FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module Mixing with BFD User Manual
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Mixing with BFD
you’re going for extreme compression effects, a zero-attack, totally squished sound may
be exactly what you want. It might be especially useful when using parallel compression
techniques (see below).
• Release
Setting the release time to follow the natural decay of the drum will achieve the most
natural-sounding response. Very long release times will tend to ‘level out’ the dynamics
completely, as the compressor doesnt have long enough to recover between hits. Again,
this may be what you want if you’re going for extreme effects. Very short release times
coupled with a long-ish attack will give you a classic ‘pumping’ compressor sound.
• Ratio and Threshold
The ratio controls how much compression (gain reduction) occurs once the threshold has
been exceeded. If the ratio is set to 1:1, no compression will occur no matter how low the
threshold is set.
With the ratio set to :1, if the input signal goes dB above the threshold, the output will
only go 1 dB over the threshold. Higher ratios like 3:1, 4:1 and so on will result in more
gain reduction.
The interaction between the threshold of compression and the ratio is very important.
Play with these controls to see how you can really shape the sound of the drums. For
example, a low threshold and high ratio will cause the compressor to ‘slam down’ on the
drums more so than the other way round.
Take some time to learn how these controls interact. Every compressor has a different
character and response. It’s important to get to know the ‘feel’ of each compressor you
have at your disposal, especially in this age of affordable and diverse plugins. Having
a suite of compressors with no real knowledge of how they react is less beneficial than
being able to skilfully use one type of compressor.
Compressors are often switchable response between ‘peak’ and ‘RMS’ detection modes
- these both sound quite different to each other and respond differently to the input signal.
A peak response only detects the very loudest parts of the signal. When set to RMS, the
detection system uses the ‘average’ level of the signal to drive the compressor. This is
often more musically useful.
Unless you want to heavily overcompress your drums for creative reasons, 3-6 dB of
compression is usually MORE than enough! Remember that you want to make your
drums sit well in the mix, not to showcase your compressor unit.
• Knees
Some compressors have adjustable ‘knees’. This initially sounds odd but it is in fact a
term used to describe the shape of the compression response curve. A hard knee shape
is a lot more aggressive than a soft knee shape once the threshold has been reached. A
limiter is an example of a compressor with a very hard knee and an infinite ratio.