Host Automation, I don’t do CC except for a variable hat, that doesn’t have an issue.
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In what sense? I automate the master Dyn so I can control it through my DAW. It’s not a dramatic adjustment, just another way of signalling a little more or a little less.
in what sense is automation “a faff” or in what sense something else?
I should show this anyway, knowledge base stuff.
upon launch, this is what VE Pro7 takes from BFD3.4. You see that some of the names are my names, some are the default names. Once I get it to recognize all my names, I have very useful automation lanes in Cubase. Of my names that it has recognized, #55 is supposed to be “Floor Tom”, not “FLOOR LO”.
The one at bottom of image shouldn’t be “(Kick) Gain”, should be what you see in the image below, mix level of an effect on the cymbal channel “12-Ice”. it turned all the Air FX mix levels into “(Kick) Gain”.
This is after I have coerced it to get the mapping right by deleting and replacing a parameter. Now, it’s mostly right. The “Floor LO”, sadly, is still in #55, so I’m manually ‘learning’ that. 1st try it also got #51 wrong, it was that Air FX level instead of “(Kick) Gain”.
Now, were this the most recent template I was using, the first time I coerce it by that trick will produce the correct outcome. However it isn’t the most recent, there was some slight difference in the ordering, so it needs an extra step or couple of steps in my coercion. The issue is a conflict with the design, mixer slot names it wants to be dogmatic about.
Before I worked with ROLI on this problem, none of this was possible.
like I said, I don’t know I’m not the single person on earth who cares, but this is still buggy.
I worked a while with M.Saletag at VSL to get to where Cubase deals with VE Pro’s automation map as well as he could stand to be bothered by it.
far from perfect but it is usable. some of that appears to be limitations of the other two applications.
before VSL went to v7, a major feature of which is conveying the names to Cubase instead of “Parameter 1” et al, the Cubase automation was much more controllable. So three things had to deal with something new, and it’s probably going to remain status quo like this forever.
I can deal but I’ve had some irritating days with it. I’m trying to conform everything to one large map, but once I start giving useful names that are new (rather than ‘Cymbal 1’) all bets are off.
as to “the same all over”, I’ve seen one, maybe two obscure plugins that VE Pro didn’t catch the real name of a parameter, so no, not really. I do about as extensive automation as this in Kontakt, or in both VSL instruments I use. It’s the hard-wired slot names, for sure.
So as it is adding eg., a cymbal like "Trashformer’ there ad hoc is problematic. VE Pro is confused by this. One strategy is to alter the factory auto map but this has similar issues unfortunately.
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Automatic migration of midi to other toms. E.g. If you recorded or play midi that uses say 4 toms, but then use another pack with just 2, it should auto-route those hits to other Toms.
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Scalable interface w/tabs…e.g mixer window separate from kit selection.
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Studio quality effects and/or plug in your own VST. Your own VST’s can be tricky given the latency and reliability associated with each.
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Simplified interface. The control is BFD is spectacular, but wow is the interface a mess.
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Better recorded expansion packs across different studios for different sounds. Some sounds in BFD1 and BFD2 were pretty questionable (bad/wonky tuning, etc), and packs should be recorded tuned to sound good at the source.
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Hold the outputs consistent between other libraries. It’s a pain when I have everything routed, and want to try another library/kit, and everything resets to the stereo out.
Well, my use of it is pretty minimal. I suppose there are good reasons for more complex setups, but for at the one, maybe two or three parameters, tops, that I automate, it does work pretty easily.
I’d like a free copy please, as part compensation for ruining my life.
In order to be able to continue working on projects following the total ****up of being unable to use the product offline, I have had to:
- Buy another drum sampler plus expansions
- Insert into each project I’m working on
- Build kits, configure output tracks with effects
- Create new MIDI maps
Literally dozens of hours wasted plus the cost of new software.
Beyond incandescent rage.
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I don’t find wanting an automation lane for gain for most of mixer channels in an instrument having said mixer a particularly complicated setup, personally. it demonstrably has issues. Sometimes I automate most of the mixer channels in Synchron Player, always a few of them, or most of what a Kontakt library exposes as host automation parameters to a host. I have to revist those never, I have to attend to this every single launch with my workarounds.
Albeit getting this plugin to convey exact names, ad hoc to the plugin-as-host and then communicating that to a sequencer host, and having that work as the previous situation is apparently technically pretty complicated, and more complicated to Mr Saletag than doing it for the VSL line or more simple plugins. I didn’t have to press him on everything else, although there were bugs in the initial release we sorted.
a significant mismatch of automation between what VE Pro is doing with BFD3 and what I’ve established in Cubase has probably been the sole cause of a number of crashes here, so it’s complicated.
I’m still undecided on using BFD3 inside VE Pro. While I need VE Pro for Kontakt, which really doesn’t get along with ProTools, BFD3 works fine as an AAX.
the thing is here, is that running BFD3 inside Cubase’s process with other stuff happening is going to mean getting less to happen in realtime, substantially. If there’s another way to have it in a separate process, VE Pro as necessity is perhaps a little bit obviated.
the only trouble I experience with it under VE Pro regards this level of automation, which you don’t do. if you’re automating things which match the default ordering of slots and keeping the default names, there is no problem.
well, sometimes I lose an output sounding, but I can blame Cubase for it, or it’s an interaction of all three. Only a show-stopper for like a minute, because my outputs are totally simple and it’s just give “7-8” to another open output pair. There is one type of spike, the application is stuck on panic, that seems unique to this combo, but I don’t know who to blame, again.
please do not do stuff like this, BFD Drums, this is rife for problems and instabilities.
don’t be steinberg and pander, this has been a drum program for drummers all these years.
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I dunno about that. I’m not a drummer and still use BFD. In fact, I’d say I use BFD because Im not a drummer or have access to a drummer I like 
Some form of drum replacement-transient detector would be marvelous, but there are also apps/vsti’s for that already so Im not sure its a feature I’d want the teams resources diverted too if it was gonna be a pain to code.
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Yeah, I’ve gotta chime in a little bit there - BFD is a multi-facted application aimed not just at drummers, but at audio and production engineers, and musicians and songwriters of all stripes. In fact, drummers only represent a small sampling of our userbase based on user research stats I gathered a few years back.
Whilst the user stories for drummers are very important to us, so are the others.
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I’m definitely not a drummer - but I have been using BFD3/2 since around 2011. Sometimes my drummer friends couldn’t believe that the drums in my productions were programmed on a PC and not recorded by drummers. Regarding Steinberg: I’m a Cubase, Dorico and Wavelab user and I experience their products as being very reliable and stable - maybe because I’m a musician (and IT guy) - and not a drummer:-)
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Saying a program for drummers is an affrirmative statement, not there to say only a drummer can exploit it. the point is a new complex part of the application - audio to midi, which is complicated in a program like Cubase which has done for over a decade (drums, really? no) - in order to do something extraordinary it does in no way currently. in the midst of difficulties many are experiencing it struck me as a strange request. No need to do too much with that remark. I reiterate, please BFD don’t do it.
regarding steinberg, which is pandering to other DAW users’ feature requests sticking those in maintenance updates, and implementing bs which disrupts oldtimers muscle memory (double click deletion of notes in Key Editor so now I have to look for Note Expression in rightclick or up in the menu) and in an incomplete implementation of anyway.
I’m definitely not a coder, just a musician, so… think what you will about it
Its not that strange a request, I’d use audio to midi detection feature all the time in BFD, and I’d likely use it on samples way outside its remit As it stands, I just use some other bits of software that do it. Its a bit of tech that has been around for a while, and its not that complex to turn volume into velocity. ATM I do it in Reaper with a gate set to the frequency range of say the kick drum. Being able to feed audio into BFD and letting it try and figure out what drums to add could be a great way to get inspiration.
Whats going on with other DAWs isnt an indication of what goes on with BFD. Looking at BFD1 to now BFD 3.4, and there are multiple features that werent included in BFD1. Change is the only constant
Whats going on with BFD atm is just teething troubles switching companies, its a rather unique set of circumstances that hopefully wont be of relevance to whatever new version and new features we get. I dont think its a thing to consider when discussing our dreams for BFD
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in context, the remark is it struck me as strange because of the transition period we’re undergoing where people are having basic struggles, and I think it’s technologically ambitious. it asks for polyphonic audio-to-midi from drum sounds which are not often very identifiable as pitch. I would be happy to be shown how wrong my imagination of this is, but I like the thing being stable and solid, and I don’t agree with its place in this application particularly.
again, ‘program for drummers’ is an affirmative statement. if it’s taken as exclusionary language, that is interpretative, it’s not my statement at all. There is an attitude behind it, that’s pro-DIY and pro-self agency.