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Some things could be better but good enough today
The build quality is excellent. It has a metal chassis. The rotary encoders are precise and do not wobble.
I have found that trying to operate two or more encoders at the same time can cause the processors inside to not be able to keep up with the rotation of the encoders. This is not too much of a problem since they rotate right thru 360 degrees and the leds show you accurately what is the value that the encoder thinks it has.
The user guide is not very well written. It took me a while to get the midi channels set up correctly because the relevant instructions are spread across three separate parts of the guide. It has taken me quite a while to understand how to send midi notes from an external device inwards to the bcr32. The instructions do not cover the topic although everything you need to know is scattered across the guide.
I still haven't quite got to the bottom of how the midi notes are saved into memory with chaining of pages. This is important because the drum notes have to have the right pitch to match the daw or device you are sending to and that is a lengthy process that is lost when you turn off the power, so saving these settings is very helpful. It can be done though.
The software utility can save away the settings but doesn't seem to be able to save the note patterns. There is no backup utility that i can see, just a save project feature, but the bcr32 does support sysex in and out. There is no editor for note patterns, note pitches or velocities.
I have seen on one occasion an error message on the screen of Controller Overload. There was no obvious reason why. I wouldn't have expected what I was doing to overload it.
That's the bad news. The good news is that this is a very good sequencer that I'm happy to recommend.
The nearest rival product that i can see at this price range is the korg sq64 and perhaps the korg sq1 and arturia beatstep. All are excellent products but only the sq64 has the ability to cut and paste patterns on the device and chain them as the bcr32 does. The functionality of the two is quite similar. The roland tr6s has similar functionality too but is double the price. The sq64 has press buttons rather than rotary encoders which makes the editing of patterns easier but the settings of notes harder. Personally i would prefer to rough out the patterns, notes and velocities in a daw then send it down to the bcr32 for fine tuning and a bit of fun too. But i hate using a PC except as a labour saving device which it usually is not. A better option might be to use a keyboard controller or pad to rough out the notes and velocities. Whatever.
With a firmware update, a better user guide and better software utility this will be an excellent product but is good enough today for some serious fun.
I have found that trying to operate two or more encoders at the same time can cause the processors inside to not be able to keep up with the rotation of the encoders. This is not too much of a problem since they rotate right thru 360 degrees and the leds show you accurately what is the value that the encoder thinks it has.
The user guide is not very well written. It took me a while to get the midi channels set up correctly because the relevant instructions are spread across three separate parts of the guide. It has taken me quite a while to understand how to send midi notes from an external device inwards to the bcr32. The instructions do not cover the topic although everything you need to know is scattered across the guide.
I still haven't quite got to the bottom of how the midi notes are saved into memory with chaining of pages. This is important because the drum notes have to have the right pitch to match the daw or device you are sending to and that is a lengthy process that is lost when you turn off the power, so saving these settings is very helpful. It can be done though.
The software utility can save away the settings but doesn't seem to be able to save the note patterns. There is no backup utility that i can see, just a save project feature, but the bcr32 does support sysex in and out. There is no editor for note patterns, note pitches or velocities.
I have seen on one occasion an error message on the screen of Controller Overload. There was no obvious reason why. I wouldn't have expected what I was doing to overload it.
That's the bad news. The good news is that this is a very good sequencer that I'm happy to recommend.
The nearest rival product that i can see at this price range is the korg sq64 and perhaps the korg sq1 and arturia beatstep. All are excellent products but only the sq64 has the ability to cut and paste patterns on the device and chain them as the bcr32 does. The functionality of the two is quite similar. The roland tr6s has similar functionality too but is double the price. The sq64 has press buttons rather than rotary encoders which makes the editing of patterns easier but the settings of notes harder. Personally i would prefer to rough out the patterns, notes and velocities in a daw then send it down to the bcr32 for fine tuning and a bit of fun too. But i hate using a PC except as a labour saving device which it usually is not. A better option might be to use a keyboard controller or pad to rough out the notes and velocities. Whatever.
With a firmware update, a better user guide and better software utility this will be an excellent product but is good enough today for some serious fun.
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