WHATS NEW IN BFD 1.5 ?

2005 FXpansion Audio UK Ltd. BFD has developed substantially since version 1.0. There were many features added towards the end of the 1.0.x development cycle which were not previously covered in the last version of the manual (that suppllied with BFD v1.0.10.21). These are also covered in this chapter, so for those of you who have been familiar with BFD for a while may notice them here. Where appropriate, relevant sections in the reference manual are indicated. A note about the new manual The manual has been re-written and re-structured. The host quickstarts, troubleshooting and tutorial elements of the 1.0 manual can now be found in the supplemental PDF, found on the BFD 1.5 DVD or in the 1.5 update.

GENERAL OPERATION
New improved user interface. The user interface has been improved graphically, and has had numerous additional panels and modifications to existing panels in order to accomodate the new features. HTML Help buttons There are context-sensitive HTML Help buttons in relevant parts of the interface. These launch an HTML document in your browser. Processor optimizations The diskstreaming and core playback engines are now heavily optimized for Altivec and SSE instructions.

LOADING KITS AND KIT-PIECES (ref. manual chapter 4)

18 Kit-Piece slots There are now 18 Kit-Piece slots, with the extra 9 slots residing on a second Mixer Page. You can now load a 2nd kick and snare, a percussion Kit-Piece, and another 3 toms and cymbals. View and Sort options in the Kit and Kit-Piece Selectors Adjustable viewing and sorting configuration in Kit and Kit-Piece Selectors, using the View and Sort drop-down menus.

What's new in BFD 1.5 ?

Ability to load any type of Kit-Piece into any Kit-Piece slot Any type of Kit-Piece can now be loaded into any slot using the Type drop-down menu, including the ability to compile a custom tom set out of all available toms, rather than being limited to the pre-assembled tom sets. Kit and Program name Editable text-boxes for naming the current Kit and Program.

MIXING IN BFD (ref. manual chapter 5)

Control ganging shorcuts Keyboard shortcuts for ganging mixer controls. See page 20 of the reference manual for a full list. Mixer MIDI Learn The Mixer MIDI Learn function on the main BFD interface is very convenient for mapping multiple Mixer controls to MIDI controllers (see ref. manual section 11:1). Mixer reset Mixer reset function moved to the left of the Bounce button at the bottom of the BFD interface. Clicking resets to the settings contained within default.bfm [SHIFT]-clicking resets to factory defaults.

KIT-PIECE INSPECTOR (ref. manual chapter 6)

The Kit-Piece Inspector replaces the previous Kit Overview when clicking on the Drum Room display above the BFD Mixer. There is no longer a view where you can view all KitPiece slots at once with the ability to delete the contained Kit-Pieces. With 18 Kit-Pieces, it is more problematic to display the whole Kit. However, one Kit-Piece at a time can be removed from the current Kit using the Kit-Piece Inspector, which also offers some great new features: Virtual damping The damping controls allow you to shorten the decay of Kit-Pieces. It is similar to using an envelope, except that there is an adjustable crossover filter for the damping of the ambience channels. The crossover filter allows filters above the crossover frequency to pass through without damping. This leads to a more realistic-sounding damping effect. Link to Kit-Piece This drop-down menu allows you to link the two Kit-Piece slots together to layer KitPieces.

What's new in BFD 1.5 ?

Flip mic stereo field This option causes the ambience channels for the Kit-Piece to be reversed: this can be very helpful when panning individual Kit-Pieces direct channels from the default positions.

HIT OPTIONS PANEL (ref. manual chapter 7)

The Hit Options panel has had a major overhaul, and is now packed with new possibilities. There are now 4 tabs in this panel, each of which offer unique functionality. Page 1 and Page 2 tabs (ref. manual sections 7:2 and 7:3) These tabs allow you to assign Kit-Piece Hit types to notes. You are limited to assigning one note to each Hit type using this method. The Page 1 tab offers numerous extra controls for adjusting how the hihat is controlled, which are very useful when playing BFD with an electronic drumkit (ref. manual pages 32-33). A quick summary of the new features:
Variable tip and shank Hit types You can now use dual-zone hihat pads on e-drum systems. All hihats variable option Allows any hihat Hit type to act as a variable tip or shank, playing a hihat position Hit type depending on the value of the hihat pedal position MIDI CC. Hihat pedal position define slider This control. a slider with 4 markers, allows you to define hihat position zones in relation to hihat pedal position MIDI CC values. Auto splash event When this option is enabled, BFD plays a hihat splash if the pedal is depressed and released quickly (this feature was added after the manual was sent to print: see chapter 1 of the supplemental manual for details). Tighten settings Increasing the tighten settings results in a tighter, shorter hihat sound at extreme closed hat settings. Hihat behaviour when using a hihat controller pedal As well as the hihat control features in the Hit Options panel (see below), hihat behaviour when using a controller pedal has been improved, so that if the hihat pedal is released quickly after playing a closed hat (or if the hat is triggered too early, before the hihat pedal is released), an open hihat sound will be faded in as the pedal is released.

BFD now also includes the ability to choke cymbals using aftertouch messages (the standard technique used by most electronic drum systems). The cymbal choking algorithm has been improved. The Hit trim controls now have a range of +/- 12dB (previously the range was +/- 6dB) There are additional features for highlighting duplicated mappings and interaction with the Advanced tab, which were added after the manual was sent to print: please see chapter 1 in the supplemental manual for details.

What's new in BFD 1.5 ?

Advanced tab (ref. manual section 7:4) This tab allows you to assign notes to Kit-Piece Hit types. Using this method, you can assign multiple notes to one Hit type: this was not possible with previous versions of BFD. It features a MIDI Log for viewing incoming MIDI events. The Advanced tab also includes several features for tweaking the response of KitPieces Hit types:
Set a low and high velocity limit to incoming MIDI to the Hit type. Adjust the velocity curve for the Hit type. Layer the Hit type with another (this works on an individual Hit level, rather than the Kit-Piece layering possible with the Kit-Piece Inspectors Link to Kit-Piece function. Adjust the degree to which the Hit type is affected by velocity randomization functions (Humanize velocity panel and Anti-machinegun mode) Add amplitude scaling with velocity (normally BFDs samples are not altered in volume they are simply recorded at a large number of velocity layers) Route velocity to tuning Route velocity to damping amount

A few new highlighting conventions were added to the Advanced tab after the manual went to print. Please see chapter 1 of this supplemental manual for details. MIDI CCs tab (ref. manual section 7:5) The MIDI CCs tab is for mapping MIDI controllers to the BFD controls, for remote operation of BFD faders and knobs. This tab includes a MIDI monitor for incoming MIDI messages. Hit Options Presets (ref. manual 7:6) There are now two types of Hit Options preset: Key assignment presets: saved when in the Page 1, Page 2 and Advanced tabs MIDI CC assignment presets: saved when in the MIDI CCs tab Hit Options Reset button (ref. manual 7:6) The Reset button on the MIDI CCs tab does not affect settings on Page 1, Page 2 and Advanced tabs, and vice versa. Clicking the Reset button reverts back to settings held in the default presets. [SHIFT]-clicking reverts to factory defaults

What's new in BFD 1.5 ?

GROOVE LIBRARIAN (ref. manual chapter 8)

Revamped Groove Bank management and auditioning The major difference is [SHIFT]-clicking a Groove in a Bank slot to audition it, instead of simply clicking it. This change was to improve consistency with auditioning methods throughout BFD. Please see page 44 of the Reference Manual for a full list of Bank management operations. Import MIDI button beneath each Groove Bank This button brings up the Groove Import panel, which allows you to specify a long MIDI file and cut it into up to 12 Grooves of a specified length, importing each Groove to a slot in the Groove Bank. (see section 8:9) Swap A/B Swaps the target of Auto Repeating Grooves between Banks A and B this function is only available via a MIDI note. MIDI Out For hosts that support MIDI out from a VST plugin, this function allows you to route the output from BFDs Groove Librarian to a MIDI track in your sequencer. Drag & Drop export/import On hosts which support this functionality, you can now drag and drops from/to the host sequencers arrange page.

OPTIONS PANEL (ref. manual section 9:1)

Choke Fade options These options allow you to adjust how quickly an older Hit is faded out after a new Hit of the same type is triggered. Retrigger threshold This feature forces BFD to ignore incoming notes for an adjustable period (in seconds) after a note has been played for a Kit-Piece. This can eradicate problems with cross-talk in multi-zone e-drum trigger pads (especially in hihats which have tip and edge sensors). This feature was added after the manual went to print please consult chapter 1 of the supplemental manual for details. Drummer perspective This option flips the stereo information in BFD so that it represents the drummers perspective.

What's new in BFD 1.5 ?

Cache memory display A handy readout of the RAM used by BFD. Data path 2 BFD can now work from 2 hard drives, which is useful if you dont have a drive with enough room for BFDs Data. This is especially useful when working with the expansion packs, which are even larger than BFD. Bleed to primary direct - moved to new Output Options panel. This option makes more sense to be in the new Output Options panel (see below).

PLAY OPTIONS PANEL (ref. manual section 9:2)

Sequenced Auto Shuffle Turning on this option results in the Auto Shuffle function playing sequentially through the Bank, rather than at random. Remap Groove notes This option remaps Grooves to the current key assignments. This function is useful if you have some MIDI files which you dont want to edit to correspond to BFD mappings. MIDI in channel Allows you to specify the MIDI channel to which BFD responds. MIDI out channel, MIDI out enabled The MIDI out enables you to record the output of the Groove Librarian as MIDI. This is only supported on certain hosts. Anti-machinegun mode Eradicates the machinegun effect on snare rolls, for example, by not playing the same velocity layer twice in succession. Disable sidestick tuning This disables the effect of the Tune Mixer control for the snare sidestick Hit type.

What's new in BFD 1.5 ?

BFD AND MULTIPLE OUTPUTS (ref. manual chapter 10)

BFD Ultra The new BFD Ultra plugin has 34 outputs (6 stereo, 22 mono), consisting of an independent output for each direct output for each of the 18 Kit-Pieces and the ambient buses, as well as 3 general-purpose stereo outputs. New Output Options panel with a multitude of functions Ability to mute or route any mic channel (primary direct, bleed and ambient channels) to any available output. Ability to control levels of bleed in the kick, snare and multi mic channels globally.

OTHER CONTROLS (ref. manual chapter 11)

Mixer MIDI Learn A very quick means of assigning MIDI controllers to BFD Mixer controls. MIDI activity and Audio stream LEDs, CPU and disk load meters Useful indicators for MIDI, audio, CPU and hard disk activity.

CONTENT
New Grooves A variety of new Groove Bundles are provided. Bonus audio content When you register BFD, you are entitled to download the following audio content:
Ride bell Hit types for 2 of the BFD ride cymbals (Slingerland and PearlB) Bonus Zildjian Sweet hihat with extra 1/4-open tip position.