FXpansion BFD Eco - Manual (Page 9)

9
2:2 Velocity layers and mic channels
Each velocity layer is a file containing multiple audio channels. These channels are recordings from several sets of microphones. Real drum
recording situations commonly use multiple mic setups in order to capture a variety of different aspects of how the kit sounds within a room.
A kit-piece may sound very different depending on mic placement. Snares sound very different when mic’d from above rather than from below
– a mic placed on top captures the ‘pop’ of the skin being struck, while the crunch and sizzle of the wire-mesh snare is captured underneath.
Meanwhile, mics inside kick drums tend to pick up the ‘snap’ or ‘click’ of the beater strike (this mic is sometimes placed on the beater side). The
main ‘thud’ and low-end power is captured by a mic outside the kick drum (on the side furthest from the drummer).
Drum recording situations also make use of stereo sets of mics to capture the kit as it sounds as a whole within a space. They capture the
projection of the kit and its reflections within the room. BFD Eco features the signals from two sets of these mics, called ambience channels.
Individual directional close mics on various parts of the kit, known as direct channels in BFD Eco, sound very ‘dry’ in comparison.
Mic channel Contents Kicks Snares Toms / Perc Cyms / Hats
Kick In The mic inside the kick Direct Kick In Bleed - -
Kick Out The mic outside the kick Direct Kick Out - - -
Snare Btm The mic under the snare - Direct Snare Bottom Bleed -
Snare Top The mic above the snare - Direct Snare Top - -
Multi Any other direct mic - - Direct signal Direct signal
OH Stereo over-head mic set All kit-pieces feature a stereo OH ambience channel. The ‘amount’ of each kit-piece in the OH channel can be
varied with the
Send OH control in the Channel page.
Room Stereo room mic set All kit-pieces feature a stereo Room ambience channel. The ‘amount’ of each kit-piece in the Room channel can be
varied with the
Send Room control in the Channel page.
Bleed and Direct channels
‘Bleed’ between mics is a phenomenon that always occurs when recording drums with discrete direct mics for each part of the kit. A dedicated
mic for one part of the kit always picks up some sound from other parts of the kit. In BFD Eco, bleed exists only in certain channels, in order to
reduce system resource and RAM usage. It is possible to control the level of bleed in relevant mic channels with the
Bleed control at the bottom-
left of the interface.
Whether you use bleed or not is up to you and your personal preference. It is recommended to use bleed if you want a ‘realistic’ sound, as bleed
always occurs in a multi-mic drum recording. However, if you want to go beyond notions of realism and achieve ‘ideal separation’ for processing
each kit-piece discretely, then turn down the level of the bleed to zero.
Ambience channels (stereo)
The ambience channels allow you to approach mixing in BFD Eco in the same way as an actual recording of a drummer playing a kit. Because
each instrument is played individually, its ambience channels are discrete. However, since this would simply mean too many channels to
conveniently mix, the discrete channels are mixed down to 2 ambience channel ‘buses’ for the OverHead and Room mic positions. However, you
can adjust the amount of each kit-piece in the ambience channels, using its
Send OH and Send Room controls.
2:3 Using expansion packs with BFD Eco
When using expansion packs with BFD Eco, only certain articulations and mic channels can be used (see the tables above). All audio data is
loaded in 16 bit quality with a maximum of 24 velocity layers.