Behringer X-Touch Compact Integration with Sonar

For the Cakewalk Sonar/Behringer X-Touch Compact user.
 
Before I bought the X-Touch Compact I had read everything I could find online and watched all the available videos. Knowing the documentation that came with the unit would not address how to set up my DAW (Sonar Platinum) to work with the X-Touch Compact but calculating I could piece together a way to successfully set up the DAW to work with the Compact, I bought it from Sweetwater. Perhaps a bit of hubris involved with that.
 
I managed to get the Compact working with Sonar within 4 hours: 3 hours of flopping around cursing the gods of digital and 1 hour of numerous of AH-HAs. Below are the steps that got my Compact and Sonar working together fully and hopefully it will help another Sonar owner who is trying to integrate the Compact into her or his system. I don't state this as a definitive setup protocol: it's just what I happened to hit on based on what I had learned from other resources and trial and error. It worked for me and perhaps it will work for you.
 
-Sonar utilizes Mackie Control Protocol so you'll want to place the Compact into that mode. Follow the startup directions in paragraph 4, Mackie Control Mode, on page 16 of the X-Touch Compact Quick Start Guide.
 
-Power down and then power up the unit to ensure the MC LED indicates you are still in MC Mode.
 
-Make sure your Audio Interface is powered up.
 
-Start up Sonar.
 
-Once you have cycled through the Sonar startup, select a project.
 
-On the Control Bar in the project, select Edit>Preferences>MIDI>Devices
---Inputs, Friendly Name, check X-Touch Compact
---Outputs, Friendly Name, check X-Touch Compact
 
---Near the bottom of that page check Use friendly names to represent MIDI devices
 
---Click on Apply then OK
 
-Again on the Control Bar, select Edit>Preferences>MIDI>Control Surfaces
---Under Connected Controllers/Surfaces: Controller/Surface=Mackie Control-1; In port=X-Touch Compact; Out port= X-Touch compact
---Under WAI Display: check Track View and Console view
---Under Control Strips Visible In: check All Strips
 
---Click on Apply then OK
 
-In the ACT Module on the Control Bar
---Click the top right arrow
---Select Hardware Controller/Surface, check Mackie Control 1
 
On the Control Bar select File>Save
 
-Close Sonar
 
-Turn off the X-Touch Compact
 
-Turn off the Audio Interface
 
-Goto Windows Power and Shutdown the computer
 
-Turn on the Audio Interface and the X-Touch Compact
 
-Power up the computer
 
-After the computer start up protocol completes, start up Sonar, select a project and the Compact and Sonar should be talking with each other
 
-Determining how the Compact rotaries and buttons function within Sonar can be gleaned from:
---Page 21 in the Quick Start Guide. Pay close attention to the notes on the Encoders
---Pages 7 and 8 of the MCU Pro Owners Manual available online;
---The discussion of Mackie Control Encoders at Harrison Consoles.com, >Mixbus>External Controls>Mackie Compatible MCU-fader controllers
 
Hope that helps.  

Riojazz
 
Yep, I read that as part of my research and followed it in my first or second pass at setting up. Don't know if it was me misinterpreting the protocol, the computer being stubborn, both, fate, or star/planet misalignment: nothing seemed to work. I decided to do the long road and it worked. So, I outlined the steps I used that gave me functionality. I didn't mention the arm pump and the loud "YES" when it all came together. Life has it's little pleasurable moments.

I have the full size X-Touch.  I set it for Mackie Mode (thanks to Sweetwater for how to do that) and then followed the instructions in the link in riojazz's post. 
 
I also have Studio One 3 and it automatically detected and installed the X-Touch.  I had a lite version of Cubase that came with a Steinberg unit (since uninstalled) and Cubase automatically detected and installed it too.

"Connecting" status means Sonar does not receive correct reply to "Hello MCU" invitation. There can be several reasons:
1) Input/Output are not set correctly (so the message or reply goes to nowhere).
2) the device is not in Mackie mode. Note that it should be in Mackie Logic mode (not in HUI for ProTools mode)
3) the device does not understand "Hello MCU" message (bad emulation, unfortunately seen too often, sometimes cured by firmware update. Sonar just more strictly following Mackie protocol compare to other DAWs and refuse to recognize the device as MCU till correct reply is received)