Befaco VCMC is now available !
Befaco has released the VCMC Voltage Controlled MIDI Controller module which takes all your CV modulations, notes and gates and sends it out as MIDI to your DAW, soft-synth or hardware MIDI gear.
It’s a CV-to-MIDI converter. It can take the LFOs, envelopes, notes, rhythms and randomisations from your modular Eurorack system and pump it into software and hardware synthesizers. So you can sequence your synths from your analogue sequencer, or modulate your suite of electric pianos from a Sample & Hold module. Usually the connection between MIDI gear and computers is MIDI-to-CV. You may be using Ableton Live CV Tools to send modulation to your rack, or using the PolyGrid in Bitwig and then having to use a DC Coupled Audio Interface to route the voltage out to the modular. Or you could be using the more common MIDI-to-CV converter module to capture notes from your DAW or notes from a MIDI controller keyboard. This runs the other way round and pulls the computer into your Eurorack workflow – and that’s very exciting.
The VCMC consists of a row of 8 faders, 8 buttons, 8 CV inputs and 8 Gate inputs plus a couple of auxillary inputs. Via a little display and single-knob operated menu system you can specify exactly which MIDI function each fader, button or input is assigned to. They can all be independent so the faders can act purely as MIDI CC controllers while the CV inputs are modulating other parameters. Or you can combine them so that the modulation coming into the CV is being summed or attenuated by the fader. In your software you can map these controls to whatever parameters you like. And it doesn’t have to be CC numbers you can assign it to notes, to velocity and to program change. If it’s the Gates then these can also be start/stop or clock for keeping your software in sync with your Eurorack.
You could take 8 channels of triggers from various modules in your rack and have them trigger the sample drum kits in Kontakt or Ableton Live. You could start sequencing strings and orchestras from your 8-step analogue sequencer modules or get a bit of Turing machine and ratcheting into your piano sounds. It could also be an ingenious way to pump out control to MIDI-controlled video and lighting software. And you can do it all with hardware as well.
The VCMC opens up a whole load of possibilities and can bring in all sorts of textures and sound sources into your rack.
The VCMC is available now for €363 assembled or €242 as a kit.
More information:
Befaco webpage.