What have you made with BFD?

BFD3 General Discussion
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Mystical Steps - Dave Johnson

This is a track I’m working on, for possibly using in stock music libraries that I’m looking to get into. This kit is mainly the Mapleworks Custom, but I swapped for the Tama Bell Brass snare. I also used some Slate stuff… a kick, 2 snares and room and blended to add some more oomph, but the bulk of the tone is coming from BFD3. This is all mixed and processed in my DAW. I really like the kick in the Mapleworks and I thought that Tama snare worked the best for this track.

It’s pretty basic, in terms of the MIDI programming for me, but I wanted to keep it short and simple. I didn’t even use any toms, or cymbals, except for the hats. After some feedback, it’s probably a little too short in length for stock music libraries, so I’m gonna go back and add some things. Now I have an excuse to use the toms and cymbals. Those toms too… this is a really great sounding kit.

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hey there,
I did a few things inside bfd before I used it for myself.
there’s that preset called BFD funk polished 110 Bpm TK, that I made wheen I was working on the beta, then this demo that was the first audio one I think.

I made video demos for crush and oblivion expansions (no available anymore since I endorse an other guitar compagny.

and everything I do, including official videos for ibanez guitars is made with BFD.

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I really hope i’ll have a chance to work in BFD4 !!!

sorry for posting 3 times, as a new member I could not post more that one link per post.
as I’m just ordered the new mac mini, I was browsing the forum about M1 compatibily and whe I saw this post I wanted to share.

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Nice job! always like that song and you did great.

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This is the first track I used BFD3 on since I came back on board last year. This has the Horsepower expansion with some Steven Slate Drums blended in, like my other track above. I think I used an SSL channel strip for the basic tone sculpting of the kit. I really dig how these drums turned out, the snare especially. I got some nice heft and snap out of it. I went back to the mix to re-tune the kick to play better with the bass, but that’s in limbo, so this is what I’ve got for now.

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Drums sound great! Production sounds great too! Very impressive stuff. Are the drums all programmed or played live? Sounds a bit too ‘on the grid’ for my liking, but thats so subjective I may as well have not even said anything :slight_smile:

Impressive work!

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@maximumdembo Thanks mate (I think you’re replying to me? :thinking:). Yeah, it’s all programmed by hand. I use a shitty little M-Audio controller and go in and do a lot of manual editing, as it’s nearly impossible for me to get velocities right just from triggering. When I quantize, I offset the notes to the grid a little bit (3-5 ticks), but I’ve found if you go too off the grid, it just gets messy. If you have any tips in that regard, I’d be interested in hearing them.

I’m looking at getting a cheap eKit to play my parts. It’s just too tedious doing it by hand and it takes me forever. Maybe that will yield more natural sounding results? Plus, I’ve always loved playing the drums, so that would be fun actually playing BFD3 kits live.

I’ve definitely gotten deeper into music production and engineering in recent years. I just try and apply all the tricks I’ve learned and incorporate them into my sessions. Thanks again for listening and your feedback. You’ve got some pretty wild uploads yourself dude. Kinda reminds me of Freakshow Industries plugins.

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I was replying to you, FB, sometimes the reply button here doesnt tag the person I’m replying too! :slight_smile:

Yeah, Im with you in drum programming terms. Its a ballache. Similarly, that quantizing thing I do too, but then I have a horrible tendency to do what a real drummer would do but doing manually, note by note, midi date point by midi data point, instead of actually playing it, and its a silly complicated method I find. It gets a real feel going sometimes, and it locks the bass and drums but having to pay attention to each parts feel in such detail is time consuming and project destroying.One thing I try and do is urgent or laidback, before the grid or after the grid.

After years of doing this (public results arent great as I give up a lot because its too bogged down in minutiae) I can kinda hear when things are getting a bit robotic, compared to the groove of a real drummer, but my hearing is more on it than my eyes and hands in actually doing a project :smiley:

And similarly, while I dont play drums, I have been considering ways around doing the programming by hand, and I think some sort of small e-kit part is my conclusion too. I thnk for me it might be the KMI BopPad as a solution. Even finger drumming, nothing is the same as a stick and gravity for ‘real’ live type playing.

Its so tiring hand programming tiny drum rolls and fills to sound just like a drummer would hit the skins. And Im not a drummer, and dont really understand the first thing about fills and timing etc so its even more confusing for me :slight_smile:

Anyway, the track sounded great! I will def listen to more.

Totally off topic from that conversation, I made a video for the track I posted above. All AI generated art… This is, yet again, another one where I got bogged down in drum programming and gave up/abandoned it :slight_smile:

EDIT: Also, hiring a drummer online, thats something I’ve done before to get round all this programming. I then got bogged down in re-creating his drums in BFD… and got stuck again :slight_smile:

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I’m not sure of the ettiquete of a staff member posting their stuff?? But I’m egotistical enough to do it.

Loads of BFD3 all over my bands stuff.

This is our latest album:

Most of the drums are the raw acoustic tracks recorded in the old FXpansion studio - which we built to record expansion packs. We did Crush, VRT, Horsepower, Jazz Noir, Wooden Snares, and Metal Snares in that space.

The album has some snare layering going on, using one of the Metal Snares iirc; probably the Sonor as that is my JAAAAAMMMMMM.

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I’ll allow it, this time :slight_smile:

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So Drew, I gather from your profile pic that you play guitar, but do you also play the drums… you must? I feel like I’ve seen your face in some of the old Fx promo videos?

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Yeah, I play drums, bass, guitar, keys, bit of vocals here and there. Audio engineering and some video work too when I get a chance!

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Nice, same here. When all else fails, do it yourself tends to work out ok.

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Nice track.
Did you master that with Landr?

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Thanks @Lee. No, I mixed and mastered it myself. I never tried any of those online mastering platforms. Been meaning to… I had a couple free offers that I slept on. I like trying to learn about how to master properly anyways. A lot of what might be considered mastering, I tend to do on the 2-Bus, towards the end of a mix. So when it gets to actually bring the track up to commercial volume, most of the work is done. I’ll normally just go into a mastering compressor, clipping, some final eq moves and into the limiter for the mastering stage.

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Ah ok, well you’ve done a great job.
There’s a particular characteristic I hear in the “punch” of the drums with stuff I master in Landr and I hear it in this track. That’s a good thing, their system is as good as online mastering gets.

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Thanks. I’ve figured out that getting good low-end punch has a lot to do with the kick/bass guitar relationship, as far as frequencies and volume. A little parallel compression never hurt either. I did mix those drums using the SSL E console, so that’s definitely pretty punchy. I mix using headphones only, so it makes getting the low end that much harder. Horsepower is a fantastic kit out of the box, so most of the dirty work is done. Hehe

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Sir, if I’m right you did the funk polished preset that is available on BFD3 ?

I’m must say it is one of the two reasons I got BFD, alongside the oblivion expansion. Loved your preset sound.
Also, the snare in your first video is incredible, what a “smack” !!

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thank you !
I had a blast discovering BFD3 and PT11, both betas, the same night ! that was epic ! :star_struck: