FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module Mixing with BFD - Manual (Page 21)

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Mixing with BFD www.fxpansion.com
The functionality of modern DAWs in many ways eclipses what you could do in those
big old-school studios: virtually unlimited tracks and processor instances only limited by
the speed of your CPU, total recall, and so on. Unfortunately, the side-effect is that the
freedom and convenience of computer-based DAWs has spoilt us to such a degree that
many people find it impossible to perform basic tasks like creating a bus-send, or routing
audio out of a multi-channel plugin. It’s also simply no longer acceptable to be afraid of
MIDI - it’s been around for over 5 years, and it’s really very simple once you sit down and
figure out what it does and how you can use it for the benefit of your productions.
You should also learn how to use your EQ and compressor plugins or hardware units. It’s
no good slapping on the processors and flicking through presets until it sounds right. It’s
simply not going to happen.
Be realistic: if you want to get good results: you need to either learn how to operate your
gear, or pay an engineer to come in and operate it for you. In this respect, nothing at all
has changed since the old days.
4:2. EQ
When using EQ, cutting rather than boosting can often lead to the same perception of
the sound, without eating into headroom. This doesn’t always seem desirable, but in the
context of a mix it often works best. It will lead to a cleaner mix - boosting lots of elements
can result in a mess which is more prone to distort.
Another pitfall to avoid is the mistake of constantly EQ-ing in solo mode. Make your EQ
adjustments with the rest of the song’s instruments playing! EQ-ing only makes sense in
the context of the rest of the mix! It’s called ‘equalization’ because you’re making different
elements sit together better by restricting their frequency range if they ‘clash’ with each
other. What might sound great solo’d doesn’t always work in the mix - it can often be
overbearing in the mix context. If you properly EQ elements in context, individual parts
can often appear weak while solo’d. Always remember that not everything has to sound
huge if you want a powerful mix.
One important point to note: close mic’ing a kit for the direct channels generally results
in more bottom-end in the recording than you would hear from the kit in natural listening
conditions. This is due to the proximity effect - the closer you mic something up, the more
low-frequencies will be captured from the source. As mentioned previously, cymbals
and hihats in BFD Deluxe Collection are mic’d from slightly further away than usual, and
therefore may require less treatment to sit well in your mix.
See the section below entitled ‘Approaching each part of the kit’ for more hints on EQ-ing
each part of the kit.