This gain staging thing with virtual drums… oh boy.
Point 1: Velocity (weight). By increasing velocity, you hit the virtual drum harder. Ok.
Point 2: Kit piece trim. This can lower the volume of the kit piece. So you can have a wimpily hit snare sound loud, or a bludgeoned snare sound quiet.
Point 3: Fader. Further adjusts volume, BUT: Fader controls the level AFTER the insert FXs. So if you’re not getting a good level into a compressor or filter or such, it’s better to tweak the kit piece trim, and then reshape the sound from scratch
Point 4: Parallel busses, sends to Amb3 group. You might think you’re getting an awesome sound out of your snare, and then you realize all the goodness was coming off the Amb 3 bus
Let’s not forget articulation trim too, since we can adjust a specific kit piece’s articulation level there, too. And the new Loudness knob.
Ahhhh… While I do wish there was a magic way to simplify all this, I don’t actually want to. It’s complex stuff, but very much needed. Mixing drums (with multiple degrees of freedom as BFD offers) is not easy.
I made a preset for someone on the Facebook page using the stock Mapleworks kit. I haven’t messed around with BFD3’s FX for a couple of years, so it gave me the opportunity to update all my chains. I basically tried to mimic my workflow in Pro Tools using plugins. I’ve always liked this kit. Huge kick and the Bell Brass snare is tops. Bleed is off and there’s a maximizer on the master for volume, so you may want to turn that off.
Edit: I made a few tweaks to try and get it to sit better in the context of a mix. The BFD3 FX are ok, but I definitely get better results when I mix with my effects in the DAW. Still, fun to throw on for fun. Also, this mix with the snare sounds better when the main snare note is the “Hit” artic and not the rimshot, though you can add that in for fills and it will be fine.
Putting my most recent expansions, Sabian Digital Vault and Metal Snares to good use, paired with the Sphere - DW Vibe shells. Tight and punchy with a lot of definition. I’m really digging that Sonor Cast Bronze snare. Probably my favorite in Metal Snares.
brother