FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module Mixing with BFD - Manual (Page 4)

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Mixing with BFD www.fxpansion.com
1. Introduction
This guide is oriented around FXpansion’s BFD acoustic drum software, although much
of it is very useful for all methods of production and mixing. If you don’t own BFD, you
may want to download the demo version from
www.fxpansion.com - working through
this guide alongside BFD plugged into your favourite sequencing/mixing software can be
a very educational and rewarding experience.
1:1. Processed vs unprocessed sounds
BFD’s sounds are unprocessed, in order to give you the utmost flexibility when mixing the
drums to fit your song.
Think about if you booked some expensive studio time and conducted a drum recording
session. Whether you were recording the drums for a particular song, or getting together
a library of drum sounds to use on future projects, would you record the drums with
processing already placed irrevocably in the signal path? The chances are that you
wouldn’t: there’s a very real possibility of other elements in the final mix needing some
parts of the frequency spectrum and dynamic range that you had not accounted for.
If you record the drums in unprocessed form, you will always have the freedom to treat
the drums exactly as required during final mixing. Otherwise, you’d have to try to remove
certain effects of the processing to get things to sit well in a mix. It’s obviously easier to
add these qualities from scratch than to take them away from the drums so that they can
be re-shaped.
Of course, you may choose to record additional processed versions of some channels.
There are parts of the BFD expansion pack range which contain some processing, as a
result of a conscious decision made by the engineers responsible for the sessions. The
main case is 8 Bit Kit. On some channels, certain processing techniques are applied,
which can be used in a variety of ways: mixed in at minimal levels to give a subtle edge,
at higher amounts for more experimental sounds, or muted completely. The methods
used are similar to the ‘re-amping’ techniques described later in this guide.
BFD Deluxe Collection contains a very small amount of subtle processing, although it is
very minimal and nowhere near any degree that would interfere with a mix. In fact, this
collection features a number of recording techniques which make the sounds particularly
suitable for mixing into arrangements with little or no additional processing. For example,
cymbal and hihat direct mics are slightly further back than usual, resulting in less low
frequencies in the recordings. This allows them to sit in the mix well without requiring you
to filter out excessive low frequencies. Also, the inside kick mic is on the beater side of the
front skin, to capture more of the ‘click’ of the beater. Compared to techniques like this,
the processing used is insignificant, and should be considered as adding subtle nuances
to the sound rather than shaping the drums into a limiting pre-processed format.