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Behringer BCR2000 and XW Synths


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Well, I picked up a Behringer BCR2000 yesterday. I had to special order it since the local music stores don't keep it in stock. It's nice. I lucked out, too, as all 32 of the encoders feel good. They don't all feel exactly the same but close enough: no overly loose or overly stiff ones, at any rate. (Those problems have been reported by others.) The pushbuttons all work too but one of them doesn't have much of an audible click when pressed. Given that everything else works great I will tolerate that.

 

I have already mocked up some possible control assignments for the XW-P1. But that's a long way from actually programming them. I will have to use a third-party, donation-ware program called BC Manager to do that since the XW doesn't send out NRPN or SysEx when you adjust a parameter in either the solo synth or the Hex Layer editing modes (hence the BCR2K's learn function won't do much for me). I didn't expect it to.

 

I intend to program an editor for Hex Layer and another for the solo synth. The latter would be applicable to the XW-G1 too but the G1 doesn't really need it given the way the sliders work on that model. However, the solo-synth editor will be a "simplified" implementation that will be accomplished with a single BCR2K "preset" and require only a single overlay (the latter in order to temporarily label all the controls for that preset). To do the entire all-singing, all-dancing solo-synth editor would require five presets and three overlays, which to my thinking is not practical. The simplified editor I am envisioning would still give you three oscillators (2 synth and 1 PCM) and the noise source, with a single simplified pitch envelope (three stages), an ADSR filter envelope, a single ADSR amplitude envelope (applies to all three oscillators and noise together) and two LFOs (one of them simplified). That's more than sufficient to do a lot of the "vintage" tones I personally like to emulate. 

 

I'll update this thread when I have more to report.

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Alen, that's brilliant to hear as I just bought a BCR2000 last week! In the end, having physical controls won out, hence going for the BCR over an ipad. I also wanted it to control two of my other synths, a Roland JX-3P with KIWI3P upgrade and a Korg DW8000, and also to operate VST DAW synths. Both my JX3P and DW8000 have ready made templates already available for the BCR. As you mentioned, the G1 needs an external controller less so than a P1 due to the way the G1's controls already operate the solo synth. Sure the MIDI-Designer makes working with the solo synth so much more slick, but the fact that the G1 can do most of that already with its controls, plus the MIDI-Designer doesn't work with the HEX Layers, eventually broke the deal for me seeing as I have a G1 and a P1.

 

Looking forward to hearing your progress updates, and eagerly looking forward to finally getting my gear over here so I can get working them with the BCR. :2thu:

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

Alen,

 

Didn't click from the other post that you had a BCR. Interested to know how you ended up using it with the XW. Did you use CC's, NRPN's OR Sysex?

 

At the moment I am researching how I might retrieve current settings from the XW, as if this is possible, it will potentially influence which way I go (Though I think you might guess from my other post that Sysex is the least likely route..

 

One advantage of CC's is that it would be possible (dependant upon the parameters selected) to maintain one preset whilst still have some flexibility to re-assign some destinations on the XW itself. As for the CC's being relative, I am unsure as yet if that is an advantage or not. If I were a performer, I think this would be more practical, as there would not really be any nasty surprises. As I am not a performer though, the ability to use the full parameter range appeals. Given my 'home based' flexibility, any time I tweak a parameter that 'jumps' I can just start again, knowing next time which parameters to prime.

 

Of course, this is moot if I can retrieve the current settings.

 

I do understand that you can 'send' a snapshot of parameters to the XW (in theory at least), but this opens up more confusion than it resolves. Again, for a performer, this could be even better, as you could ensure you are set up where you want to be. However, with if multiple potential keyboard patches required, I think it could get very complicated very quickly.

 

My other decision at this stage (which I formulated whilst setting up my rack sampler with the BCR) is that I will assign parameters on an 'as needed' basis, rather than try to predict which ones I will need. Especially as once a few settings are in there, it is easy using available editing software, to copy these and make the little tweaks required.

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Unfortunately, I have not done much of anything with the BCR2000 yet. My limited time in my "studio" (here) has been consumed with updating The XW-P1 Companion, Volume 1 and trying to finish Volume 2. (Yeah, I know, it's been over a year since I got the BCR2000. To quote someone...Life is what happens while you're making other plans.*)

 

Naturally, I am intensely interested in whatever you happen to come up with.

 

 

(* John Lennon didn't say it first. Neither did it come from the TV show Northern Exposure. The true source is described here.)

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