FXpansion BFD Jazz & Funk User Manual
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Using the new sounds in BFD
Kits and Kit-Pieces
All Kit-Pieces on all DVDs must be installed in order to use the ready-made Kits. If
you’re only installing a selection of Kit-Pieces, you need to compile your own Kits
from the installed Kit-Pieces, something which takes a matter of seconds in BFD.
A note about the new Hit type articulations
Certain Kit-Pieces feature only some of the possible Hit type articulations, or
feature new types of articulations substituted for the conventional BFD Hit types.
With such a large library, the usefulness of the sound had to be balanced against
the extra resources required. Please consult the Kit-Piece listing in this manual, or
the info text displays in the BFD Kit-Piece Selector panels, for details of each Kit-
Piece’s Hit types and substitutions.
New expressive possibilities
BFD Jazz & Funk Collection features detail levels much higher than the original
BFD library. With a Large installation, snares go up to around 90 velocity layers,
while kicks and toms have around 40-0. Cymbals and hihats vary between
and 40 layers.
Many Kit-Pieces are presented with brush, mallet, rod and hand versions, in
addition to sticks. Some stick versions of snares feature a cross-stick instead
of a sidestick. Meanwhile, brushed snares feature short and long sweeps, as
well as open and closed hits, allowing you to program expressive and accented
brush snare patterns. To overcome long sweeps being cut by the BFD choking
mechanism when another snare Hit type is used, load the brushed snare into an
additional Kit-Piece slot with Hit types available – Toms 4-, Percussion or any
Cymbal slot. The first two Hit types will be loaded into the additional slot, which will
include the ‘long sweep’ Hit type. Use this additional slot for the long sweep Hit,
and use its main Hit to choke the sweep.
Hyper-detailed hihats and cymbals
The hihats in BFD Jazz & Funk Collection feature extra ¼-open and ¾-open
position Hit types, in addition to the usual closed, ½-open and open positions
found in the original BFD library. Also, brushed versions of a couple of the hihats
are included. Ride cymbals include bell Hits where appropriate. The hihats and
cymbals are captured with more velocity layers than those on the original BFD
library (around -40 layers).
Increased RAM overhead
The increased levels of detail in the new sounds cause a significantly higher RAM
overhead compared to the content in the original BFD library. When using smaller
amounts of RAM (78MB to 1GB), you should install BFD Jazz & Funk Collection
with Small or Medium detail levels (see Installation guide for details), or consult
the Performance Tips section in the BFD FAQ for other ways to optimize BFD for
lower memory usage:
Using the BFD mixing and damping functions
When using sounds from the Jazz & Funk Collection, we recommend starting with
the direct and overhead channels, and dialling in subtle amounts of the room and
PZM channels to suit your taste. The same is true of any other BFD library when
approaching jazz and funk sounds, which are traditionally dominated by direct and
overhead mic positions as they sound tighter and more intimate. However, don’t
use these guidelines as a rule! A room-only mix might be even nicer for certain
types of jazz sounds, for example. Do make sure you read the BFD manual fully to
learn about the all the mixing functions. It’s also a good idea to acquaint yourself
with the damping controls in BFD, as they can be essential in getting certain types
of sounds.
Many thanks,
The FXpansion team