# Drum and Articulation names as displayed in DAW
**URL:** https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892
**Category:** BFD3
**Created:** [June 17, 2021, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892 "2021-06-17T15:08:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@john\_t](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/john_t)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/1 "2021-06-17T15:08:55Z")
Hi all, just started moving from BFD2 to BFD3. Am mostly using the program in Cakewalk.
Anyway, here’s how the BFD2 drum and articulation names show in Cakewalk’s piano roll view:
As you can see, nice and clear and readable. Doesn’t require any special setting, the names are just automatically passed from BFD.
Here’s the same view using BFD3:
As you can see, bit of an eyeball-jangling madman’s breakfast.
Is there a way to simplify or tidy this text up?
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### Author:  [@Steve63](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/Steve63)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/2 "2021-06-17T15:52:40Z")
Wow!
I’d forgotten all about that.
I kind of agree although I always thought it was a little lacking info in BFD2 but then went to the other extreme in BFD3.
I like to know which tom I’m hitting so high, mid and floor tom naming is better in BFD3.
I also like to see what make of kit piece and size too for cymbals.
Seems like it’s a case of all or nothing.
The key map arrangement is more suited to the way I work in BFD3 with kick at the bottom, then snare, hats, toms, cymbals and percussion at the top but it is nice to not have to extend the piano roll half way across the page to reveal crucial info.
Fellow cakewalk/bandlab user here too.
Steve
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### Author:  [@exBFD\_Drew](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/exBFD_Drew)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/3 "2021-06-17T19:12:49Z")
> [@john\_t](#):
>
> bit of an eyeball-jangling madman’s breakfast.
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
You’re not wrong. I’ll bring this up with the devs.
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### Author:  [@john\_t](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/john_t)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/4 "2021-06-17T19:22:18Z")
Excellent. Would be a really great tweak to have a cleaner view.
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### Author:  [@john\_t](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/john_t)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/5 "2021-06-17T19:24:29Z")
I think the main thing is that the specific kit piece name, with branding and so on, is redundant info here. What you want is just type and articulation. “Snare - drag”, “Hi-hat - half open”. Stuff like that.
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### Author:  [@Steve63](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/Steve63)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/6 "2021-06-17T20:44:40Z")
> [@john\_t](#):
>
> Snare - drag”, “Hi-hat - half open”. Stuff like that.
And named toms, hi, mid and floor, BFD2 didn’t have that and neither did it have proper cymbal names, like crash, splash and ride, articulations aren’t quite enough for toms and cymbals.
Probably too much to ask to have it a user config type thing, so we can choose how much info we want to see.
Steve
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### Author:  [@SoundMILL](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/SoundMILL)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/7 "2021-06-17T21:37:42Z")
I’ve found making a ‘master’ drum map in CxB and ‘aligning’ it with a ‘master’ keymap in BFD to be pretty useful.
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### Author:  [@john\_t](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/john_t)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/8 "2021-06-17T23:36:56Z")
Totally, and I do use those sometimes. But that misses the automatic mapping. I’ve got stuff with different keymaps and not having to manually stay on top of that is really useful.
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### Author:  [@funkybot](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/funkybot)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/9 "2021-06-18T15:09:32Z")
Bless Reaper (and any others) for allowing you to rename and save note names.
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### Author:  [@john\_t](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/john_t)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/10 "2021-06-18T15:13:25Z")
You can do that in Cakewalk too. But it’s not dynamic like the default behaviour. If you update the keymap, or what’s loaded to what slot, in BFD, the changes are automatically reflected in the DAW. That’s a really useful (and I suspect under-noticed) feature.
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### Author:  [@Fender\_Bender](https://forum.bfddrums.com/u/Fender_Bender)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://forum.bfddrums.com/t/drum-and-articulation-names-as-displayed-in-daw/892/11 "2021-06-18T23:23:58Z")
This is one of the many areas where Pro Tools has fallen behind. All I get is a damn piano roll with no naming. Really makes it difficult to find kit pieces on the controller.