Best Control Surface for Ntrack under $400.

NTrack control surface support.

I am wondering which control surfaces N-Track will support. All the vendor sites list refereneces for Pro Tools Free, Cubasis VST and Sonar, but never N-Track. In my opinion N-Track is competitive with many of those choices. I am trying to make a decision on one of the lower priced control surfaces though. I am afraid I will purchase the control surface and it will not work with my favorite audio software, N-Track. I am considering the Tascam 224, Tascam 428 and the JL Cooper CS32 MiniDesk 32-Channel control surfaces. Can you tell me which of these would work best in N-Track (as a control surface, not as a recording device, I have the Seasound Card and Breakout Box for that). Any suggestions on control surfaces under $399? Any help based on experience would be appreciated and welcome.

Hey daddyb1,

I recently purchased the Behringer BCF2000 and I’m loving it. It has eight motorized faders (so the control surface is total recall) and is very flexible. The only problem is that I haven’t tried it with n-Track yet. I’ve only used it with Sonar 3 (works without a hitch). After you update the firmware, it can run in Mackie emulation mode, but I don’t know how helpful that will be. Has anybody tried Mackie emulation with any other CS in n-Track?

With n-Track, you will most likely have to tell whatever control surface you get to learn all of the functions (via MIDI signals), so be prepared for some quality time with the big N :) .

I found the BCF2000 on eBay for right around $200.00US, so it’s quite reasonable, especially considering that you get motorized faders and the flexibility.

I hope this helps!

someone somewhere I am sure has posted that the berry control surface does work with n. might be on the AM forum…

Maaszy

Drummer and maaszy,

Thanks for the quick replys. I will have to check out the Behringer BCF2000. One of the things I thought I was going to be without is the motorized faders. Due to the amount of money I have to spend right now, I did not think I would get motoerized faders on any CS in that price range. So, I am excited about that. Another thing I should mention is that I don’t really need it for the Midi opperations, as I am not educated enough with Midi to use it that way. I just want a control surface to control mostly audio functions, mixing in N-Track. Is the BCF2000 just a midi controller? It looked like it at first, on their website. Hey, if you guys say it works, then that is good enough for me. Motorized faders would be awesome.

N-track has built-in midi control profiles for the Tascam 224/428.

Thanks for the quick replys.
I'm glad that it was at least somewhat helpful :)

I did not think I would get motorized faders on any CS in that price range.
I know what you mean. I felt the same way when I found the BCF. I was like, "Motorized faders for under $500?!"

Another thing I should mention is that I don't really need it for the Midi opperations, as I am not educated enough with Midi to use it that way. I just want a control surface to control mostly audio functions, mixing in N-Track.
I think, perhaps, that you are confused about how a control suface like the BCF works with n-Track. It works by sending MIDI messages to n-Track, just like when you tell MIDI to play a note when you program MIDI sequences. If the CS has motorized faders, it can also receive MIDI messages from the software, thereby activating the faders and causing them to move.

The nice thing about the BCF is that it has a USB port and it uses Microsoft's MIDI device driver, so you most likely won't have to find a driver for it if you have XP. It's also nice because it frees up the MIDI in your interface for things like keyboard controllers, etc, or, if you don't have a MIDI interface, you don't have to go out and buy one to make it work.

Is the BCF2000 just a midi controller? It looked like it at first, on their website. Hey, if you guys say it works, then that is good enough for me. Motorized faders would be awesome.
Yes, the BCF is a MIDI controller, but that doesn't mean that it controls MIDI, it meams that it uses MIDI to control your software.

Does that make sense?

I’ve had the Behringer BCF2000 for about a month now and found everything is completely configurable with n… works perfectly.

I've had the Behringer BCF2000 for about a month now and found everything is completely configurable with n... works perfectly.
There's your answer daddyb1 :)
:) Absolutely perfect answers from all of you! Drummer, your explanation is crystal clear now. I equated the "Midi Controller" to mean it only controls the Midi functions of the software. I completely understand now and that is great news! parkerfly5150, thank you for the "hands on" assurance that it will work with n-Track. philipstaley, the built in profiles for the Tascam products is awesome. The faders and price on the Behringer BCF2000 might beat out the Tascam product. However, I do like Tascam products. I think I will hold out on Tascam until I can afford the 18 18 out firewire solution. Again thanks to all of you for your reply's. You may have just made my year.

n-Track is fully compatible with the Tascam US 428 and 224, and it has
presets configuration for them. Other control surfaces can be manually
configured in the File/Settings/MIDI Control dialog box although not all
functions may work.


Best regards,
Flavio Antonioli.

oh. ok. you confused me for a second… I was like “flavio’s disemobdied (or “disusernamed” I guess) voice? wierd…”

Sorry for the confusion in the previous post. I was posting Flavio’s reply to my inquiry about control surface support in N-Track. :O

I noticed the Mackie Baby HUI looks like a nice package for under $399 also. It has 60 mm Motorized, Touch Sensitive faders and transport controls. The only thing I don’t like about the Behringer BCF2000 is the lack of transport buttons like play, stop, rewind, fast forward. Other than that its great, 100 mm faders too! I have to find out if HUI is support in N-Track now. Thanks to everyone again. :cool:

The only thing I don't like about the Behringer BCF2000 is the lack of transport buttons like play, stop, rewind, fast forward. Other than that its great, 100 mm faders too!
What I did was make up some labels in my computer and fix them to my BCF with tape and it works great for me. You're right, it don't have a "Play" button in the sense that it is a big black button with a big white triangle in the middle, but I don't see that as necessary, especially once you get used to the setup.

I'm definitely holding out for one of those FW-1884's. It looks ideal for my setup (unfortunately, it's not ideal for my budget) and I could expand it up to 128 channels of dedicated control. The US-2400 looks pretty nice also, but it's not expandable like the 1884.

For what it’s worth, I configured the four buttons on the right front section of the BCF2000 to handle play, record, rewind and fast forward. They’ve been very handy for me there. The buttons give you a few choices on how you can rewind/fastfoward as well.

I’m almost tempted to get another one to give me more faders to play with… :D