FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module Mixing with BFD - Manual (Page 27)

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Mixing with BFD www.fxpansion.com
If you want thunderous toms, use larger ones! Don’t stick to preset conventions on tom
selection. BFD allows you to mix and match toms, so you can assemble custom tom
sets. Two floor toms and a rack tom can be great, even if the floor toms are not from
the same set - once they are EQ’d and compressed in the mix it is very hard to tell that
they’re from different kits. Replacing the high tom with a mid tom can also be very useful,
as many high toms are too small (and therefore high-pitched) for some applications.
Using BFD’s damping controls on the toms is a great alternative to using gates to ‘tame’
the toms. Most of BFD’s toms are recorded undamped to allow maximum flexibility. For
certain types of music, they can last too long in their untreated form. Use large amounts
of damping (over 50%) for funk and other groove-based music, where an excessively
resonant set of toms would take over the mix. The same applies to metal, where the beats
are just too dense to accomodate undamped toms.
As previously noted, try not to hard pan the toms, there aren’t many drummers with arms
1 feet across. Also, toms with lots of low-end (such as floor and large mid toms) usually
sound better when mixed in both speakers.
5:5. Cymbals
Like the hats, it’s very useful to high pass filter the cymbals heavily. Again, it gets rid of
‘gongy’ tones and low-end ‘bark’.
Don’t be afraid to cut too heavily, even all the way up to kHz or more - this is a very
common technique in the context of modern rock or pop production.
Take care when boosting treble on cymbals, as it very easy to overdo it and up with an
cymbal track that is too bright and messy.
It can be good to use more ambience than direct signal with cymbals. Using the
overheads will make cymbals sit in the mix more realistically. However, try and retain a
good amount of the direct channel for rides, as this will help the attack to cut through.