Synthesist Gary P Hayes shared this Berlin School style synth jam, Morphogenesis.
The jam is performed with Zaquencer – an unofficial firmware for the Behringer BCR2000 that turns it into a multi-channel step sequencer. Behringer has previously announced to bring back the BCR2000 in compact form – and to include Zaquencer as a factory option.
Here’s what Hayes shared about the technical details:
“The 4 track Zaquencer….is great for on the fly changes to step pitch (and whole track pitch), the wonderful step skip and mute, chords and inversions, ratchets, track step speed & polymetric / rhythm, various midi ctrls per step (2 separate ones) and a lot more.
Here I try a few of these an hour after getting it plugged in – 3 tracks into my bARP (doing 3 oscs, noise and 2 sustains), FM2 doing tuned perc and the Roland S1 doing analog synth things.
An obvious influence in many places to minimalism, but really a great exercise for me to learn how to best use the Zaq.”
Behringer BCR-32… please release soon! 🙁
It’s a shame Behringer never released the BCR2000 reissue they were talking about a few years back. They release all these remakes of others but abandoned the idea of remaking one of their own products.
I want Arturia to release one as the ACR3000 , and post lots of craven social media quotes like : “thank you so much Jeff Arturia for being so amazing and letting me make music like I always dreamed of on this innovative device!!
impressive set!
yep i was waiting for the bcr mk2 too.
i owned the bcr2000 (size of the thing was enormous!) with the zaq sequencer payed firmware. it was fun but a bit confusing to me, maybe as it still is an afterthought. i was too cheep to pay for the pricey official overlay so the unit became quite messy with my printed out papers taped on to it.
a new bcr would be good but oxi has a great small offering. with extra option like snapshots. but it s another price as its a small company etc.
back then it was on of the few midi controllers but by now there are many alternatives.
source: ai Brave browser:
the Behringer BCR 32 with Zaguencer has not been released yet, but there has been recent progress.
In July 2024, Behringer confirmed that the BCR32 — a modern reimagining of the BCR2000 with built-in Zaquencer firmware — has entered external beta testing and is moving toward production. This suggests a release could happen in 2025 or 2026.
Key details:
Name: BCR32
Collaboration: Officially with ZAQ Audio, developer of Zaquencer
Features: 32 encoder knobs with LED halos, 4 CV/Gate outputs, 32-step sequencing
Price target: $149 USD
Status: Beta testing phase as of mid-2024, no official release date yet
While the original BCR2000 was a blank-slate MIDI controller, the BCR32 is designed from the ground up as a dedicated hardware sequencer with full Zaquencer integration.
imagine if they would implement snapshots. functionality for the midi contoler side…
Perhaps a larger (and color) display, along with more advanced control management, is the biggest flaw of the old BCR2000.
If each control could be assigned a tool tip, which would then be displayed on the display when it was used, it would be unnecessary to print out the description of each control on paper.
Yes sure and motorised faders and snapshots but there are products like that if you want to pay the price. Bcr goes for the lower segment market. I think b- name has learned that the people got sick of the teasing it seems they announce things in a ready state lately so who knows but i need one now. Zaquencer is fun.