BFD LITE Plugin

[silentbry]

I'm trying to use bfd lite, but I am not understanding it. I don't use Midi. I'm a songwriter, w/ a digi 003 just trying to figure out how to get the loops / grooves I want, but can't seem to figure out how to get them to go a certain length, or the logic of the groove screen, etc.
- I would appreciate any help if anyone out there is really good at bfd lite.
I'm sure if I could talk over the phone w/ someone it would only take about 5 minutes to get me going, I could call you. I'm excellent at protools, but for some reason don't understand how to get what I need from bfd, if it's possible..
Thanks a bunch.

[flommer]

In the groove screen, you have 3 columns with 12 slots each.
On the Left, you have the available grooves, on the right the fills.
Basically, you drag grooves and fills to the slots. This assigns them to a MIDI note. Most grooves will play for 1 or 2 bars.
The grooves and fills are organized into folders (which you expand by clicking the +). You can fill in a whole column by dragging the entire folder to the top of a column. The folders contain multiple variations of the same groove for use in the different sections of a song, so it is usually helpful to have all the variations available at the same time.

You didn't say if you have a MIDI controller
If you do, figure out where the notes are that correspond to the slots. You'll notice that the slots are labeled with notes. You just need to figure what octaves trigger what columns. You can still trigger the individual drum sounds by playing notes that are lower on the keyboard. You can then play the grooves in real time. If you want to record the drum track then just record enable and go ahead. You'll only be recording MIDI notes, not audio.

If you don't have a controller, then you can draw in the MIDI notes that will trigger the BFD drum instrument.
Just set your edit mode to grid and draw MIDI notes with the pencil tool (at the correct midi note) that are the length of a bar or 2 bars of music. You need a new note for each bar (or whatever the length of the groove is), even if you are triggering the same groove over and over. When using the canned grooves, I find this easier than recording the MIDI in realtime because, in grid mode, the notes snap to the beginnings and ends of bars.

BFD automatically follows the song tempo so that can be what ever you want. Some grooves won't sound good at all tempos of course..

You didn't say if you are getting sound at all out of BFD, but we'll assume for now that you have it installed correctly

[silentbry]

flommer:
First off, thank you very very much for replying w/ the information.
- I do not have a midi controller, and I am getting sounds / have the plugin installed correctly.
- I put protools in grid mode, but when I try and 'draw' on the track, I cannot seem to get anything to happen. I've never actually used the draw tool a lot.
- I do understand how to at least put the different grooves into the two banks, and the fills into the last one, but I'm still a bit confused as to how to get the exact sounds I want to play. for instance, I see there the different sounds next to g5, f#5, etc..but not sure how you choose the exact ones you want to play.
I am also in confusion as to what the top column that has the 'ksht' on top of the 'inhf', etc...I can see that the 'ksht', etc.. stands for kick, snare, tom, tom, etc..but don't understand what that little grid is for...
thanks for your time again, I really appreciate it. Bryan.

[flommer]

I'm not sure why you would be having problems with the pencil tool. If in grid mode, it draws a 1/4 note wherever you click in a midi track/inst track (an inst track is a combination of an aux track for the audio and a MIDI track). If you click and drag it will make longer notes in qtr note increments..

Just to be sure, are you using BFD on an inst. track? If not then you should be.

I'm not sure if this is standard or if it is my configuration, but C5 in BFD corresponds to C3 in the ProTools MIDI grid, so if you want the groove you dragged to C5 to play then your MIDI notes need to be drawn at C3, etc. Actually, I just found that you can set "-2 octave numbering" in Options that will make these match up (C3 =C3).

The grid at the top of the columns is for turning off individual drums during the course of a groove. By default they are all on, but if you click on them then that sound will not trigger during playback. This isn't something I've use much, but it will allow you to have kick, toms and snare triggered by bank A and all the cymbals and hats triggered by bank B. That way you can mix up the patterns...

Next to the drum switches, there is a question mark that goes to the help for the Groove Librarian. Check that out because there a bunch of different things you can do with BFD that I certainly have not touched on. ...

[manyrains]

Thanks for posting that introductory stuff on setrting up the grooves. I looked at it a couple of times when I first got my PT set up, couldn't figure a thing out (never found the groove window! ), so I went ahead and bought Strike.

I've been messing around with BFD lite this afternoon- couple of questions.
1. I am assuming that there are just the 3 kits available in the lite version- is there any way to change drum sounds other than what I'm seeing by loading either XFL, BIT or BFD kits?
2. I'm not finding any grooves with a ride cymbal on them- like a bridge or chorus version of a groove.

What do people think about the difference between Strike and BFD as far as sounds. I'm a bit disappointed with Strikes tom fills- they sound brittle, like sticks clicking together sometimes.
I haven't listened to any Strike since I've been messing with this BFD so far. I'm sort of getting used to the BFD sound, while at first I didn't hink I liked it. It'll be interesting to plug in Strike and A-B them.

[silentbry]

flommer:
thanks very much again. you are really getting me where I need to be..
I did not have it on an 'instrument' track. So now, I have set up an instrument track and I understand how to draw the groove w/ pencil. When I go to draw the line/groove, it shows up, but when I go to hit play, it only plays for like one measure. Even when I draw the blue line out that corresponds to groove for a lot of measures. Do I need to hit record before I draw the groove or anything?
Also, when you were talking about setting in the option the -2 octave numbering, were you referring to options in protools or on bfd? I was trying to find that but could not.
Thanks again for your help and time. If needed, I can email you a screenshot of exactly what I have.

[flommer]

Glad you're making progress

As far as the note/duration issue goes, you need to have a new MIDI note for each repetition of the loop. At least that is how I use it. So instead of 1 long midi note that spans multiple bars, you have multiple notes in a row.

I think there is a repeat function that you can turn on in BFD, but I haven't tried it. It is more interesting to change the pattern regularly than having the same loop over and over.

The -2 octave setting I'm talking about is in the BFD options.