The videos were great and helped me a great deal! Thanks! :-)

I have one question though, in the EQ mode can you only control 4 bands of eq or is there a way to access the other two bands too?

TIA!

Great videos Blades, They made me go out and buy the unit. Everythings working fine except for the virtual LCD. It comes up but it stays blank.

I also noticed there are no vista specific drivers on the Behringer site.

Thanks,

Lou

Vista 32, Q9400, 4 gigs ram

I have one question though, in the EQ mode can you only control 4 bands of eq or is there a way to access the other two bands too?

I'm not in front of my DAW at the moment so I could be wrong but I think you can get at the other 2 bands via the 'plugin' mode. I have definitely done that but I can't remember whether that was in my V5 Studio days when I was using the Sonitus EQ as a plugin rather than the track EQ as it is now.

Everythings working fine except for the virtual LCD. It comes up but it stays blank.

I also noticed there are no vista specific drivers on the Behringer site.

AFAIK there are no Vista specific drivers. I don't believe the Virtual LCD works with Vista either. If it did you definitely need to make sure the correct MID Port is selected in Virtual LCD, accessed via right click and also that it is started before you start Sonar.

Ah misunderstood you, sorry....

Doesn't even make the du-dunk sound of a USB device being plugged in? I'm assuming the BCF has power and is on when plugged into the USB. Do you have another USB cable around that you could try? I just had a printer be all kinds of freaky with a client the other day and it turned out to be a bad USB cable - and it was detected and showing in Device Manager - it just didn't work.

jerotas: Check your PM for MS IM chat info...

Awesome - good to hear. Thanks for the feedback. I'm puting my personal website back together and will be including these and a number of other Sonar introductory videos as well, so I like to hear that things work for people.

So - I have updated the location of these videos as noted in the first post of the thread.  They have been relocated to be linked directly from my site.

Check in the Sonar section for these two videos and a number of other ones as well.
www.blades85.com

I do find videos inconvenient for many reasons. A simple text explanation would be easiser, quicker, simpler to read and reference when you need it.

Hi Blades,I have just tried your link for the videos but the they do not open.Are the links working or have they been removed.Thanks.

Part 1 is goofed up - don't know how, but it's not right.  Part 2 should be ok.  I will be updadting the site to get all the videos working again over the next few days.

I had a BCF2000 and I couldn't get it working, even following Blade's tutorials, and returned it to Americal Musical Supply.  However, after reading later threads and one from one user that got one that didn't work and got a 2nd one and it worked properly. I've ordered another from ZZounds today.  Hopefully this one will work OK.  

The first one was recognized by Win 7, 64 bit and "installed" and Sonar recognized the device (set to Mackie mode) but that was all I could get other than the lights that came on when it was powered on. 

Awesome - good to hear.  Thanks for reporting back.

To control plugins in you need to put the BCF into "plugin mode". To do this do the following

(When I'm referring to buttons here I am always referring to the block of buttons on the right hand side unless I state otherwise.)
 
1. Press and hold the shift 1 key (top left) and then press the track/plugin button (3rd down on right) twice. The LED should change to P1 and then P1. (<-Note the period on second press) The first mode is multi-track mode where each pan pot controls the same selected control on each track, the second mode with the "." gives you full control over the currently selected plugin on the currently selected track. Note that P1 always refers to the track EQ.

2. To move to the next plugin (P2) on the currently selected track make sure that you actually have another plugin on the current track and that the "Edit" light lights by pressing "shift 1" and the "M1" key (2nd down right hand side) together. Note: If in edit mode the light will toggle on and off as you press and release "shift 1". Release all

3. Press the M1 key (unshifted) and hold, then "shift 1" and hold, and then the right bank select button (5th down right hand side) The LED should then change to P2. and you have control over the first plugin. (Controls are assigned to the pan pots by default but you can flip them with the faders by pressing "Shift 2" (2nd down left hand side) and "M1" - they cycle through the following sequence:- pan pots only -> pan pots and faders duplicate -> pan pots and faders swap -> pan pots only)

4. To move through the plugin controls a bank at a time make sure the edit key is still lighting (press shift 1 to check - see above on how to turn on/off) and then press the bank right/left keys. While in edit mode the bank keys will control the current pan pot assignment NOT move tracks a bank at a time.

I hope this gets you going. It all looks and sounds far more complicated than it is. It soons become second nature once you've learnt all of the various key presses. Apart from a handful of functions related to not having a jog wheel there is nothing this unit won't do that the Mackie will (just a little more long winded) all you have to do is read the Mackie control surface help file for loads of info and key presses. I find it easiest to think of the BCF being in different "modes" - Track mode, plugin mode, EQ mode, Send Mode, Pan mode, etc. etc and then most of the controlls relate to that particular mode (but maybe that's just my crazy way of working - )

You really need to use the unit in conjunction with the virtual LED, without it I would imagine it a bit of a nightmare to "see" where you are. Unfortunately I am led to believe it doesn't work on Vista or 7. One of the reasons this old luddite is still clonking on with XP.

I'm no ACT expert so I'll leave others to answer that aspect of your question but from a Mackie mode point of view much of what you want to do is already available in that mode.

If you put the Mackie into single track mode the faders all relate to the currently selected bank of channels but the rotaries all relate to various functions on the currently selected track . Pan, Send, send levels, send pan etc etc. These can then be reassigned using a different 'mode' - EQ, Send, Pan, Plugin etc. The only thing is that the control assignment is preset. You don't get to choose what rotary does what for example other than via the various mode assignments.

The BCF in Mackie mode is extremely powerful and capable of controlling just about every aspect of Sonar, far more than you think at first glance. If I where you I would investigate this mode in depth first and see if that meets your needs.