The Yamaha BC2 MIDI Breath Controller is a sleek black device designed for electronic keyboards. Made in Japan, this controller features MIDI capabilities for controlling volume, pitch, and expression, making it perfect for live performances. With its advanced pressure and expression controls, musicians can easily add dynamic elements to their performances, creating a more expressive and engaging musical experience for their audience. Ideal for saxophonists looking to incorporate live expression and pitch bend effects into their music, the Yamaha BC2 MIDI Breath Controller offers versatility and precision in one compact package.
I used this with my national jingle company producing realistic saxophone and wind instrument expression! Can also map for pitch bend volume and vibrato.
This MIDI breath controller sends a continuous control change (CC) message to your synthesizer, DAW, or other MIDI‑enabled device, representing the pressure of air you blow into it. The value it sends is a 14‑bit number in the range 0x0000 to 0x3FFF (0 to 16,383 in decimal) midi.teragonaudio.com.
How the value works
0x0000 (0) = minimum breath pressure (softest breath)
0x3FFF (16,383) = maximum breath pressure (strongest breath)
The controller can be set to send coarse (2) and fine (34) breath controller messages, which together give 14‑bit resolution midi.teragonaudio.com.
Common MIDI CC assignment
By default, MIDI breath controller messages are sent on CC2 (coarse) and CC34 (fine) midi.teragonaudio.com+1.
CC2 = coarse breath controller (0–127 in 7‑bit form, but internally mapped to 0–16,383)
CC34 = fine breath controller (0–127 in 7‑bit form, but internally mapped to 0–16,383)
Some devices may map these to Aftertouch or other modulation parameters, so check your synth’s manual.
Practical use
In live performance, you can map breath pressure to volume, expression, pitch bend, or other parameters.
In DAWs, you can route the breath controller to control effects, reverb, or even note velocity.
Many controllers (like Mrtaudio or TEControl) let you adjust minimum/maximum input/output ranges and sensitivity curves, so you can fine‑tune the breath pressure to your preferred MIDI value range.
If you're using a sequencer like Logic that gives you a MIDI controller display, just keep moving it up and down until you get a smooth 0-127 (or so) range