The BCD2000 has been somewhat of a contradiction for me since purchase. On one hand the hardware is fantastic; robust and seriously cheap. On the other hand the included software and drivers are absolutely abhorrent, PC only affairs with broken midi implementation. I’ve always hoped that Behringer would update the BCD to have similar (extensive) MIDI configuration options to the BCR and BCF. That hasn’t happened, and almost 2 years after its initial release the BCD is almost in the same position as it started. Almost.

Evinyatar has commented on our early BCD2000 Not Mac Compatible post to announce that he - sick of waiting for Behringer to actually do something useful with their gear - has written and released OSX Universal drivers (MIDI only so far):

My first subject is Behringer’s BCD2000. When it was released about two years ago it was rumored that MacOS X drivers would be released by the end of 2005. Rather than waiting for those to appear (which they probably won’t) I decided to have a go myself. The result is quite good, if I say so myself. It works, which is more than I expected.

Currently only MIDI in and output works. Audio does not. That means you can control Traktor the way you would on a Windows computer, but you won’t hear anything through the BCD2000’s audio ports or record anything trough them. You can still, of course, use other audio outputs, built-in or external, that do work with MacOS X.

Right now the MIDI input and output are should be identical to the Windows driver in B-DJ mode. Which means a reasonable amount of pain is implied when trying to configure Traktor for the BCD2000. Basically, the same hack that works for Windows (using MIDI-Rules and a loopback device, in our case Apple’s built-in IAC) is also required for Mac. I hope to incorporate similar functionality inside the driver in the future, eliminating the need for the hack. For now, this will have to do. A more detailed guide to setting this up will be posted sometime later this week.

CDM’s Lee Sherman has been roving through the massive CES tech show and Macworld Expo over the last two weeks. He files this report on how music (namely, guitar music) is making an impact on consumer gadgets. -Ed.

Guitarists are finally catching up to their keyboard-playing brethren in embracing digital technology due to a spate of recently introduced products, including the RiffWorks guitar jamming software (which includes online collaboration, shown below) and Gibson’s Digital Guitar.

Sometimes the musical instrument industry seems to evolve slowly, but not when it comes to creating wild new guitars. Here’s a quick roundup of just-released technology, the sort of things that get introduced at this week’s NAMM show; hopefully I’ll get up close and personal with these and others on the floor. (See last year’s NAMM Oddities.)

Guitars with optical pickups? Bowed guitars? Weird body-less “frame” electro-acoustics with MIDI? Effects you control with your finger? Why, sure. Read on.

Open Labs’ NeKos are powerful keyboards that pack a full-blown Windows PC, tuned software, and control surfaces into a single musical instrument. They’ve got some heavy-hitting celebrity endorsements, and they’re rugged: one NeKo managed to continue functioning after being being beaten with a baseball bat and set on fire by DJ Richard Devine.

This month, Open Labs unveiled the next-generation NeKo keyboard: sexier looking, more features, and cheaper. Porsche car paint, faster processors (up to a dual core 64-bit AMD CPU), Pro Tools software, and even Borg-like ability to clone your hardware synths and automatically create multisamples. Priced for mortals, too: US$2,295 gets you all the basics, up to US$5,995 for the absolute top-of-the-line. More after the jump.

Gibson has been crowing about a digital Les Paul guitar for a long time. The first I remember reading about it was the breathless January 2004 article in Wired. Their proprietary tech for carrying audio over Ethernet was mysteriously called “Magic.” Sample quote: “Like Sony and Philips with the compact disc 20 years ago, Gibson is making a big bet on Magic, whose success hinges on nothing less than the reinvention of an entire industry.”

Gibson Digital Guitar

The success of the digital Les Paul has turned out not to dependent on reinventing anything, but on Gibson actually shipping the product. Friday at Digital Life Expo here in NYC, they at least provided hands-on experience. (See Gizmodo writeup; more on that in a second.) But the product still isn’t due to ship until early next year, and Gibson has delayed promised ship dates before.

The “Digital Guitar” probably isn’t quite what you think, either. The digital connection out of the guitar has to be converted back to analog before you can use it, because of the way Gibson designed the system . . .

Ars Electronica is one the premiere events of the interactive tech world, and this year was apparently no exception. Good luck deciphering the stream-of-consciousness blog entries on the festival, though; I sure can’t. I’ve tried to pull some of the best references here (via a wiki of weblog action:

Ars Electronica Review [pieceofplastic.com]

Ars Electronica photostream [Flickr]

Tangible interfaces [engadgeted.net], again featuring the ReacTable — see CDM’s musical table roundup

One of the highlights was the Tenori-On, an interactive LED music toy from the creator of Nintendo’s upcoming game ElectroPlankton, as covered here before. But the coolest event sounds like the opening performance “Suspended Engines” (pictured), with video and music live in an engine shop of the Austrian Railway. (Blog details are sketchy, but see Fashionable Technology.) Now, if only they had a train controller for the performance.

Huggable musical orbs? A tabletop music game in which you throw around virtual MIDI balls? Digital windchimes? Installations of giant ears, spheres, and a washing machine you stick your head into?

Playing with sound like this must mean you’re at Cybersonica, London’s massive interactive music + sound technology expo. And CDM was there to — well, okay, I wasn’t there, sadly. Our online friends were, though; here are their full reports:

Chris O’Shea (pixelsumo) reports on digital wind chimes (and presented, too!)

The new MAzine blog, devoted to networked art, reports on giant ears, spheres, swarms, and more

The legendary Near Near Future’s Regine reports on orbs you can hug, virtual balls you can play with, washing machines you can stick your head in, and a keynote on why digital art in 2005 may be a lot like 1734.

Personally, I like playing with balls, be they virtual balls or giant huggable orbs. So, what’s with all these interactive tables? See my previous report on tracking the use of tabletop interfaces. If this one looks familiar, there’s a reason: it’s based on the previous Interactive Surround Sound Cube. I like the idea of tabletop interfaces: maybe soon we can incorporate pool/ping-pong and cupholders, too, features my factory-standard Mac tower lacks.

Not new, but worth mentioning: fREQ
is a project exploring the conversion of drawn waveforms into sound:
visual waveforms control a drone in real-time. You can download a free
mouse and keyboard version (PC only). That's fun, but the installation
version (first shown about a year ago) is cooler: it takes an outline
of the shadow you cast on the waveform projection and turns that into
sound. fREQ is the creation of UK-based art/music/interactive coalition
Squidsoup.

Thanks to Chris O'Shea for the tip, who incidentally has a great blog on interactive technology (physical computing, installations, etc.).

Music is just getting head-y these days, at least at near near future.

Not satisfied with a single brain cap for making music (see earlier on CDM), James Fung at the University of Toronto has hooked up 48 people's EEG brain waves to the computer for some group biofeedback. (near near future story)

Then again, you could just hit someone's head.
(Well, virtual head in this case, though some of us have tried this
with real people, too!) It's called the drum|head (insert groans here).

Meanwhile, you're not giving up your favorite axe just yet, as indicated by the CDM favorite instrument poll.
What we've learned: you prefer keyboards and guitars to brain caps or
even just jamming with your laptop, and you LOVE voting multiple times
to skew poll results. (Speaking of which, that keyboard / guitar debate
is still quite close. Vote early, vote often.)

We've been saying for ages Apple needs to develop a music player for DJs. Jason O'Grady has been saying it for two years. Well, Apple, HP is likely to beat you to the punch:

The owners of the Playlist club
in London (which features a night for iPod DJs just like APT here in
NYC) alerted CDM to an exclusive interview with the team at HP
developing the DJammer handheld DJ device. Here's why it's going to
replace the iPod in clubs:

• Mic input
• Hold/scratch tracks, via sophisticated motion sensors
• More than a DJ device: sounds like a motion-sensitive portable
  sampler; HP says it will be "the new electric guitar" — we'll see, but
  it does look like a real instrument
• Streaming to other devices for collaboration
• HP team wants an open interface

This sounds huge — if the device makes it to market. Let's hope the honchos at HP see the value of this research.

Read Playlist's full interview with HP.
HP DJammer research page