring the audio via BR Live you will also hear the volume on the player drop. This is almost exactly what would happen in a studio using an audio mixing desk, but the nature of the solution means that the fading is not as instantaneous as it is on a audio mixing desk so try and anticipate this when presenting a live show and avoid rapid 'bouncing' of the faders while you talk as the response will be slower than if you were operating a studio mixing desk.

With a bit of practice, using a MIDI controller with Anywhere Pro will give you full control of the system allowing you to present dynamic and engaging live shows remotely using Myriad Anywhere Pro.