Bc2000 (for the BCF2000 & BCR2000)

--- In bc2000@yahoogroups.com, "libraclassic2" <libraclassic2@...> wrote:
> Once I opened up BC Manager in Standard Mode, it was
> able to receive all the info from the BCF!  However, all of my presets
> say "simple mixer" - so am I correct in assuming that I have to
> reupload my presets (I could've sworn I was doing it correctly by
> uploading, pressing "store", using the preset arrows to find the bank
> of choice, and then pressing "store" again, but it appears to not have
> worked).

When the BCF is shipped from the factory, it contains 8 memory presets
(so presets 9-32 are empty): among those, "simple mixer" is preset 2.
So what must have happened is that you copied this preset 2 to all the
other presets...

In any case, to answer your question: yes, you should re-upload any
presets (either Behringer's original ones or your own) that you want
the BCF to contain. Now that you're on friendlier terms with BC
Manager, it's probably easiest to use BC Manager for that: perhaps
it's easiest to do this from the "Presets" window: once a preset is in
place (e.g. having opened its syx file), select (highlight) it, then
go to the MIDI pulldown menu and execute "Send".

By the way: if you wish to restore the original 8 presets (which you
probably don't, but anyway): they're in the file
Factory_Presets_BCF.zip, available from the Behringer website.
 
> QUESTION:  What is a snapshot?  And why would I use that?

It's a facility built into the BCF: it's a sequence of MIDI messages
sent by the BCF, specifying all the current button, encoder and fader
positions. (Typically these are mostly MIDI Control Change messages,
but this depends on your preset definition.) So it's as if you're
physically "touching" all the controls simultaneously.

So a snapshot should not be confused with the BCF preset's DEFINITION,
which is a sequence of complicated SysEx messages and specifies HOW
the preset works, but doesn't give the current, actual positions of
the buttons/encoders/faders.

A snapshot is very useful to save a particular favorite setup of (for
instance) a synthesizer: your computer program capable of receiving
MIDI data (Cubase, Sonar etc.) captures and may save the snapshot
(e.g. as a standard MIDI file), after which you can send it again (to
the synthesizer) at any later time, so that the synthesizer is set
exactly to your favorite setup.

There are several ways to trigger a snapshot.
For instance:

- From the BCF: hold the EDIT button, then press the "< PRESET" button.

- From BC Manager: execute "Receive snapshot" (see the BC Manager
manual, chapter 7, for further details).

- A bit more advanced (and confusing, maybe...): from BC Manager you
can even record a snapshot from the BCF, then put it in a BCF button's
definition and send that button's definition back to the BCF, so that
whenever you press that button on the BCF, the whole snapshot is
output. In this way you could define a BCF preset that is a collection
of synthesizer setups!

It is also possible to have the BCF send a preset's snapshot whenever
you SELECT that preset (e.g. via pressing the PRESET "<" and ">"
buttons): this is a way to ensure immediate synchronization between
the preset's current values and e.g. a synthesizer.
In BC Manager you can set this feature on/off via the "Snapshot"
checkbox on the "Settings" tab in the "Preset" dialog box.

> QUESTION:  What is a Request?  "                                  "?

Ah! From the same dialog box in BC Manager mentioned above:
If "Request" is ON, the BCF automatically sends a preset's "LEARN
output" whenever you select that preset. (If "Request" is OFF, the BCF
only sends this "LEARN output" when you press EDIT + LEARN on the BCF
itself.)

"LEARN output" is a sequence of MIDI messages that you can define for
a preset. You're completely free as to the nature of these MIDI
messages (although the total length is restricted to something like
125 bytes).

I believe that Behringer's original idea was that this "LEARN" data
sent from the BCF should be a request for settings getting sent back
FROM the other device TO the BCF: hence the name "LEARN", i.e. learned
BY tbe BCF. However, that doesn't have to happen: you can use the
"LEARN output" to just initialize a receiving synthesizer or so.

> Ok.  I now have the preset window open and I am loading up my presets,
> using the "import" function.  They are automatically going into preset
> 00, and I am copying them and pasting them into their appropriate
slots.  
> 
> QUESTION:  Is it normal for the .syx file to automatically go into
> preset slot 00?  If so, great!  If not, what should I do to fix that,
> and is my "workaround" alright?

Preset 0 is also known as the "temporary preset".
This preset exists only implicitly on the BCF: whenever a memory
preset (1-32) gets selected, that memory preset gets copied to the
temporary preset area. (In BC Manager preset 0 is EXPLICIT: you can
work with it ALMOST as any other memory preset: I say "almost" because
it has some peculiarities.)

Any manual preset editing on the BCF itself affects only the temporary
preset. That's why the STORE operation exists: STORE copies the
temporary preset to a memory preset; and of course the temporary
preset is lost when you switch to another memory preset, or switch off
the BCF.

Furthermore, it is useful to realize that any uploading of presets to
the BCF (e.g. by BC Manager) goes VIA the temporary preset on the BCF.
What happens when you upload a MEMORY preset (say: preset 6) to the
BCF, is this:
First, the BCF's temporary preset gets overwritten with the preset
data being uploaded.
Then, a "$store 6" command (appended to the data stream sent to the
BCF) tells the BCF to copy the new temporary preset data (i.e. the
preset data that has just been uploaded) to memory preset 6.

Something very similar applies to syx-files for presets: by nature any
preset definition AS SUCH is a definition for the TEMPORARY preset.
The syx-file may or may not contain a $store 1-32 command after the
preset definition as such. So if a preset file doesn't contain a
$store command at the end, BC Manager can only load that preset into
preset 0.

Syx-files saved via BC Manager's "Export selected preset(s)" operation
(from the "Presets" window via "File") DO append the $store command,
but other preset files people have made may not, in which case you
indeed have to copy them to the intended locations manually.

In accordance with the BCF itself, BC Manager's "Import" operation
(from the B-Controls window) always first loads the preset into preset
0, then if the file contains an appended $store N command, that preset
0 is copied to memory preset N.

By the way: if you wish to find out whether a preset syx file contains
a $store command, you could convert the syx file to a "txt" file (in
BC Manager's main window via File -> Convert), then open the txt file
in any text editor (e.g. Notepad), and look for "$store" at the bottom
of the file.

> "These buttons select the 4 different definitions for the 8 push
> encoders: both the "turn" and "push" functions. So in effect it's as
> if you have not 8 push encoders, but 4 x 8 = 32."

> OOOOOH!  Ok, so when i'm in any mode (Standard or Emulation), these
> four groups of encoder presets should correspond nicely to whichever
> preset or emulation mode I bring up?

> QUESTION:  Do I  have to do any special  hand tricks while choosing an
> encoder group?  You know - push this while pressing that, etc., etc.
> Or can I just push an encoder group button and see what it does?  I
> shall also refer to my manual and downloaded .pdf's.

I don't really know about the emulation modes, but for Standard Mode
it works as follows: in EACH of the 32 presets you have FOUR groups of
8 push encoder definitions available. In other words, it's as if you
have 4 mini-presets available within each preset.

So you FIRST select a particular preset, THEN (all within that single
preset!) you can switch between the four encoder groups via the
corresponding buttons on the ENCODER GROUPS panel. So at any
particular moment you can only access the 8 push and 8 turn functions
(of the 8 push encoders) in the currently selected encoder group
(1-4), but by pressing another encoder group button you can switch
directly to another encoder group, without leaving the selected preset.

Note: it depends on the preset how many encoder groups are actually
available: a preset definition have a lower amount of available
encoder groups. E.g. Reason's "native" mode support for the BCF does
this very often. In BC Manager, look at the "Encoder groups" value in
the "Settings" tab of the "Preset" dialog box.

> BC Manager has received data from my BCF2000 regarding my presets (in
> Standard Mode).  
> 
> QUESTION:  However, since BC Manager is largely useless when BCF is in
> Emulation mode - how do I understand what is controlling what?  I
> guess this is where a little experimentation helps?  

I'm afraid I can't help you in concrete terms concerning the emulation
modes, since I've hardly ever used these modes myself, but many other
people on this forum do, so they should be able to help you in this
respect. In any case you should be prepared for "a few" quirks, caused
either by the way the BCF behaves in its emulation modes or by the
expectations made by the hardware or software at the other end of the
MIDI connection.

For finding out which MIDI messages a particular knob on the BCF sends
in any emulation mode, you can always use MIDI Yoke to insert a MIDI
monitoring program like MIDI-OX (or possibly BC Manager, if you use
its "MIDI Thru" capability).

But getting a MIDI controller like the BCF and a receiving device
understand each other is often a struggle, even if you've worked with
MIDI and indeed the BCF/BCR as long as I have. So welcome to the club...

Mark.