# How to connect TouchOSC to Cubase using Android device



## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

I was able to use TouchOSC on a Windows PC to control Cubase using my Android phone. The button could be clicked in Cubase and reflect on the Android phone, and I could click a button on the Android screen and the button would click inside of Cubase. It was bidirectional. My instructions I am sharing had one goal of getting a working connection; there was an added benefit that more TouchOSC controls worked than expected.

I spent literally WEEKS endlessly Googling and piecing information together. Almost every TouchOSC/Cubase tutorial I found was for an ipad. But I had an Android device and Windows 10! Add into the mix of a mysterious thing about how Windows only allows one MIDI port to be used at a time and boom!--so frustrating. While every computer setup might differ slightly, I can at least share what worked for me.

The software I used was Cubase 11 Elements, loopMIDI (free), MIDI-OX (free), Windows 10, and TouchOSC (in Google Play store make sure to use the new TouchOSC, *not *TouchOSC MK1).

Please reply to this thread if this worked for you, or any insights on how to make the setup better.

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PART 1

Install Protokol on the computer
The OSC port should default to 8000
Don’t need to do anything else except have it open on the screen so you can see it








Install TouchOSC Bridge on the computer
Just make sure it is running on Windows taskbar
Right-click icon > enable USB connections







Install TouchOSC on the Android device
TouchOSC on the Android phone doesn’t do well with different screen sizes. As a result, be ready to sometimes rotate your phone to landscape orientation to get a better view of the menus and such. Or vice versa, if landscape is making it hard to see everything, rotate the phone to portrait view temporarily to see if that helps.
Connect the Android phone to the same WIFI network that your computer is on. *This is critical.*
Side note...throughout my efforts of getting this to work I did four additional things. This might not be required for you, but things to keep in mind.
I disabled Windows Firewall. You should probably allow that traffic through somehow instead to stay secure.
Install iTunes, so that Bonjour is installed on your computer
Even though my Android phone was connected via WIFI, I also plugged it into my computer via USB.
On the Android device, I enabled the developer settings. Then within the developer settings I set the default USB connection method to “File Transfer”



On the top menu bar, realize that you can scroll left and right to see more buttons. Scroll all the way to the right side. Or it might help to turn your phone sideways to landscape view.
Click “Connections” icon.






MIDI
Enable the checkbox for Connection 1
set both Send and Receive to “<Bridge 1>”






OSC
Enable the checkbox for Connection 1
Connection = UDP
Host = click browse to select your computer. It should set it to the WIFI IP address of your computer






Send port = 8000
Receive port = 9000
Zeroconf = LogicTouch






Bridge
Enable the checkbox for Connection 1
Click browse to set the host to your computer’s WIFI IP address.


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## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

PART 2


Install TouchOSC on the computer
Click “Connections” icon






Under MIDI:
Enable the checkbox for Connectio 1
set both Send and Receive to “<Bridge 1>”






Under OSC, set:
Enable the checkbox for Connection 1
Connection = UDP
Host = IP address of your Android phone
On my Samsung Galaxy S21, I went to phone settings > About Phone > Status Information > under the header “IP address” it listed 192.168.1.7

Send port = 8000
Receive port = 9000
Zeroconf = LogicTouch






Bridge
Enable the checkbox for Connection 1
Click browse to set the host to your computer’s WIFI IP address. For me, it is 192.168.1.21





The Bridge IP is a little fuzzy to me still. To have the computer and phone mirror each other on TouchOSC programs, it seems like I should actually be setting it to the Android’s IP, but clicking browse only showed my computer, which is why I used 192.168.1.21 for Bridge host IP address. Perhaps this was needed more when I was mirroring TouchOSC Android with TouchOSC on the computer via both MIDI and OSC. Nonetheless, this turned out to not be critical in the setup.










Click “Done” to close the connections window
Download the template layout Touch OSC Cubase Control.zip file from Steinberg website
In TouchOSC on the computer, go to File > open > and open the template file “Cubase iPadPro.touchosc”











Open the WIFI connection






On the Server tab, checkmark “Enabled”.






Click Close to exit the Editor Network window.


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## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

PART 3


Go back to TouchOSC on the Android device
Click the WIFI connection icon




.

Click Client
Under “Available Servers” you should see the name of your computer. Click “Connect”.






If I rotate or keep my Android phone in landscape orientation, you’ll see the TouchOSC template mirrored on the Android device. Notice the gray dot on the top right corner; that will exit.






Back on TouchOSC on the computer, double click in the template area so you can select the green “Read” square box. Drag it to somewhere else on the screen.






Look at your Android device. You should see that it now shows the green box in the same location. This is because your computer and Android are connected.






In TouchOSC on the computer, click the undo button to return the green box to the original location.






On the Android device, it should show the green box back in its original location.
Exit by clicking the gray dot on the top-right of the Android screen.






It is recommended to save the template on the phone, so you won’t have to transfer it again later.





After it saves, it keeps you on the Save page (#2 in the screenshot above). If you long-click the saved file (saveMe.tosc), there is an option to export the template as XML as a backup or to share with others.







Leave TouchOSC running on the Android device. If you are back in edit mode, then click the “Play” button to enter fullscreen mode.






You can now close the TouchOSC program on your computer. It is no longer needed at this time.


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## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

PART 4


Install MIDI-OX
Options > Midi Devices
In the top section “Midi Inputs”, select only “TouchOSC Bridge”
You’ll see “TouchOSC Bridge” appear in the bottom right box “Port Map Objects”






Click OK
Exit MIDI-OX


Install loopMIDI (make sure to get the version that supports Windows 10 which is at least version 1_0_16_27)
At the bottom, there is a text box called “New port-name”. Type a name for your virtual MIDI port, and then click the “+” icon to add it. In this example, I used the name “cubbyOut”





Click the X to minimize loopMIDI to the taskbar. Make sure it is still running.


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## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

PART 5


Open the MIDI-OX program again
Go back again to Options > Midi Devices






“TouchOSC Bridge” should still be the only “MIDI Inputs” selected which makes it one of the items in the “Port Map Objects” list on the bottom-right.






Under “MIDI Outputs”, select your new loopMIDI virtual MIDI port. Mine was “cubbyOut”.
“cubbyOut” should now show under the “port mapping” list





Important Note: Sometimes your new loopMIDI port (for me, “cubbyOut”) was not in the list of inputs or outputs of MIDI-OX. I had to restart MIDI-OX a few times to get it to show up. Or maybe I wasn’t patient long enough. Or maybe a computer reboot might’ve helped “cubbyOut” to finally show up in MIDI-OX under in File > Midi Devices

Click OK to close MIDI Devices windows
Because the Android’s TouchOSC is still in “Play” mode (fullscreen), when you click that green box button again, you’ll see MIDI-OX pick up the signals, shown in the blue text. That tells you there is a valid connection.






Open Protokol on the computer
Once again, on the Android phone, click that green box. Similar to MIDI-OX, you’ll see information show up on the OSC tab.





Note: Sometimes while trying to set this up, I would push a button on the Android device and information in Protokol simultaneously showed up on both the MIDI and OSC tab. However, as of writing this, I only see info logged on the OSC tab, and that seems like enough to toggle buttons on/off in Cubase via either Cubase itself or the Android device’s TouchOSC template.


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## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

PART 6


Now that you have a connection between the phone and computer, it’s time to set up Cubase.
Go to Studio > Studio Setup






On the top right click “Add Device” dropdown, and select “Generic Remote”






You’ll see “Generic Remote” show up in the list under “Remote Devices”.




This is important:
Under MIDI Input, select your loopMIDI port (“cubbyOut”)
Under MIDI Output, select “TouchOSC Bridge”
In the screenshot, ignore the stuff hidden behind the brown box; it’s hidden to prevent confusion right now.






On the right side, click “Import”. 






Navigate to the download template file “Touch OSC Cubase Control.xml” and click Open.






Click “Apply” first, then “OK”






That should complete the setup. To test the connections, do the following:
It doesn’t hurt to reboot your computer if you run into problems, and then try again. I think after installing loopMIDI or MIDI-OX I had to reboot at least once.
Verify TouchOSC Bridge is running in the taskbar of the computer
Verify TouchOSC on the Android is in “Play” (fullscreen) mode
Verify Protokol (on OSC tab) and MIDI-OX both show signals being recorded in their logs whenever you click the green “Read” button on the Android TouchOSC template


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## cordane (Dec 2, 2021)

PART 7 of 7


In Cubase, create an instrument track so that the “Read automation” button is visible. When clicked in Cubase instrument track, it enables the other 3 buttons in green.






Because you enabled the “R” (read automation) button in Cubase, you’ll notice it enables the green box on TouchOSC on the Android phone.






In Cubase, turn off the “read automation”. It will disable the green buttons in Cubase, in addition to the green box on Android TouchOSC.











Now try the opposite test. Click the green button in the Android TouchOSC template.
Button turns green on Android device because you clicked it






Cubase shows all 4 buttons enabled.







By completing both tests, this proves you can now:
click a button in Cubase and it will automatically toggle the TouchOSC button on the Android device.
Click a button in TouchOSC on the Android device, and it will toggle the button in Cubase automatically.


Please reply to this thread if this worked for you, or any insights on how to make the setup better. I'm still learning!


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