FXpansion BFD Acoustic Drum Module

BFD Acoustic Drum Module description:

BFD is a high-quality acoustic drum module. It concentrates on impeccably recorded multi-velocity acoustic drumkits, with some crucial differences to using a general-purpose sampler with sample-CDs, or using pre-recorded acoustic drum loops.

BFD gives you your own drum studio,with complete control of 7 real drum kits plus additional hats, snares and cymbals. Every drum is recorded from eleven different mics positioned around the kit and room so you can mix your drums by blending the mic sources just like in a real studio.

BFD's high quality drum sample library has an unparalleled degree of realism. For each type of drum type in each kit, there are a number of different styles of 'hits'. Each of these 'hits' is sampled at up to 46 velocity layers, resulting in drum parts of superior detail and expressiveness.

BFD was recorded in the drum room at a top Californian recording studio by professional engineer Steve Duda (NIN, Pitchshifter, A Perfect Circle) using over $50,000 worth of microphones from Neumann, Sennheiser, AKG and others. The drums used range from the 1920s to 2002, and include both classics and rarities.

Not only useful as a sound source for your own drum programming, BFD also incorporates a comprehensive library of ready-to-use MIDI Grooves with different styles, feels and time signatures. The library features both programmed grooves and MIDI recordings of real drummers, including top UK session drummer Chris Dagley (Jamiroquai, Lalo Schifrin, Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Clapton, Chaka Khan).

The advanced, integrated Groove Librarian allows you to drag and drop the included grooves or import your own MIDI grooves. You can then trigger them in realtime from a keyboard or let the BFD freestyle with the auto-shuffle and auto-fill features.

BFD's humanization functions inject that elusive 'soul' into your drum parts. The integrated swing controls make it easy to tighten or relax the vibe as much as required. On top of this, the sound of the Groove can be further humanized through the controlled randomization of velocity and timing.

BFD is perfectly suited to rock, jazz, funk, country, hip-hop, blues, drum & bass. In fact, anything that may require a real drumkit, from auto-accompaniment, traditional song-writing and recording, to newer techniques such as creating original drum breaks.

The BFD concept:
Flexible mixing of multiple microphone placements
Hyper-detailed kits: up to 46 velocity layers and a wide selection of hit types, all recorded simultaneously through eleven microphones
Easy compilation of new kits without wrestling with time-consuming editing and combination of sampler programs, or having to load multiple whole kits
A versatile automated drummer in the Groove Librarian
Endlessly variable sound and feel

All this and more is provided in an intuitive, highly integrated interface, plugged into the heart of your favourite sequencing environment, via the VSTi, DXi, RTAS, AudioUnit and ReWire interfaces. A standalone version is also supplied, which uses the ASIO and CoreAudio protocols.

System Requirements:
BFD requires a substantial amount of computing power.
Here is the minimum recommended specification:
1 GHz Pentium III or Athlon (for Windows platform)
Apple PowerMac G4 733 MHz (for MacOSX platform)
512 MB of RAM (preferably 768 MB or more)
DVD drive (for installation)
Windows 2000 or XP, or MacOSX
9 GB of free hard disk space
800x600 resolution with 16-bit colour graphics (1024x768 or higher recommended) On the Mac, it will not work on OS9 or earlier versions.