Control Surfaces

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technominds

technominds

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OK, i know its off-topic.. but i speak to you guys more than anyone else on this forum so i just wanted your advice...

I lost a bid for a big tascam controller... which i would have love to have got...
anyway... i want to have motorized fader's, and a fair amount of them.

I know behringer have a bad name for audio products, so buying a controller of them should be safe as i know it wont bugger up my actual sound....

has anyone used the BCF2000? I was thinking i could get 2/3 of them all lined up and i would then have 24 motorized fader's, all for £250!

Any downside to doing this? Is there something i cant see and im actually stupid even thinking about this? let me know! :D

Thanks guys,
Techno Minds
 
Probably not a good area to post this, might not get many answers.
 
Not sure why people dislike behringer stuff to the extreme that they do. Their initial offering a few years ago definately was crap, but nowadays they are making some really nice stuff. THeir 4x12 guitar cabinet actually sounds pretty good. They have "truth" monitors that I have to admit pass my scrutiny, even without a sub. They are "darn close" to event 20/20's and significantly less costly.

Not familar with their control surfaces however. Just felt like making some irrelevent comments :D
 
I have one BCF2000 Behringer controller, they emulates Mackie control and I'm happy with the results, I can only point one downside of it, it only has 4 character display information, so you have to watch your mix window carefully. unless you work with Steinberg software they can give you the controller display window on your computer with updates from Behringer.

oh yeah, one more thing, be sure to read carefully all the manuals in PDF files when you download the updates and utilities. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be flying with those faders.
 
good idea

haveing 2 or 3 is not a bad idea id go 4 it .it would be good 4 controlling a synth BCF2000 is not a bad idea.i also hear its built real good im thinking about buying 2 4 now 4 16 faders @ 400.00$ ushttp://www.soundclick.com/tracksnflight
 
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Thanks for the replies, i think i might go for it. Surely 24 motorized fader's is 24 motorized fader's! If they work, they work.... you mentioned about the the displays... the way i see it, if i have 24 fader's i wont need to use displays as much as if i only had 8 fader's, because i wont be shifting them much at all.

Thanks for the responces guys, il let you know the outcome if and when i buy them! :D
 
Just a little notification to all who wanted to buy this product. Im now slightly thrown off about it, i wanted to go check it out at digital village before I went and spent the money... turns out thei display version didnt work with a PC and they had to send it back to get it fixed :O... so now im going to have to wait a week or two to go check it out... and im worried the same thing will happen to me...
 
technominds said:
Just a little notification to all who wanted to buy this product. Im now slightly thrown off about it, i wanted to go check it out at digital village before I went and spent the money... turns out thei display version didnt work with a PC and they had to send it back to get it fixed :O... so now im going to have to wait a week or two to go check it out... and im worried the same thing will happen to me...
Click to expand...

It could be their PC though,but i'm not sure since Behringer's QC is not that reliable (based on review,not self experience). But yes, you have to really understand about your PC,BCF updates, and MIDI. I spent about 1 hour to make it up and running just like i wanted it. And i ended up using the 0.7 update, even though the update reach 10 (I'm not sure about the numbers), but yes i use the update just before the latest one. Read the .pdf manual in each of the updates and support software carefully, it's a bit hard to understand (or maybe it's just me being retard)...well, anyway,it works fine on my PC with ProTools and Cubase. :rolleyes:
 
BCF200 Control Surface

I have recently bought a 'BCF2000 control surface' used with 'Sonar 5 Producer'.
It was impossible to get it to do anything at first.
Behringer manuals are notoriously hopeless to decipher.
I eventually got through to the Behringer customer support line, who talked me through setting it up.
It appears theat the normal operating modes including the Learn function are so difficult to use, (unless you already know how to operate it ), that the only practicle way to use the BCF2000 is in 'Mackie emulation mode'.
There several templates supplied by behringer which are already preloaded into the BCF2000. I use the sonar template and bingo just choose the 'mackie control surface' from within sonar and select the BCF2000 usb connection as the input and output ports and it all worked perfectly!
Now that it has been running for a few weeks, I would not want to use Sonar without it.
You can start and stop playback of sonar, rewind, control each track or control 8 tracks at once.
Not just volume but also, pan reverb send chorus send input, output, EQ, etc etc.
There is an essential utility called 'BCFview'.
You open this small program and it gives you a virtual LCD display showing the current BCF2000 mode and controls available.
It is well worth the effort to get it set up properly.
I learnt more about this unit by watching a user video on another forum.
It showed this guy using 2x BCF2000s paired up to Logic, but most of the info also helped me to understand what could be done with it in sonar.
Although some of the functions and control parameters are different for each DAW program, I soon played around and found what did what by using the BCF2000View utility.
 
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Any chance of a link to that video? Would be very interesting to see!
 
a link to that video?

technominds said:
Any chance of a link to that video? Would be very interesting to see!
Click to expand...

A link to the video i mentioned is here:
http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/index.cfm
Very casual but very informative.
There are several videos actually leading you through the steps of getting to know and then use the BCF200 in more detail.

Regards
 
Its people like that that really make product buying an easier job... My hat goes off to them!
 
Just out of interest
Is the the BCF 2000 compatable with Cubase vst32?
Searched the net and this forum, can't seem to find an answer!
Any help from you guys would be great.
Thanks,
Cass.
 
Im guessing it is, as it works as any other controller would work... but I cant be 100% sure. It does have MIDI out and MIDI in so on worste cases you could use it with its individual mode, as long as cubase VST supports some form of MIDI control (im pretty sure it does)
 
Over in the UK, cheapest ive found is about £250 and thats second hand.... I think if you just want control for cheap... Behringer sounds like the ideal option.
 
OK,i just recieved my two BCF2000 units and im dissapointed to see that if i want to use both of them individually, I have to do so using Logic. Im quite annoyed that Sonar have not done a decent job with making control surfaces more simple.... I can use one of my desks, but using two seems to not work. I heard it something to do with Sonar not having MIDI out and in running like other programs, im not sure. I am sure that im annoyed.

Does anyone have 2 of these units linked with Sonar or know sonar well enough to help me?
 
Ok, without a doubt the bes things ive ever bought.... I had to move over to Cubase SX, which is kind of annoying but I can live with it... To think, if someone had some £500 spare they can have 32 flying faders... I honestly cant see why these things arent the most popular item on the market! I cant really fault them, they do everything I could want... I wouldnt mind a few other emulation modes... They have a Mackie Control emulation mode for various different programs, but for programs like sonar... they didnt include a Mackie Control XT emulation program which is fairly annoying... but mainly cakewalks problem. I would really be interested to see someone with a bit of money buy a dozen of these, removing the plastic from around them and create a huge digital controller.... it would be bigger, better and cheaper than anything else around.


BCF2000, you won me over!
 
Yup, im using 2 right now. But i must warn you, it depends on your host software. It can be strange... a program as basic as Fruity Loops can be programmed to use these things, but something like Sonar will only have one, no more!

Using Logic or Cubase SX im sure you could link 10's of these things without a problem!
 
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