BCF2000 and BCR2000 users?

For anyone using these, I have two BCF2000 and one BCR2000 working with X1 – not quite perfect, but workable for me. Both BCFs are in Sonar mode and the BCR is in the general mode (P1 setting).  In Sonar, the BCF2000s are selected as BCF2000[1] and BCF2000[2] and the BCR is an ACT MIDI Controller BCR2000[3]. They are connected with individual USB wires directly into my PC. I was waiting for the X1b to do some more testing and finally got the time. The BCFs are a bit noisy when they are playing back an automated mix, but for the price, there a very reasonable alternative to a mouse.  I also have Presonus S1 Artist and I only have to switch to Mackie mode on the BCF’s and I can start working in that DAW (the BCR can stay in the same mode for both DAWs).  I also reboot, but hey....

 
With the BCFs, I have flying faders for 16 channels as well as pan, mute, solo, record arm and transport control. With the BCR, I have mapped the bottom two rows of rotaries to control the Pro Channel compressor pots, EQ pots, and Tube Sat pots (I still use the mouse for the switch selection and focus selection). I did have some weird problems when I first mapped the PC - the BCR was controlling all the PC instances at the same time, but after remapping with a suggestion from codamedia (thanks!) I was able to control only the instance of the PC that had focus. One problem I have noticed is, that the BCR rotaries sometime move a bit quickly when you restart the computer. I found by opening the control surface property page for the BCR, and on the Option tab, and under MIDI Initialization Messages, press the Send button to reinitialize the BCR, the rotaries calm down nicely and control the PC quite a bit better. By the way, with Presonus S1, they have an equivalent “ACT” setup, however, it maps the entire BCR making all the 32 rotaries available for mapping (it works quite a bit better than ACT).
 
I did save the settings as a project and recall that template each time I start a project. Otherwise,  if you load another template, it appears the BCR forget and need to be remapped (the BCFs are ok with new templates, however).
 
I have not tried a large project yet – hopefully this weekend, but things look pretty good for now.
 
I’m hoping I am not going to wake up and find out that this has been a weird dream, but, after getting things working, I am beginning to like X1 
 
Almost forgot to mention, I am running Tiger Direct barebones built system (3 years old) - XP Pro 32 bit, Intel Quad Core Kentsfield 2.4 Ghz Q6600,  4 Gig Ram, Asus P5N-E SLI, Diamond Radeon HD 24000 Pro 256MB PCIe, 3 - Seagate Barracuda SATA drives as storage (system drive is a 250 GB Segate Barracuda SATA). My A/Ds are Presonus FirePods (FP10) I have two for 16 channels.
 
g

Yep the BCF is fine value for money. Although I now have a MCU there isn't much the BCF can't do - 90% of the functionality at 10% of the price.

Here's a link to a BCF Mackie mode user guide that I put together. It's really just a reader friendly version of the help guide.

Another link to setting up the prochannel EQ in a BCF for those that haven't yet.

Unfortunately the compressor and tube sat are proving a bridge to far until Cakewalk expose the parameters in the same way as the EQ.

the geek, 
but this plugin wont enable the bcr to be used with all prochannel params, will it?

Gotta two of them - BCF and BCR.

BCF - via Mackie Mode - works perfect, but X1a 2 times didn't recognize it. I had to reinstall X1a :( With X1b - so far so good
BCR - now with AJ Control Surface, but - thanks to one of users here - TRANSLATED into 64bit environment. WORKS GREAT!

Still need another, more customisable Control Surface for BCR. I don't need "doubling" but "expanding".

Have anyon tried MCX midi wrapper? It looks OK, but demo doesn't allow to check full potential.

look at my "description".
WIN7 / 64bit.
Sonar X1b 64bit

No problems at all - just this bug with BCF :D

And - sometimes you have to rearrange your devices, cause of recognised names (system likes to add to BCF2000 or BCR2000 a strange letter/symbol, and sometimes no, so Sonar sometimes gets gooffy)

adrian4u

thegeek


As far as the BCR is concerned, and if you are not using a 64bit OS, you guys might wanna check A.J's "BCR2000 control surface plug in" for Sonar and Reaper (since version 1.2) - works PERFECT, utilizes all 32 knobs of BCR with duplex communication and remapping of controls a la Mackie Mode emulation.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1895926&mpage=1

One of our collegues made 64bit compillation of this plugin. Now it works with 64bit version of Sonar too :)

Is this available to anyone?  I dearly want to use my BCR to it's full potential in 64bit X1,   Mostly I want to use all the knobs in synth and FX plugs, specificaly GuitarRig4.

Better yet to post the file or link to the 64 bit compilation.

the geek, 
but this plugin wont enable the bcr to be used with all prochannel params, will it?

I really doubt it...when it was designed, PC wasnt available, so it was designed to access the built-in sonitus EQ, all the rest of controls of a track strip in Sonar plus the controls of plug ins. If PC was a plug-in and not built in , it would, but now Im afraid it wont

One of our collegues made 64bit compillation of this plugin. Now it works with 64bit version of Sonar too :)

Where is it then? Why didn't our colleague inform us about it? Id like to have it too, as it is one of my main reasons to be reluctant to go 64bit

edit: As far as expanding the BCR's functionality, and/or using it to control the PC, AJ has smartly configured his plug in to work in midi channel 16 (so as to not get in the way of things). You can easily, I guess, configure a preset on your BCR, next to the one being used with AJ's plug in, set all the controls on a different midi channel, add a NEW ACT control surface in Sonar, yet still with midi in-out from the BCR and use it with the ACT protocol. This way, you will be able to use the BCR with AJ's plug in, for all strip parameters and plug ins in Sonar, and when you want to control the PC, switch to the next (or previous) preset on your BCR and have a total of 16 knobs and 8 buttons for controling the PC via ACT! ;)

Hi thegeek,
 
Wow, that is hard to say 
 
Your suggestion seems to be the best solution for me. I didn’t change any of the midi  channel mapping for either BCFs or the BCR (just thought I would give it a test). I have my BCF set to ids 1 and 2 and the BCR is set to id 3 (they are all set to the U1 mode).
 
The way I set them up is both BCF are in Sonar Mode, and the BCR is set up as two devices - an Act MIDI controller device and a device using AJs plug (bcr2000control).
 
I have AJs plug installed in preset 2 (P2) on the BCR and the factory preset in 1 (P1). I mapped the knobs using the X1 Act MIDI properties panel for the rotaries on the BCR to the knobs in the PC. Since I only have the bottom two rows of rotaries available in the Act Midi properties panel, I start with the leftmost knob in the PC section I want to control and work left to right mapping the knobs (for the EQ - first knob = LF Freq, second knob=LMF, etc.). This works for me and I can map the Compressor section, EQ section, and Tube Sat. I have to click in the section to bring focus there, otherwise the rotaries control the knobs. I also need to click any switches with the mouse to turn something on or off (for example, Hi Pass or Gloss).
 
I previously mentioned that I need to save the mapping for the PC and open it each time I start a project. It appears that the mapping is remembered when you open any template in X1 – one less thing to have to remember!
 
Using this setup, I can switch to preset 1 to control the PC knobs and when I add a plugin, I switch to preset 2, bring up AJs plug and control any effects in the FX bins (switching between the pages in AJs plugin is great and is very similar to how Alphatrack works, but more knobs are available in the BCR). I can also control the EQ section of the PC, but I have to think and look at the mapping when I do since it is different from the Act mappings.
 
I did have a crash while I was switching screens in X1, and I am not sure if it was a X1 problem or having the AJs and the Act devices mapped to the same ID3 so I will be looking into this.
 
Another thought, although pretty radical, if you want to set up the BCR to look more like the knob layout on the PC, you could turn the unit 90 degrees to the right or left depending on which side of your desk you wanted to have it sitting and remap the rotaries. That way you would have 8 knobs vertical and 4 knobs wide – I know – don’t laugh   but hey, for the price of the BCR, it is pretty cost effective over a Mackie or Sonar hardware surface.
 
Hope this helps others
 
g

This is BCR2000 Control Surface made by AJ, formely for 32bit systems, for Sonar and Reaper.

This version is compiled by AndyDavis - forum user - for 64bit systems and 64bit versions of SONAR X1.

If you want to thank him - do it :)

http://www55.zippyshare.com/v/34898410/file.html

Installation notes:
- unzip
- go to "binaries" folder
- run install.CMD

In Sonar X1:
- go to Control surfaces in preferences)
- choose BCR2000 control surface
- choose MIDI INPUT and OUTPUT to BCR2000 port1

I'm not Andy, but you can find him on this forum :)

For 32bit version of BCR2000 Control Surface sonar/Reaper (in a fact ORIGINAL) - click link below

http://www55.zippyshare.com/v/20216460/file.html

Bitman:

AJ Mayo, author, put 32bit source on internet. I found it weeks ago (hardly impossible to find), unfortunatelly it didn't work with 64bit.

In other discussion about control surfaces, Andy said that he could try to make 64bit compilation. That's the story.

If you  could make control Window of this CS more clear, smaller and more user friendly - please share with us :)
I even wish to have more "nteractive" CF - with using MIDI feedback on LED dicplay to see actual "page" or something.

Below you have link to 32bit version source.
Have fun, good luck and GIVE US THE RESULTS :)

http://www55.zippyshare.com/v/85091957/file.html

I don't know how and what Andy did, but as a source he used 32bit version - as in my link above.

Here's original thread:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2255057

gibsongs, thank you for the info and the link.  I will try to get my BCR up and running again.

I used to use AJ's BCR2000 plugin on my old 32 bit PC successfully.

However, I am having a problem with the 64 bit plugin.  I installed as noted above.

In Preferences>Control Surfaces-Connected Controllers/Surfaces when I add a new control surface and select "bcr2000control" from the drop own list it appears in the Connected Controllers/Surfaces list as (bcr2000control - 1) as in parenthesis.  When I select the BCR2000 for the In Port and Out Port and click on Apply, the In Port and Out Port lists come back blank.

Could this be a problem due to me trying to install the 32 bit version on my PC when it was new late last year and it still may be in my registry not getting overwritten by the 64 bit version?  

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks.

Thanks for your reply, FBB.

I referring of the version compiled by Andy Davis for 64 bit systems and 64 bit versions of SONAR X1 from the link posted above.

I can live without the plugin but thought it would be nice to see if it would work on my system.