BFD2 Hihat

[brandondrury]

I am new to all of this and need some help setting up BFD2 in Cubase5. Even though there are numerous outputs from BFD2 into Cubase, my Hi-hat sticks out like a sore thumb. Should I set-up individual kit pieces on different tracks or just use the instrument track with BFDs internal mixer? Just does not seem to have much effect on the sound....

Thanks for your time, take care

Ed

This was sent to me via PM.

Hey Ed,

I'm not a BFD2 user so I'll have to speculate. There are a few possibilities.

1) It's possible that you are sending too high of velocity to your hihat. Sending 120 and higher often sounds good on a kick or snare. Absolutely crushing a hihat seldom sounds as good.

2) It's possible that your hihat volume simply needs to be lowered. In Superior Drummer 2.0 they have the mixer that allows you to adjust individual elements. I'd expect BFD2 to have something similar.

3) Just remember that the high end modern drum samples have bleed. So, just like a real kit, if you are crushing that hihat it'll still be loud in the overheads and bleed into other mics (see #1).

I hope that helps.

Brandon

[Trask]

Great starting points, thank you for the tips. Would love to hear anyone else's ideas as to a proper set-up for BFD2 in Cubase5.

[haveigonemental]

BFD does have individual levels for each piece. You can also turn the overheads down and even the room sounds down. You can even try dampening the high hat and see if that turns down the intensity some. Also make sure your not hitting the high hat full open otherwise you won't get the sound of the 2 cymbals slapping together. Most likely I would say just turning the volume down on that piece would take care of it. The individual volumes are on the kit pieces themselves not on the mixer on the right.

[Trask]

I was actually surprised by how much bleed there was. Even with the actual hi hat muted it was still prominent in the mix via the ambient and overheads. The hat is closed but I will tweak the pedal settings to see if I am 3/4 or something. Thanks again for the insight, I will continue to tweak and see what I can get. Part of the problem is there is so much to fiddle with I am not sure what second order effects will be as I make changes. I feel like I am tuning a Floyd Rose for the first time again!

[brandondrury]

Even with the actual hi hat muted it was still prominent in the mix via the ambient and overheads.

That's how it works on a real drum kit. I went through a 3 year phase where I didn't use a hihat mic.

I feel like I am tuning a Floyd Rose for the first time again!

That's a great analogy. Recording is one big floyd rose where everything in interdependent.

Brandon