Can BFD Drums be triggered from a PT MIDI Track?

[DRLAudio]

I asked this question on the FXpansion forum, but haven't gotten a response yet, so I thought I'd ask here too.

I installed BFD Lite on my system, and can open it as a plugin on an audio track. At that point, I can play with the drums, mix them, make them play loops, all the bells and whistles.

But... what if I want to trigger them from a MIDI track in my PT session? Until now, I've always programmed my drums as MIDI tracks that triggered external sound modules (not very good ones, but they worked...). What I'd LIKE to do, is take those already programmed MIDI tracks, and have them trigger the drums in the BFD plugin (because even in the LITE version, the sounds are WAY better). Is that possible? Or is that not something BFD is designed for? I would basically be treating the BFD plugin as an external MIDI device, so I'm not sure how (or IF) that would work, but I sure hope it's possible. It's about the only way that plugin would be of any use to me.

Thanks for any info!

[Rail Jon Rogut]

In the full version of BFD yes... I'm not sure about BFD Light.

Rail

[flommer]

Use an instrument track... It will work.

[spkguitar]

Yep. Both the full version and the Lite version function in the way that you are hoping. The Lite version is not capable of multiple outputs though; it's stereo only.

But you would want to use it on an instrument or Aux track and then bus to an audio track if you wanted to record the output.

[DRLAudio]

Thanks guys!

I got it working. (I never worked with instrument tracks before... what a great addition to ProTools!)

So, now I'm considering buying the BFD package. The Lite version only has three kits (and they don't sound very good) and as you said, the Lite version can only do stereo outputs.

So, next question... if I DO upgrade to the full BFD software, how DO you deal with the stereo outputs. I mean, if I'm using an instrument track, and I trigger the track from a MIDI track, yes the BFD program has an option for splitting the output to several places, but the instrument track it's on is still a stereo track. Does the BFD have to be loaded onto several different Instrument tracks (one track for each pair of outputs), or does it somehow split itself in the ProTools. I guess I'm having trouble picturing the signal flow without having it in front of me. How do I record the kick to one audio track, the snare to another, the hihat to another, etc when the instrument track itself only has two channels, a left and right?

Also, for those that have the full version... how many "god" kits are there? Or do I need to also buy an expansion pack to do anything useful? Do any of the kits in the standard set have brushes, or are all of the hits using sticks?

[spkguitar]

Take a look at the BFD tutorials on my website, they might shine a light on a few things.

As for the quality of the stock kits; that's really subjective. I purchased the Platinum Samples Andy Johns expansion pack, because the stock kits wasn't quite what I was looking for, but each person is different. If you're looking for brush kits, you will need to go with one of the expansion packs as there aren't any in the stock kits. XFL has some brushes, but the Jazz & Funk expansion is probably more of what you're looking for.

[DRLAudio]

Thanks for the link. That makes total sense. I guess I just didn't realize that you could assign the aux tracks inputs to come from a plugin on an instrument track.

No brushes AT ALL in the basic package? That's a bummer. Most of what I do is for rock/pop type stuff, so a basic (decent sounding) kit is really all I'll need (like a good Pearl 5 piece with some decent sounding cymbals). I'm sure there's plenty of that in the main package. But occasionally, I like to use brushes just on the snare drum or hi-hat, for a slightly different feel, and I can't fathom spending $300+ on an expansion pack for just one or two brush-on-the-snare or brush-on-the-hat sounds. Ugh! Any other solutions? If not, I guess I'll have to continue using the snare/brush and hat/brush sounds I've been using (which aren't very good, but they're workable) and use BFD for the rest.