Photo: Mike Cameron It sounds like an amazing deal — endless-rotary and (even more incredibly), moving-fader controllers for well under £200 each. But have Behringer gone a price-cut too far this time? The past few years have seen an explosion in the number of affordable MIDI controller boxes available on the market, at prices that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

Ptc Creo 2.0 Student Edition. Inevitably, there is now a range of products at a variety of prices, from handy little boxes that feature just a few knobs or small faders in compact packages for the same price as a budget soundcard, right up to moving-fader assignable control surfaces that cost more than a computer. And as in any competitive market, manufacturers keep bringing out new controllers that offer more functions and features at prices that seem astonishingly low — until the next price-lowering development. Behringer are the latest company to throw established controller price conventions on their head. Their first steps into products specifically aimed at computer users are two cross-platform USB-equipped MIDI controllers — a logical move. The BCR2000 features no less than 32 rotary encoders, plus a host of assignable switches, and retails for just £140.

Behringer BCF2000 & BCR2000. A Logic Control for Apple Logic, or a Mackie Baby HUI for various applications, including Pro Tools and Cubase SX or Nuendo.

The second unit, the BCF2000, offers eight faders, plus eight rotary encoders and loads of switches, for just £180. That's still good value, but you might be curious about a price difference that buys fewer simultaneously useable controllers.

Well, that extra 40 quid buys you eight 100mm motorised faders, which I think is unheard of in this price range. Both the BCR and BCF have identical dimensions and overall shape. They even share a raised row of rotary encoders and switches across the top, a four-digit LED display and a strip of edit and assignable switches down the right. Operation is so similar for both units that Behringer have produced just one slim manual for both units (as usual with Behringer, other European languages are supported with multiple translations). A glossy four-page 'preset' leaflet is the only documentation specific to either controller box. There is more documentation available from Behringer's web site as PDF files, and some of it is rather useful.

It would be nice if this material — plus drivers and some further extras — were packaged with the controllers in future on CD. Though both devices will work with Mac OS X and Windows XP straight out of the box, Behringer recommend their dedicated drivers for Windows users. Once again, these are only available on line. A mains lead and USB cable are included in the box, which is very thoughtful.

The knobs that populate the raised front-panel section of both controllers (and the whole front panel of the BCR) are in fact endless rotary encoders: they have no end stops, and their current position is indicated by a ring of LEDs that surround the encoders. The LEDs not only let you know where you've moved a given parameter to, but also change to reflect a parameter's position when you switch between presets or banks of controls in your host software. In addition, each of the eight encoders on the upper raised section is actually a push encoder: they can have a MIDI parameter assigned to their left/right movement and also to their push state.

Two rows of assignable buttons, each with its own integral LED, finish this section of the front panel. Robert Buettner Epublibre. In most standard mixer controller configurations, you can expect these controls to function as pan pots, and Mute and Solo switches. To this end, it might have been nice if the two rows of buttons had different colour LEDs; the integral LEDs in both rows are red.

The four-digit display indicates the currently selected controller assignment preset — there are 32 on both B-Controls — or edit parameter/parameter value, depending on what you're up to. The display reflects as best it can with four digits on-screen changes in host software, too. Below the display, four buttons labelled 'Encoder Groups' switch the top row of encoders, so that per preset there are actually 32 push encoder assignments, in four banks.