Bc2000 (for the BCF2000 & BCR2000)

klorisk wrote:
> A bit of a pain with programming the BCR for MIDI synths is that you
> have to switch between USB Mode 1 for programming and Standalone Mode
> 1 for testing all the time. Every time you switch to Standalone Mode,
> you have to restart the BC Manager 'cause it 'lost the connection' to
> the BCR. Fortunately there's a menu option that restarts the program.

First of all, this "connection loss" is not BC Manager's fault: it's simply a feature of Windows (at least up to and including XP; I don't really know about Vista or 7): as far as I know, a program's MIDI I/O port configuration cannot change while the program is running. In my experience any MIDI software package suffers from this problem.

More importantly: you DON'T have to switch between U/S-modes for programming and testing: you can route the BC's signals to your synth via BC Manager:

1. On the BCF/BCR, select U-3 (or possibly U-2). (U-3 supports both MIDI OUT A and B; U-2 only MIDI OUT A.)

2. Connect your synth (bidirectionally) to the BCF/BCR's MIDI input socket and to the MIDI output socket of your choice (cf. the U-setting chosen above).

3. Start BC Manager. From the main window's menu, open Options->MIDI devices: (Note: in the procedure below, I haven't specified device NAMES, since these vary, depending on the installed USB MIDI driver. But e.g. if you're using a BCR2000 and the Behringer driver vs. 1.2.1.3, you should typically connect "BCR2000[1]" <=> "BCR2000[1]-A".)

(a) On the "Input" tab, select (highlight) the BC's input control device; then enable it (via the checkbox) and set its "Thru output device" to the BC's MIDI output socket of your choice.
Also select and enable the BC's MIDI input socket, and set its "Thru output device" to the BC's output control device.

(b) On the "Output" tab, enable the BC's output control device and the MIDI output socket of your choice. (Their "Thru input device" settings should already have been taken care of by point (a) above.)

Now the BCF/BCR should be able to talk to BC Manager and the synth simultaneously.

You can test the connection from the BCF/BCR to the synth by checking whether BC Manager's MIDI input and output meters respond when you generate MIDI output on the BC or the synth: in the input and output meter windows, the "LEDs" of the connected input and output devices should light up simultaneously.

Good luck!

   Mark.

As an minor detour from this thread on synths, I had worked out that I could use the U3 setting and connect up my BCF2000 to a Yamaha LS9 digital console to provide some testing options when programming the encoders and faders with BC Manager.

When I was testing the thru function I could make the NRPN and CC (faders and encoders) messages work fine but the sysex messages for the Yamaha Cue (i.e. PFL) functions (on a row of buttons) would not work. I downloaded the settings to the BCF  but they would not work until I reconfigured the BCF to S1.

Am I missing some config option for the thru function?  eg filtering sysex somewhere?  I could see the sysex traffic on the BC Manager midi metering as I expected but the console just would not respond to the Cue control until I set the BCF to S1.

I have to admit to being something of a noob with the BCF (so far only using it to control Protools in the babyHUI mode) and certainly a complete noob with the BC manager, so I could be making a complete fool of myself.

Duncan     

--- In bc2000@yahoogroups.com, "markwinvdb" <markwinvdb@...> wrote:

> More importantly: you DON'T have to switch between U/S-modes for programming and testing: you can route the BC's signals to your synth via BC Manager:
> 
> 1. On the BCF/BCR, select U-3 (or possibly U-2). (U-3 supports both MIDI OUT A and B; U-2 only MIDI OUT A.)
> 
> 2. Connect your synth (bidirectionally) to the BCF/BCR's MIDI input socket and to the MIDI output socket of your choice (cf. the U-setting chosen above).
> 
> 3. Start BC Manager. From the main window's menu, open Options->MIDI devices: (Note: in the procedure below, I haven't specified device NAMES, since these vary, depending on the installed USB MIDI driver. But e.g. if you're using a BCR2000 and the Behringer driver vs. 1.2.1.3, you should typically connect "BCR2000[1]" <=> "BCR2000[1]-A".)
> 
> (a) On the "Input" tab, select (highlight) the BC's input control device; then enable it (via the checkbox) and set its "Thru output device" to the BC's MIDI output socket of your choice.
> Also select and enable the BC's MIDI input socket, and set its "Thru output device" to the BC's output control device.
> 
> (b) On the "Output" tab, enable the BC's output control device and the MIDI output socket of your choice. (Their "Thru input device" settings should already have been taken care of by point (a) above.)
> 
> Now the BCF/BCR should be able to talk to BC Manager and the synth simultaneously.
> 
> You can test the connection from the BCF/BCR to the synth by checking whether BC Manager's MIDI input and output meters respond when you generate MIDI output on the BC or the synth: in the input and output meter windows, the "LEDs" of the connected input and output devices should light up simultaneously.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
>    Mark.
>

--- In bc2000@yahoogroups.com, "duncanfoster" <duncan@...> wrote:
> I had worked out that
> I could use the U3 setting and connect up my BCF2000 to a Yamaha LS9
> digital console to provide some testing options when programming the
> encoders and faders with BC Manager.
> 
> When I was testing the thru function I could make the NRPN and CC
> (faders and encoders) messages work fine but the sysex messages for
> the Yamaha Cue (i.e. PFL) functions (on a row of buttons) would not
> work. I downloaded the settings to the BCF  but they would not work
> until I reconfigured the BCF to S1.
> 
> Am I missing some config option for the thru function?  eg filtering
> sysex somewhere?  I could see the sysex traffic on the BC Manager
> midi metering as I expected but the console just would not respond to
> the Cue control until I set the BCF to S1.

BC Manager's thru function is COMPLETELY passive. All it does is tell Windows to connect a MIDI input device to an output device: Windows then handles all traffic automatically; and no special settings are involved.

The fact that you can indeed see the SysEx traffic in BC Manager's meters seems to confirm that the problem doesn't lie with BC Manager itself.
However, to be even more sure that BC Manager isn't interfering, you might try the generic "MIDI Tools" program (available via http://home.kpn.nl/~f2hmjvandenberg281/miditls.html), which provides exactly the same thru functionality, but doesn't actively communicate with the BCF (or any other MIDI device).

Are we talking about a bidirectional connection between your BCF and LS9, or just a one-way connection from the BCF to the LS9?
One thing to realize is that the BCF's buttons/encoders/faders do not respond to parameter changes sent from the LS9: this only works for CC, NRPN etc.
But SysEx messages sent from the BCF to the LS9 should work - I can't immediately think of a reason why it would be different for S-1 and U-3. (Unless there's something invalid about the SysEx messages themselves (e.g. no final $F7 byte) that causes Windows to modify them in a negative way??)

You can examine all incoming MIDI messages in BC Manager or MIDI Tools via the "MIDI input messages" window. That might tell you if there's something wrong with the actual SysEx messages.

Mark.

Thanks very much for your update.  I don't have access to the LS9 at the moment but will try again in a week or so.   

> BC Manager's thru function is COMPLETELY passive. All it does is tell Windows to connect a MIDI input device to an output device: Windows then handles all traffic automatically; and no special settings are involved.

> The fact that you can indeed see the SysEx traffic in BC Manager's meters seems to confirm that the problem doesn't lie with BC Manager itself.
> However, to be even more sure that BC Manager isn't interfering, you might try the generic "MIDI Tools" program (available via http://home.kpn.nl/~f2hmjvandenberg281/miditls.html), which provides exactly the same thru functionality, but doesn't actively communicate with the BCF (or any other MIDI device).

I think I did try once using the thru function of Midi-OX but can't remember the details clearly as it was at the start of my experiments.
 
> Are we talking about a bidirectional connection between your BCF and LS9, or just a one-way connection from the BCF to the LS9?

Yes this was a bi-directional setup.  I could move the faders on either the LS9 or the BCF and make the other move.

> One thing to realize is that the BCF's buttons/encoders/faders do not respond to parameter changes sent from the LS9: this only works for CC, NRPN etc.

Got that after much reading and a few experiments :-}

> But SysEx messages sent from the BCF to the LS9 should work - I can't immediately think of a reason why it would be different for S-1 and U-3. (Unless there's something invalid about the SysEx messages themselves (e.g. no final $F7 byte) that causes Windows to modify them in a negative way??)
> 
> You can examine all incoming MIDI messages in BC Manager or MIDI Tools via the "MIDI input messages" window. That might tell you if there's something wrong with the actual SysEx messages.
> 
> Mark.
>
Thanks again for your input. I will post one of the sysex strings when I can get to the LS9 again.  

Duncan