FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module User Manual

Page 81

12:3 BFD audio content

BFD’s high-quality drum content was produced and edited by Steve Duda:

http://www.devine-machine.com/steve

The audio was recorded by Elan Trujillo and Steve Duda at Eldorado Studios, Bur bank,
CA, USA:

http://www.eldoradorecording.com

Drums were provided courtesy of Josh Baldwin and Christopher S. Heuer at Vin tage
Drum Rental, Los Angeles:

http://www.vintagedrumrental.com

Here is a comprehensive breakdown of how each drum was recorded:

Direct signals:

Kick In:

ElectroVoice

Re20

Snare top and bottom: Shure SM57
Kick Out:

Neumann M49

Hihats:

Neumann

KM81

Toms:

Sennheiser

MD421

Cymbals: AKG

451

All the above microphones were recorded through custom modifi ed API preamps. Please
note that the Sennheiser MD421 used to record the toms is actually two mics, one
placed on the top and one on the bottom of the drum. Each part was fed into custom API
preamps, and then summed on an SSL desk.

Overhead set:

2x AKG C-12 recorded through Summit MPC-100A tube preamps.

These were placed 5 feet directly above the kit, with the capsules facing each other, 3 ft.
apart.

Room set:

2x Neumann U87 recorded through Avalon preamps.

They were placed 15 feet back from the bass drum, each at a 45 degree angle from
the kit.

A room set like this is often mixed in mono and set back 10 to 24 dB. It provides a nice
‘fi ller’ for the drum tone, and adds a live room fl avour.

PZM set:

2x Crown PZM microphones at fl oor level recorded through API preamps and Empiri cal
Labs Distressors set at 3:1 compression ratio with a gentle threshold (remov ing 0 to 6dB
depending on drum-hit velocity). This compression stage was added in order to bring
more body and sustain to the PZM recordings.

Their placement was 10 feet back from the bass drum, each at a 45 degree angle from
the kit, forming a right-angle intersecting bass drum trajectory.

PZMs are also good ‘fi ller’ as they capture a good room tone and drum trajectory/stereo
image not captured by the other mics.

Chapter 12: Other information