Gearjunkies.com: Behringer BCF2000 info and reviews

Available from 11/30/1999 until 11/30/1999

The exciting new B-CONTROL Series combines the unlimited versatility of today’s audio software with the feel of real controls. It lets you move real faders and turn real knobs to control all the virtual gear in Cubase®, Cakewalk®, Logic Audio® and other major audio software. It’s the intuitive way to control and create music with a real hands-on feel. The choice is yours—faders (BCF2000) or knobs (BCR2000). Tired of using a mouse? Want to control your synth, mixer, effects or signal processor with real controls? Pick the B-CONTROL that matches your “virtual hardware” or cascade them together for the ultimate workstation.

Reviews

Review written by Aahzekiel on 04/09/2005
Overall:	First impression out of the box is that this is a well-made, attractive unit. It's not a tank, but neither is it particularly delicate. The faders move smoothy, knobs turn easily, buttons have decent feedback. Nothing feels like it's going to break as soon as I push, turn or click a little too hard. I like the LEDs on the rotary encoders, and I find the LED display to be helpful and so far to provide enough info. Note that I've only had the unit for a brief time. Setup wasn't as easy as it could be. I get the distinct impression that Behringer rushed the "manual" (does a few sheets of poorly written text constitute a manual?). The manual was almost useless in helping me get set up, and when I went online to find answers, I immediately ran into features of the BFC2000 that weren't documented in the manual at all. For those random few of you who wish to use the BFC2000 with Digital Performer 4 on OSX, here you go: 1. Set the device up in Audio MIDI Setup. If you are connected via USB, the BFC2000 will show up as a MIDI interface, NOT a MIDI device. That's because it IS a MIDI interface. Create a new (fake?) MIDI device in AMS, call it BFC2000, and attach the IN/OUT to the BFC2000 that showed up as a MIDI interface. Now you have one device acting as a MIDI interface and pretending to be another device attached TO that MIDI Interface. Yes, this confused the hell out of me at first, until I read a post about it on Unicornation.com. Thanks for the info in the manual, Behringer. 2. Update the firmware! Head to http://www.behringer.com/05_support/bc_download/bc_downloads.cfm?lang=ENG to get the most recent firmware. I used SysEx Librarian (MacOSX) to send the sysex firmware update to the BFC2000. The actual Behringer software supposed to do this on the PC flat-out didn't work. This could easily be my fault, not a PC guy. 3. Boot the BFC2000 in Baby HUI emulation mode by holding down the top button on the fifth channel and powering up the unit. 4. Set Digital Performer's Control Surface to Baby HUI. There ya have it. It'll be set with the rotary encoders as Pan, the two buttons as Mute and Record, and the faders set as the volume faders for your first eight channels.
Usability:	The BFC2000 seems to be doing its job perfectly. I am using it as a control surface as I mix songs, and it beats the hell out of using the mouse. I've had no problems with it so far, but I haven't really gotten into it, either. I am hoping to start using it to control synths and samplers. It is also my current MIDI interface, and again seems to be doing its job. Note that there are some Musician's Friend catalogs claiming that this thing is an audio interface with preamps. It's not. It's a MIDI interface and a control surface.
Sounds:	As the man said elsewhere, it makes a nice "CLACK" sound when you whack the thing with a pen. :) Actually, the thing does make noise... the faders HUMMMMM and SSSLICK! when they snap into position. Other programs make it hum faintly when launched. When I was first trying to get it set up with DP4, the Mackie Emulation mode would send the fader flying (in the opposite direction!) to the far end of the slot, and sit there whining, trying to go further. That couldn't be healthy.
Build quality:	It seems fairly sturdy, but if you dropped it upside down and it landed on the knobs, they could shear off. The B-CONTROL EDIT software is a Java app, so should run on any machine that has a Java Virtual Machine. It ran fine on OSX, looked like it would be a useful utility. The software I tried to use on the PC to update the firmware just plain didn't work. It told me it couldn't see the unit, seconds after it had recognized it. Whatever, the firmware update is a sysex file, so I sent it to the BFC2000 with an OSX sysex utility (SysEx Librarian) and that worked fine. It hasn't crashed on me yet. Again, I'm not being particularly demanding... I set it on Baby HUI emulation and haven't done anything but use it.
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