FXpansion BFD2 Manual - Manual (Page 180)

10
12:8 External processing
The following techniques involve knowledge of routing and other functions in your host, and familiarity with other software. Note
that this section is intended as creative advice with the best intentions. Please don’t ask us how to achieve these techniques!
There is a wealth of information available via search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
Artificial reverb
Don’t be afraid to use an artificial reverb, especially on the snares and toms. Using a fake space in addition to, or instead of,
BFD2’s recorded ambience can open up a new world of sounds - engineers often do this with real multitracked drums too! Ex-
tremely short, bright plate reverbs can completely change the nature of the drums. You can also use larger rooms and add bus
compression to achieve huge drum sounds, just like you would do with BFD2’s ambience.
If things are sounding too ‘reverby’ for the mix, try to find a reverb program with a very strong early reflection element, and use
more of this than the main reverb tail itself. This is also great for achieving ‘slapback’ room effects, especially when combined with
pre-delay.
Also, don’t go crazy on the ‘room size’ and ‘reverb time’ parameters - be sensible! Reverbs that are too long simply clutter up the
mix and sound messy.
Pre-delay can be very useful - it can help to seperate the drums from the reverb and keep the mix sounding more defined, instead
of ‘distancing’ the drums to the back of the mix. Pre-delay is the time between the beginning of the dry sound and the beginning of
the reverb. A setting of between 10 and 25 ms can work very well. Extreme settings can produce slapback effects, like when using
the Distance controls for the ambience buses in BFD2’s mixer.
Using mono reverbs can really pin the drums to the centre of the mix and, as described earlier, is a very common production
technique for getting big drum sounds.
Distortion and re-amping
Some distortion or overdrive mixed back in with the dry drum mix, can add dirt, grit and colour to the drums while not killing the
definition and quality of the sound and transients. It’s good to keep some subtlety by mixing distorted signals at low levels, and
heavily EQ-ing these signals so as not to end up with a messy mix.
While you can obviously use the distortion effects available within BFD2, it can be good to think outside the box – try re-amping
the drums for example. Route a channel via an Aux set to its own output to a mic’d up guitar/bass amp or small PA speaker, and
record it back into your host. You could even try some headphones, hi-fi speakers or, if you’re lucky enough to have access to one,
a Leslie rotating speaker for really organic, psychedelic swirling effects.
You can even create your own real analog reverbs by doing this in the garage or whatever other space you can possibly take your
rig!
Noise
Don’t be afraid of noise. At the risk of sounding rather controversial, its presence in a mix can actually make it sound warmer,
more organic and more ‘alive’. A noise-free digital production can risk sounding clinical, flat and lifeless. Recordings always con-
tain some noise, and most commercial productions are also mixed on an analog console through analog processors, a process
which always contributes some noise to the mix. It is a natural, real-world phenomenon and we are used to hearing it!
Try running some channels through some hardware processors instead of hyper-clean plugins, or experiment with bouncing parts
to tape. Even simply running the audio out of a good D/A converter and back in through a good A/D can give your recordings
some colour and bite. There’s somehow something ‘real’ about the sound of electrons whizzing around a circuit, or being written
as magnetic information to tape and read back - you can potentially add more depth and dimension to your sounds when doing
things like this. Another idea is to use noise samples as imported samples in BFD2, and mix them in with the drum sounds while
processing them.
Resampling and re-sequencing
BFD2 is perfect for making your own breakbeats! You can think about it as a soundsource for making your own personalised
breaks by creating good-sounding drum mixes and mixing down patterns to stereo exports. You can then re-process the clips and
use beat-slicing techniques on them, and then use a sampler plugin to re-sequence the slices. This is a common technique in
hip-hop, drum & bass and other breakbeat music. FXpansion’s GURU sample beatbox instrument is an excellent integrated tool
for such purposes. Many sequencing hosts also contain good tools with which to manipulate imported audio – you may prefer
working with chunks of audio than MIDI, using tools like Pro Tools Beat Detective for example.
BFD2’s versatility means you can tailor the sound, pattern, groove and tempo exactly to your needs, and use the Export Groove
Audio function to come up with instant loops to slot into your beat-slicer of choice.