An inexpensive MIDI controller with useful scratch and mixer controls, for DJing, live laptop performance, and VJing? We’ve all been anxious to know whether the BCD2000 delivers. Our resident live visualist gives it a spin (so to speak).

After waiting over a year, I finally have it. The Behringer BCD2000 was announced in January 2005, initially shipped small numbers in August, and then incessantly delayed until finally being delivered worldwide in late April 2006. Considering that the device has been in the wild for over a year there is a surprising lack of information online. Not that it was a nerve-wracking purchase decision at AU$265 street (US$200), but I couldn’t do the usual review harvest before picking it up. I was looking for a midi controller to compliment my BCR2000 and bridge the VJ/DJ divide. I think I may have found it.

I’m currently testing out my new BCD2000 which I picked up as a visuals controller, mostly for the jog wheels. While better controllers such as this or MsPinky makes scratching pre-produced video more intuitive, using scratches to generate visuals makes me much more excited. Enter the hottest new implementation: V-Scratch.

VScratch allows a visual transcription of every elements used for scratch composition.
It transposes all sound nuances made by the rotation of the record : the variations of speed, audio spectrum and volume.
In addition of the sound aspect (volume and frequences),
the physical act of spinning the record back and forth
is transmitted by an usual optical mouse set on the paper,
in the middle of the record.
All these variables are processed with java language, edited in Processing, according to animate a grid.

Check out the videos, perhaps I’m inured to “normal” video playing forwards and backwards rhythmically, but to me this is the best sound visualization ever (via WMMNA).

Previously: Visual Scratch, Scratching Reality Itself, Pioneer DVJ-X1, Neuromixer Pro

The 3D cards that power games are increasingly enabling new interfaces for music, merging the visual and aural realms. One of the most stunning experiments yet is the Fijuu, which just premiered in its second-generation form as a commission for Cybersonica sound art show in London. (Earlier versions have been seen around since 2004.) Fijuu lets visitors sculpt sound, then record the results on tracks, leaving sonic “footprints” as the sound creator describes them. The interface is entirely controlled by a standard PlayStation 2 controller, as shown in this screen grab.

Cybersonica turns a gallery space into an interactive playground, filled with sound art installations that mine the power of fun in art. Curator Chris O’Shea sends this professionally-produced documentation video from the hip Phonica record store in London:

Cybersonica & Encompass Sonic Art Exhibition [YouTube]

Among the delights inside: suspended disco satellites controlled by Korg Kaoss Pads, motion tracking that translates a performer into a shadow puppet monster (complete with roaring sounds), a liquid, fully-3D interface for making music which shall be known at CDM simply as the hotness, a 3D Etch-a-Sketch for sound, an installation with an interface controlled by torn paper, and even a mechanical contraption that samples visitors onto analog tape (it’s not all digital).

Chris is gradually documenting the works on his blog, Pixelsumo. If you’re in London, don’t miss the programs Friday and Saturday, and do file a report so all the rest of us know how it goes!