Author Archives: MacroDX

BCR SysEx support

The BCR2000 SysEx capabilities are hardly covered by the official documentations and tools. I guess nowadays such controllers are mostly intended for use with software, to control DAWs and plugins. But they are equally ideal to control those 80’s to 90’s digital synths, which lack hardware controls but provide parameter setting via SysEx messages.

The BCR2000 is perfectly capable of that, but you have to know how to set it up. You can always use the learn function to assign a SysEx message to a control. If the SysEx message is simple, the BCR will perfectly recognize it. For proper setup however there is a perfect tool out there called BC Manager. It needs a while to get used to the interface, but you can edit and control every aspect of the device with it, send and receive data and manage multiple devices. A must-have for every BCR owner!

If you want more information on the SysEx capabilities of the BCR, check out the resources and links on the Mountain Utilities BCR/BCF page, too.

DW-8000 control via SysEx

The lack of hardware controls on the device can be overcome by using a MIDI controller capable of sending System Exclusive messages. Almost every parameter of the DW-8000 can be controlled via SysEx. Only the MIDI settings themselves and the arpeggiator are excluded.
I am using the Behringer BCR-2000 controller for realtime tweaking. If at all, the only setback is the coarse resolution of the parameters on the DW which does not even make use of the full MIDI value range of 128 steps. But the simple fact that it is fully controllable (other than its little brother, the DW-6000) totally makes it up to me.

KORG DW-8000 controlled by BCR2000 from MacroDX on Vimeo.