Behringer Bringing Back BCR2000 MIDI Controller As The BCR32, With Built-In Zaquencer Sequencer

Behringer today announced plans to bring back its BCR2000 MIDI controller, but in a more compact format, as the BCR32. 

The BCR2000, along with the BFC2000, was a well-received product in its day. Both of the B-Control MIDI controllers were surprisingly robust for their price points, and demonstrated early on what Behringer could do when they looked beyond knocking off established designs.

The BCR32 renders, above and below, show a much more compact controller than the original that adds four channels of CV/Gate outputs, along with analog sync:

They  also plan to officially include Zaquencer – an alternative firmware that turned the original BCR2000 into a powerful multi-track MIDI controller:

“We’re very excited to announce that we’ve entered into a collaboration with Zaquencer to bring back the highly sought after BCR2000 – however this time with the famous Zaquencer built in.

This is a draft only but we’re excited to start the development after we’ve received your feedback.”

The original Zaquencer sequencer was created by developer Christian Stöcklmeier and released as alternate firmware for the BCR2000. It turned the readily available MIDI controller into a powerful standalone hardware step sequencer.

Here’s a demo of the original Zaquencer in action:

The BCR32 mockups show printed labels for the function of each knob, where the original had a blank label, so the new design looks like it will make a better step sequencer out of the box than the original, but may be more confusing to use as an open-ended MIDI controller.

Pricing and Availability

The Behringer BCR32 is in the development stage, so no release date has been announced, but the company says they plan on pricing it at $149 USD.

41 thoughts on “Behringer Bringing Back BCR2000 MIDI Controller As The BCR32, With Built-In Zaquencer Sequencer”

    2. Yeah, this is the Behringer I can support. Everything about this looks great.

      This is what they can do best: something no one else is making, at a price that would be hard to match. The OLED display looks like a huge upgrade – I hope they can make the knobs touch sensitive so you can see the mapping of any control without having to adjust it. And while I’m wishlisting, I’d love to see high-resolution encoders that feel more like analog pots, rather than the coarse ones you have to turn around three times just to go from 0-100.

      1. FYI with Zaq 1.5, you can see, and not disturb, the current value by moving the knob while holding a button down (can’t remember which one off hand)

  4. I just got a DW-8000 and wanted to score an old BCR2000 to take advantage of all the features in real time. My concern, though, was the footprint of the controller and how it would look sitting on top of the synth. This announcement has me excited, to say the least.

    1. I got a BCR2000 working on a Korg DSS-1. From what I’ve gathered online, the DW-8000 and the DSS-1 share the same DNA. The DSS-1 receives sysex only, so programming the BCR was not super easy, and the knob movements have a tendency to overload the capacity of the buffer, making it freeze up. Might want to look into how that would affect the DW-8000. That said, I mainly use the BCR for a Roland Alpha Juno, which is super simple to program and works like a charm. Really opens the AJ up and transforms it into a whole different animal…I love he BCR2000 for doing that and am super excited to see this update to a very useful tool!

    2. The DW 8000 is a dream machine sound wise but has very poor midi implementation. I have an original BCR2000 mapped to all of my old synths but the only controls available via midi for the DW are things like filter cutoff and volume, maybe tremolo. Maybe if you dig deeper and use nrpns it may be possible. But cc won’t work.

      1. you are probably not aware of this panel, it uses sysex:

        https anlage-e.de/bcrpack-dw-8000

        it maps out most if not all of the dw8000 features including envelopes, lfo, delay feedback and so on

  5. If the firmware/hardware works well, this will certainly sell a lot of units.

    But still, after hiring all those designers and buying up all those companies, for electronic instruments/accessories, they’ve still only really come out with one new design (DeepMind). This is a reboot w/ licensed firmware from a third-party developer.

  6. Does anybody know if the LED lights will change to corresponding mapped parameters of a VST when flicking between presets? Like a nord?

    1. That’s a good question.

      The Novation ZeRO SL Mkii tried to have some of that operability but it was not very successful. I don’t blame Novation for that failure, as I imagine it would be very difficult to pull off.

  7. Bcr2000 is THE ONE good Beh product. Where they did something better than anybody else. Hope the do not botch the usablity, looks awfully small and the knobs have edges. And there is no place to scribble or put your own labels.. anyway, looking forward to it.

  8. Hopefully this is rly a collaboration, and Christian Stöcklmeier “Zaquncer” gets credited!

    The design of the controller is very nice and simple, Having 32 Rotary controllers with led indicators in one block is geil! – synthheads like to turn knobs!

  9. Hopefully the MIDI possibilities are exactly the same as the BCR2000, with the ability to learn Sysex and setting custom ranges for instance. Smart move to group the top row of encoders with the other encoders, I just hope that at least one row also functions as buttons, as does the top row on the BCR2000.

  10. and the encoders arent janky low-res ones since its 2021… Right U L I ? ….right?! midi 3.0 64bit atleast bro!

    1. I’m not sure I understand your point. Unlike a pot, an encoder knob doesn’t have an inherent resolution, it just sends pulses. Even the BCR2000’s knobs allowed full 14-bit range and resolution on the knobs. IIRC, there was some knob ballistics that would throttle change rates based on how fast you turned the knob. If you slow down your turn you get more precision to dial in an exact value– I don’t know if it skipped any values to accomplish that.

  11. I’ve disliked Behringer’s very questionable business practices and idiotic PR stunts in the past but credit to them for making something cool once in a while!

  12. This is just awesome 🙂 I think this firmware was the reason for the good 2nd hand prizes on ebay from the original bcr2000. Clever move from behringer to buy this firmware!

  14. I do think hardware MIDI sequencing is a new area for products. A lot of us hardware users are looking for a machine like Cubase was on the Ataris, so fast and simple but intricate when needed . I hope we see a hardware sequencer soon that enables midi only sequencing with a screen and linear multi track lay out like cubase was. Steinberg do not even answer queries as regards midi only sequencing etc

    1. I’m waiting for an hardware linear sequencer since ages !!!
      Something with a big touch screen, a piano roll, MIDI tracks and midi clips .
      I have an IPad with Cubasis3, but I hate the underlying OS and the “multi purpose” nature of that device.
      I would love a dedicated device, with proper multi MIDI I/O and some hardware button where needed, to speed up editing . Akai MPCs with linear sequencing paradigm would probably be the closest solution

  16. I hope this retains the original ability to store CC values (N/rpn & sysex also?) as presets ,
    to therefore use as STANDALONE PROGRAMMABLE MULTI- controller with hardware ,
    unlike the X-Control range which are fixed assignment controllers only .
    Ideally user can switch to controller mode with Zaquencer still playing .

    I would then be very interested in this product , except for the lingering stench of Corksniffer & Swing
    (no problems with cloning out of copyright synths ) so I would have some self moral handwringing to engage in.

    I contribute this for Behringer to learn , & care not a jot for anyone else’s non-technical judgement on my contribution.

  20. The little display looks like it will be a pretty important improvement over the 4 digit (7-segment) LED of the BCR2000. It will be interesting to see if any of the rows of knobs will be push-encoders. On the original, only the top row was push encoders.

    Looks like the external pedal ins are the same, i.e. two switch ins. I wish all of these control surfaces would include a minimum of 2 pedal switch inputs and 2 expression pedal inputs. Also, would love to see the expression ins would be 14 or 16 bit capable (for alternative control sources like precision pots or force/pressure sensors).

    The BCR2000 had some nice USB MIDI interface options and configurations. I expect that will carry over to to this model as well.

    We can be relatively certain that this device won’t include any MIDI 2.0 compatibility.

  21. “but may be more confusing to use as an open-ended MIDI controller.”

    ….Why? It’s literally just knobs and buttons. It’s even got a better display.

  22. Excellent, This is a goodmove from Behringer. I have a BCR with Zaquencer, it’s my main sequencer, and I’ll definitely be buying one of these

  24. One of the major features the original BCRs had was the ability to listen and store incoming Sysex strings. These were life-savers on many occasions, especially with those few sysex-only synths: the BCR could “listen” to the incoming Sysex from something like a software editor, and then entirely replace the software editor to control the thing. The only downside of the original BCRs for me was its design: while it had a sturdy metal chassis, the thing was neither perfectly square or round, and had those long palm rests and side panels that ate too much desk space. But worked like a tank!

    The only other hardware controller I can remember that had a similar feature was the earlier Novation SL series. Unfortunately, unlike the BCR the Novations could not listen and mimic sysex strings – you had to manually edit them into the machine, and up to a limited number of control digits. The new Novation SLIII is a premium controller in virtually every aspect, expect for its total lack of Sysex control.

    I really hope these new BCRs will bring back Sysex support.

    (I’d appreciate if somebody could point me to other hardware controllers with this feature)

  25. I’m happy to see they did this, but part of me hopes another big company clones it and sells it cheaper to give Behringer a taste of their own medicine.

  28. Since this is a mockup here is a good opportunity to present some suggestions.
    1 – A display 5 times larger; so it is not necessary to use a magnifier;
    there is a lot of space available where there are now logos.
    2 – It happened to someone to confuse some of the 32 presets or not to remember the purpose of some controls.
    It would be enough to provide a free text to be associated with each control and also with the presets; this text acts as a title;
    when operating on a control, the free text + the current value will appear in the large display;
    example: “Attack (frequency Adsr):” 64
    Someone proposed to add small displays nearby each control;
    this proposal is more expensive to the manufacturer and limiting both the size of the fonts and the length of the text.
    3 – further evolution: rgb display and the possibility of connecting not only a text but also its font-color and a background color to each control.
    This permits to group several control by associating a distinct color.

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