FXpansion BFD Supplemental - Manual (Page 26)


• Make sure you’re running BFD off a 2nd Drive, not from the system disk, or a drive
which is already streaming audio tracks or samples. Firewire is preferable to USB as it
has its own controller, reducing the load on the CPU.
• RAM is an important consideration, especially with applications like Protools.
Whilst 1 gig is the minimum for best performance I would recommend at least 2 gig.
ProTools is a hungry beast, as is BFD. The same could also be said for other complex
sequencers like Logic, DP and Cubase SX.
• Run BFD in stereo mode, at least while tracking, as it’s lighter on CPU usage. You
can always mix the drums later, perhaps using the freeze function (if your sequencer
has one!) on other instruments, audio tracks with lots of FX etc. The same goes for
ReWire mode... only use it if or when you have to.
• If you’re seeing overloads in BFD try turning on 16 bit mode and reducing the amount
of velocity layers. This is all done from the Options panel. You can also turn off any
hits you don’t need, such as snare flams and drags, fully open hihats, bell hits for
rides if you don’t want them. Most kicks also have a normal and ‘no snare’ hit, either
of which you may not require. Turning off hits saves memory!
• Update your BFD to a newer version - we are constantly refining BFD for all platforms.
•The standalone version of BFD won’t respond to any MIDI input!
On Windows, the standalone BFD sums events from all MIDI in ports in the system.
On Mac, the standalone BFD (
BFD CoreAudio) uses the first device specified in
CoreAudio setup.
If you would like more sophisticated operation of BFD on Mac without a fully-fledged
sequencer, try using one of the following:
Rax (www.grantedsw.com/rax – single channel version is free)
Creed Synthtest (www.manyetas.com/creed/synthtest.html)
• Triggering of grooves isn’t working as expected.
Check the settings in Play Options panel and see that the serrings are correct for what
you want to achieve. Refer to page 45 and section 9:2 of the reference manual to find out
more about the different ways of playing Grooves.
Please also make sure that the Respond to Groove Notes option is enabled in the Play
Options panel.
• Why don’t I have any Percussion to use in the Perc Kit-Piece slot?
The Perc slot is a general purpose slot, provided especially for the extra percussion Kit-
Pieces provided with BFD XFL and 8 Bit Kit. You can load any available Kit-Piece into the
slot by using the Type drop-down menu at the top of the Kit-Piece Selector panel.
Chapter 5: Troubleshooting BFD supplemental manual