To really put a perspective on the wave of new midi control boxes I must make clear my own interest in the devices. Some years ago an arts collective I founded began production of our own midi controller right up and through the prototype and refinement phase, with full intentions of limited manufacturing and marketing to the audio boutique sector. Then came the big boys. The inside word on a Behringer unit was all that it took for us to come to the realisation that the need for DIY was passing. Love or loathe Behringer, they do have a knack for marketing right into the hands of the target user, and at a price in this regard that sounds the death knell for units such as the Phatboy.The basicsIt is with a sense of finality that I pull the unit out of the box. What we’re looking at here is essentially a midi controller with one midi in and two midi outs and the big selling point of 8 motorised faders with 4 virtual banks of operation. Along with the faders there are 8 rotary encoders, knobs basically, that also act as push buttons along with a whole host of assignable buttons and the system control buttons themselves. There are 32 user presets onboard making use of the 4 banks each, thus allowing for some pretty extensive set-up applications… all without getting to the part where we even plug in the USB cable and get serious with soft-synths.Get going while the controllers goodId love to say that it was all action straight out of the box but that is far from the case. A new unit will need a sysex firmware update and new software drivers obtainable from the Behringer website. Most users will also benefit from downloading some templates for their host sequencer and synths. Whilst not a major headache, the need for sysex tinkering might put newcomers off somewhat, but we are talking about an extremely flexible midi controller here so perhaps getting ones hands dirty early on is a good indication of the attitude needed to get the most out of the BCF2000.Whilst Behringer may claim they stand for ease of use on all levels, the BCF2000 is almost too flexible for its own good, and suffers from a well meaning but oddly light manual. Users can define and map any of the controls either on the unit itself, or in their host software. They can choose to stick to CC conventions or happily reassign as they see fit. Early problems users ran into with the motorised faders fighting them for control have now been fixed with the device able to be run in “emulation mode” which essentially pretends to be a logic or Mackie control unit… a rather odd situation but not the first time Behringer has copied Mackie (sorry, I’m trying hard not to slip those jokes in, but old habits die hard!).Setup and beyondMaking use of the Mackie emulation I was blown away by the fader recall, having struggled with Sonar 2XL, until realising that its general interface mode will not send recall data! Sure recall is nothing new under the sun but we are talking about a sub-500 dollar unit here and one with disturbing amounts of flexibility of use. I was a little upset to note that emulation mode disables some of the more unique features of the unit, such as the amusing setup I had created routing a midi footswitch CC through the unit to be transmitted as a midi note, thus creating an extremely cheap foot pedal for playing kick drum.Typical usageControlling the mixer in sequencers is one main use of the unit, and it is here that it excels. Four assignable buttons to the bottom right of the user interface may be assigned as transport controls, namely the typical start, stop, record, return functions. This can be achieved as I mentioned earlier either by setting up the appropriate controls onboard the unit, or else preparing your host to respond to them, which users of Ableton Live may relate to. In terms of soft-synth controls things get a little interesting. Not having any B3 organ emulators I wasn’t able to test the drawbar mode, but mapping the CC’s of soft-synths to faders, buttons and encoders was a short and rewarding experience. Getting past the usual filter/resonance controls having a dedicated control unit such as this opens up some powerful synthesis options. Latching Envelope and LFO depth to the same controller and triggering an arpeggio on/off with a button whilst assigning another rotary encoder to portamento pretty much stole 1 minute in assigning, and another hour of my life in sheer fun as a result.Reaktor and Reason users of course can simply Midi Learn on the fly, but keeping track of such quick assignments becomes a task, thus coming back to templates and a bit of pen and pad action. Using it to control other things is a snap, with the 2 mid out ports able to be run as computer to hardware midi interface or simply for the BCF2000 to control external gear. The 32 presets gives a lot of room to set up control options for your rack-mount sound modules, or in the case of a VJ friend of mine, extensive midi controllers for VJ software such as Resolume. Kicking tires and comparisonsHaving used a number of control interfaces from the top end to the odd, I can quite happily say I would make use of a BCF2000 on a regular basis. In the extended time I’ve had it to review it has already pushed aside my Novation X-Station and home made midi controllers as far as ease of use and hands on aesthetic goes. Further more my old Midisport midi interface is now deeper in the junk draw, and users shouldn’t overlook the BCF2000’s ability as an interface in those regards. With a small footprint no bigger then a notebook computer it could easily squeeze into prime desktop real estate. Fanatical template creators are slowly doing the hard work that goes into fine-tuning it to all software requirements, and the unit itself is flexible as can be. I do reserve some concerns about the lifetime of the motorised faders, and without pulling it apart and tinkering it remains a “time will tell” scenario. The summary type bitFor what its worth I can only summarise with a “it works” emphasis which is about as glowing a recommendation as you can get for a controller unit. The ability to store and edit presets and controller values on the unit itself is its greatest strength over its passive-use competitors, and the surge of user support and templates has lifted it well clear of any early complaints one might find on the net. Suffice to say, this is the leading unit at present for fader midi controllers and very little comes close at this price range, let alone boutique units at far greater expense.Thanks to Musiclab for the extended loan of the unit for review: