Chromatrol for Behringer B-Control
By Matt Thomas [21010021]See also BCR2000 Programmer Overlays, June 2014, for a refined design by Jamie Downing of synthgraphics.com.
The Chromatrol is a Behringer B-Control with my own custom Chroma trim. The BCR presets and the panel graphics are available here for any other BCR users out there who might like to try it.
I now realize I should have used semi-gloss photo paper — because that's all the front panel overlay is. It's a thick-card gloss photo paper, cut out by me with scissors and stanley knife. Total cost about 20 pence. I designed the graphics in Photoshop, stealing liberally from the Chroma website and parameter chart.
Layered Photoshop files of the above images:
- BCHR2000top.psd, 991K
- BCHR2000.psd, 2.9MB
The wooden end cheeks were pretty simple to make; I simply unscrewed the BCR2000's plastic end cheeks, held one end against a piece of paper and then drew around it. That gave me the necessary minimum size, then I just drew a more angular/square shape around it that looked more like a Chroma end cheek. One of the nice coincidences is that the depth of the BCR and the depth of the Chroma's flat top panel were a pretty perfect match.
I cut out my shape and took it to a nearby sawmill that makes furniture, staircases etc., and asked them to cut me two pieces of wood from my template, the same thickness as the Chroma end cheek. The guy who did it told me it was the smallest job they'd ever taken on :) They only had oak, so I took oak. Total cost about £16. I'll try and find my end-cheek template and mail it to Chris for inclusion on this page.
Varnishing: I bought a golden oak and a cherry red. Total cost about £10. Made a total guess mix in a Tupperware box (so I could keep it without it drying out) and tested it on what would eventually be the hidden side of the cheek. Let it dry, added some more red, tested again and decided that that was close enough for jazz. Put three coats of varnish on over a few evenings. End result was too red so added another layer of just golden oak.
I had to take a hacksaw to the edge of the BCR as there is a small plastic lip protruding about 2 or 3 millimetres along the edge when the original end cheek is removed. Then it was time to screw the wood to the BCR. I'm sure there is a sane and sensible method for working out where to drill in wood so that it lines up perfectly with screw holes beneath - but I don't know it. Let's just say you don't want to see the hidden sides of my wooden end cheeks.
So that was it. With the cost of the BCR and the materials it was about £140 and a lot of little bits of evenings scattered over about six months (I get easily distracted). Having used it on and off now for several weeks I don't think that it's necessarily the perfect solution but it's probably the best for the price. The degree to which it opens up the Chroma is staggering.
Behringer Templates for the Chroma
The following files are Behringer B-Control templates for the Chroma.
On Mac OS X, you can use Sysex Librarian to load the files into the B-Control. A generic PC Sysex librarian should work for Windows users. 