FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module Mixing with BFD - Manual (Page 16)

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Mixing with BFD www.fxpansion.com
It can also be useful not to go overboard on panning toms and cymbals. The default pan
positions in BFD are to match up with the positions in the overheads. However, you don’t
necessarily have to stick to these. Again, ambience channels can be good in mono, and
reducing the stereo spread can give the drums more impact.
When dealing with stereo ambience channels, remember that the position of the different
parts of the kit are ‘hard-coded’ into the stereo image of the ambience channels. This is
an unavoidable limitation of having stereo ambience channels. However, the ambience
channels for any Kit-Piece can be flipped: for example, if you move the direct cymbal
signal to the other side of the stereo image, you can flip the ambience to match. Crash
cymbals tend to positioned on the right of the kit, rides to the left, and splashes in the
centre.
The ‘Drummer perspective’ option in the BFD Options panel flips all pan settings globally
to reflect the drummer’s perspective sitting at the kit, or back to the engineers in the
control room watching from the other side. Which perspective you should use is entirely
up to you.
When dealing with panning techniques, remember that your music may have to be played
in mono at some stage - for instance, on a cheap portable radio or on a mono club or
PA system. Complex panning can often render a mono mix meaningless. Always try and
check your mixes in mono!
3:5. Phase
• Phase differences between mics
BFD has separate mic channels for inside and outside and kick and above and below the
snare. As well as controls for blending these signals, there is a phase switch for each pair
of these mic channels. Phase can be an issue when using multiple microphones because
the sound from each part of the kit arrives at each mic at slightly different times. While this
is unavoidable, these slight phase differences contribute to the overall recorded sound of
the kit.
It is nevertheless important to be aware that phase can sometimes be a problem. The
main case in point is the snare mic channels: the top mic is pointing down towards the
skin, while the bottom mic is pointing up towards the underside of the drum. This means
that when the drum is hit the skin moves towards one mic and away from the other,
effectively making the two signals out of phase with each other. However, the drum acts
as a natural shield and the cancellation is not that bad, although sometimes it can make
the drum sound a bit hollow at times.
The phase for the mics was inverted during the recording sessions whenever cancellation
created a problem. In other words, BFD’s sounds are in phase. However, phase inversion
buttons are provided for both the kick and snare mic channels. Using these phase-flip
buttons will result in more cancellation of the fundamental frequencies (usually the lowest
frequencies) and hence result in less ‘pitch’ and more ‘tone’. It can be a nice effect,
although you will notice it more on some snares than others.