NAMM 2014: BEHRINGER STAYS IN TOUCH WITH REALITY
By Graeme Hague
24 January 2014
At last year’s winter NAMM Behringer pretty much backed up a truck of new goodies headlined by the X-32 mixer. We’ve been wondering how Behringer might follow up that act in 2014, and the answer is three new universal control surfaces. Behringer could be onto something here – the flood of iPad apps may have provided remote control for just about every DAW around and put a dent in the appeal of hardware controllers, but that tactile experience of real knobs and sliders is still missing and by now the novelty of apps-driven control is waning. The largest model, simply called the X-Touch, offers 9 touch-sensitive motor faders, 8 LCD Scribble Strips for instant overview of track names and parameters plus 8 rotary controls with LED-collars. The X-Touch Compact has the same faders and more emphasis on rotary controllers. The X-Touch Mini has a single fader and 8 rotary controllers. All three models have a Dual-Layer mode and USB/MIDI connections, with the X-Touch also having an Ethernet port. The future ability to remotely control Behringer’s X-32 digital consoles is on the drawing board. The NAMM release has caught www.behringer.com napping – there’s only a page on the X-Touch so far.
Australian Distributor: Galactic Music www.galacticmusic.com.au
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