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MIDI Control surface


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Does anyone have preferences for certain control surfaces?

I am thinking of adding support for this to Boom Recorder.

That would be brilliant - I don't own a control surface (unless you count the Mix12) but I've wondered whether the Behringer's are any good, they're certainly in a class of their own as far as cost is concerned - very inexpensive. If they break they can be replaced many times over for the cost of a Euphonix or Mackie :) But they are suspiciously cheap! Anyone tried or own a Behringer?

BCF2000  -

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/BCF2000-WH.aspx

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Personally I am looking into getting the ZeRO SL MkII:

    http://www.novationmusic.com/products/midi_controllers/zero_sl_mk_ii

Also not too expensive and a few more buttons more. I hope I can actually turn the LEDs on the buttons on and off from Boom Recorder.

I also like the AKAI APC 40, but that doesn't seem to do MIDI.

    http://www.akaipro.com/apc40

With this I am also planning that you can mix during recording using the surface, it will require me to change the mixing algorithm to only change the volume during the moment you don't hear the clicks. From what I understand I have to wait until a zero transition, or smooth out the volume changes across many samples, or a combination of this. I am not sure if the zero transitions will work well with low frequency sounds.

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Hi Take-

Nice to see you around here again.  Graham Gardner has used the Behringer BCF-2000 with his Boom Recorder (RME interface) rig for awhile now.  It may be a little more ruggedly built than the ZeRO, and it's got 100mm faders, which is nice in production mixing.  I do like the Novation gear for plug-in control on Pro Tools.  And I'm guessing that the Automap feature might be nice from a programming perspective.

-Brian

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Hey Take,

  As Brian said, I use the Behringer BCF2000. Its a smaller format and great for the price. Are you considering Mackie Protocol, Eucontrol, OSC or a combination? A very important option is to be able to use the control surface in the background. This allows a different program to be "on top" and still control Boomrecorder. I dont think eucon allows for this, however.

  Cool midi info and how to build your own control surface can be found at ucapps.de if you're interested. I also know some folks in the music and theater world are considering and/ or using the ipad with AC-7 since the Lemur is still rather pricey.

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On the low end, would love to see the Presonus Faderport and Korg Nanocontrol.  Something more substantial, I would love to use my Digi 002/003 interface in standalone MIDI mode, which would probably mean simple Mackie HUI.  On the high end, Euphonix Artist series and JL Cooper would be nice.

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Right now I am only considering MIDI, not in using any other proprietary protocol. I think I will just have a preferences panel which shows all the commandos of Boom Recorder and the MIDI codes to activate them, with loadable templates.

I am thinking of making this setup so at a later time I can add more protocols, and maybe even run Boom Recorder's own interface through it.

From what I understand if Boom Recorder is in the background it should still be able to exchange MIDI command with the control surface.

From what I read is the automap only to map its MIDI commands to the AU plugins, it does not allow linking with a DAW or audio recorder like Boom Recorder. However I have contacted them for more information about talking to their surface, here is hoping I only have to use MIDI.

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  • 1 year later...

Has midi support been added as of yet?, I would make the switch to boom recorder for projects that need more than 4 iso's (Currently own a 744t). Can just imagine using boom recorder on my laptop with a traveler and my UC33 controller for mixing instead of going for the 788t.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Take,

You will allow people to use most of the controllers out there if you follow or use a subset of the Mackie HUI protocol (which uses MIDI). Most of the various controllers out there either use this, or implement it as a 'fall back option' if they also support a more complex proprietary format. Whether Hardware, or on an iPad, to a Yamaha 01v96 in controller mode, most people would have easiest access to that protocol. For what you are doing with BoomRecorder, even simply allowing each crosspoint in the matrix to be assigned to a Midi Continuous Controller, along with assigning Midi Note Numbers to toggle Transport Control buttons would work fine.

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I picked up a Behringer BCF at a local Guitar Center few years ago as an emergency purchase. I had to turn out a screener mix of a feature over a weekend without my usual setup... figured for $200, it had to be at least better than trying to mix with a mouse; at worst, I'd just toss it.

Surprise: build quality was very good, install was easy, unit worked perfectly. Not having scribble strips slowed me down when I did bank switching, but what do you expect for the price?

I still have it if anybody wants to make an offer. (Boston area.)

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  • 2 months later...

The problem with Behringer gear is that they use the cheapest components possible and don't have the best QC. So sometimes you get a unit that works very well but most of the time (in my experience) you don't and when you do get a working peace of gear you are never sure when it's going to stop working. Now for the price a lot of people will just say o'well but for my money I would much rather pay more for a peace of gear and not have to worry about it.

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The problem with Behringer gear is that they use the cheapest components possible and don't have the best QC. So sometimes you get a unit that works very well but most of the time (in my experience) you don't and when you do get a working peace of gear you are never sure when it's going to stop working.

Doh, I had that happen with a Behringer feedback killer. I threw that out and got a Sabine -- no problems.

The Behringer stuff is often such cheap crap. I was particularly incensed at their copies of the Mackie mixers during the 1990s -- they were like clones of that stuff. But there's no easy way to stop this.

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  • 4 months later...

I use a BCF2000 and ShuttlePro with my Cubase DAW at home. They both work well and are surprisingly well built considering how relatively inexpensive they were at the time I purchased them. I would be a bit surprised to see a BCF2000 show up at work, however.

MIDI is limited to 128 steps of resolution so one thing to be wary of with MIDI controllers is hardware or software that lacks a smoothing algorithm to prevent stair-stepping. It is especially important when trying to make subtle adjustments. This may not be as much of a problem today as it was ten or twelve years ago and I've not experienced this with the Behringer/Cubase combination. The BCF2000 is set to Mackie Control emulation and works as advertised.

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  • 4 years later...

Hi,

http://iconproaudio.com/product/qcon-pro-x/  is looking interesting,too me ...Soon as I put my hands (and ears) on one, I'll write some kind of review...(waiting for usual suspect down here to provide one for test and comparsion). If anyone here already work with one, I'll be glad to hear first hand comment.

Cheers

QconProX-Front.jpg

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I use a MotorMix with Pro tools. PT has it programmed in (doesn't use hui, etc). They're good, programmable, and you can get them for cheap on ebay. The guy that made them will still service them too. They connect via midi, but I understand a midi-usb cable can be used with them. 

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