Following up on the earlier discussion about MIDI control on the CQ-18T — I’m curious if anyone in the community has actually landed on a solid, working setup for controlling channel faders/mutes with a physical control surface (motorized faders or otherwise), rather than the touchscreen alone.
I know MIDI Control was added in firmware and there’s a Bome MIDI Translator route people have used, but I’m looking for real-world experience:
**•** Has anyone gotten a motorized fader controller (e.g. Behringer X-Touch, X-Touch Mini, Icon Platform, Akai MIDImix, etc.) to reliably control CQ channel levels/mutes with proper two-way feedback (fader position syncing back from the mixer)?
**•** If so, what controller did you use, and how did you set up the mapping? Any Bome translator files or MIDI maps you’d be willing to share?
**•** Does it hold up reliably in a live gig situation, or does it feel fragile/laggy for something you’d trust mid-performance?
I run a hybrid setup (solo DJ + occasional live band for weddings) and having a physical fader I can grab instantly for emergency mutes/level drops is a big deal for me. Would love to hear if anyone has cracked this in practice rather than just in theory.
Thanks in advance for any real-world tips!
Using the third party app, Mixing Station, is how most people are going to accomplish this. Mixing Station natively supports Midi controllers and handles all of the conversion/communication with the console.
The difference between this solution and a Bome box is the fact that the Bome box is a stand alone hardware device that once programmed just works without any interaction.
The Mixing Station solution is a software that has to be run on a computer (or mobile device) that has to be booted, the software opened, connected to the console, etc before it will work. Mixing Station will also become your “user interface” for the system, meaning you won’t need to use the A&H apps anymore, your primary interface with the console will be through the Mixing Station app.
Honestly this is not a “problem” at all. The Mixing Station app is superior to the OEM apps in many different ways. I would be using the Mixing Station app over the OEM apps even if I didn’t want to use a Midi device.
I’ve personally used several Midi controllers with Mixing Station. Using both computers and Android tablets as my Mixing Station host and connected to several different consoles (X32, A&H iLive, Avantis & Dlive) over time. For Midi controllers, I’ve used the Behringer X-Touch Extender (the most compact option), the Waves Fit Controller (the best option IMHO) and the X-Touch Universal Control Surface (my current device). Everything worked just fine. I had no trouble with the different Midi controllers, or the different hosts (even the Android tablets were “plug and play”, or with any of the different consoles. The developer of Mixing Station has done a great job ensuring that everything integrates seamlessly.
You will need to purchase a valid Mixing Station license for your console before the Midi features will be active (that particular feature is not available in the “trial mode”), but it’s less than $10 and well worth the cost.