Feature:
8 faders, 8 nobs, a handfull of buttons. What more could you ask for? Oh, and if you're in an emulation mode there's a layer or two of shift buttons to increase the functionality of that handful of buttons.
Quality:
Seems rugged enough to me. The fit and finish was perfectly fine on the model I got. No blemishes or loose anything. It's made of plastic (like everything these days) so I trust it as much as I trust plastic.
If it was made of steel/hardwood and had a perfect tension ratio when I moved the faders I'd give it a higher rating. For keyboard players, it's like the difference between an inexpensive midi controller and one with weighted keys. You pay a lot for weighted keys. I don't know if competing products have a more satisfying resistance on the faders or not though.
I give it a 7 but this product is totally in line with it's price and I am not worried about it breaking anytime soon.
Value:
I could buy two of these for the price of one Logic Control.
Given the lack of decent documentation I wouldn't pay any more for the BCF2000. But I'm very satisfies with my purchase.
Desirability:
It's par for the course in looking cool. There is no aesthetic value in this piece of hardware. It's not sexy, but it isn't ugly. I wish that it was built in such a way that I could tear it down and mount it in one of my rolling rackunits. Then it would look sexy.
This thing is a practical device that lacks the beauty of a truly austere industrial design but also avoids the gross "alienware" style stupid flourishes of modern plastics design.
Sound:
Not really applicable, this is a midi control surface. The faders are a little noisy, but your audio application will probably have a "mute" feature for the faders because all motorized faders make a little noise. Might be a cool feature to add into the unit for a future revision though, a hardware button that "mutes" the faders moving. Heavy UI thinking would be needed though. Anyway, I digress, the main point is that this thing loses 2 points for making sound at all (but you don't buy this thing for the sound).
Ease of Use:
The documentation is very very foul. But that's par for the course with Behringer. You're buying a relatively inexpensive, feature-laden product. They save their money buy leveraging the global economy and not hiring anyone to make readable/actionable documentation. The web is your best source for how to use this thing.
Support:
Documentation is useless, might as well put in the the WC for better use. It probably makes sense to an engineer somewhere.
With Behringer, you save money on product but lose time in learning how to use the stuff. The good old time/money quandary. There is no free lunch.
I've never used support for Behringer because I assume, based on the quality of the manual, that it would drive me insane to speak to anyone from the company.
Overall:
I will be satisfied with this product until I have a larger studio setup (currently I'm sort of 8-channel-centric with a Firepod into Logic Express, so everything is in banks of 8 with me). At some point maybe I'll get bigger but I doubt it. Maybe I'll get a windfall of cash and try out the Logic Control and find it so much better suited that I buy it. But I doubt it. This device is going to work, just like all the other Behringer stuff I've had.
It's sort of the Wal-Mart effect (and yeah, I don't shop there much either so bear with me). Every time I go to Wal-Mart I never find what I actually want, but I find something that's really close and at a price I can afford. Then that object sits around my house reminding me of Wal-Mart until I can't stand it and go buy the real thing. The only difference is at least the Behringer stuff provides me with tools to keep doing what I want in the meanwhile.
2 of 3 people (66.67%) found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!