BFD Deluxe and Platinum Samples packs

[Pimenta]

Money well spent over the past months: BFD2.. Deluxe.. and both Platinum expansion packs ( Andy Johns and Evil Drums)

https://www.platinumsamples.com/index.php

The Deluxe pack I got basically interested on the 6 toms Vistalite kit - since recently I got another pd100 so now being using a 6 toms set up. BFD2's engine is proving to be much more RAm efficient than 1.5 .. I am able to load a full drumkit in 16-bit mode. .. up to 256 velocity layers.. 6 toms.. two hi-hats (I use a fixed one at my right .. just disabled the other articulations and keeping closed tip/shank) .. two chinas.. splash, ride,four crashes and a jam block.. all of this shows 800mb/900mb RAM usage .. not bad. BFD2's hi-hat behaves much better than 1.5 ... all the hi-hats on the samples below are BFD2's hi-hat.

The Deluxe Vistalite kit sounds really nice .. here's a quick sample. I am using an Evil Drums Vistalite Snare and Deluxe's 24" kick. Cymbals are all Andy Johns:

http://www.4shared.com/file/50446694/804234f9/Deluxe_offline.html?dirPwdVerified=648bf1d4

Andy Johns cymbals are my favs: Paiste 2002 and Rude Cymbals have a nice decay and "full" sound . The Ludwig snares on Andy Johns sound really good (vintage bronze... black beauty...supra) ...

Evil drums seems to be more "wet" and have a Vistalite kit too (yes a Candy Swirl on ANdy Johns... a clear on Evil and another one from Deluxe pack ).


Couple of samples:

Andy Johns DW Mardi Gras Sparkle (ohh yeah ... 6 toms ready to go !) with a Ludwig Vintage Bronze Snare

http://www.4shared.com/file/50446628/6a00a119/AJ_DW_MARDI.html?dirPwdVerified=648bf1d4

Another Andy Johns this time high tuned DW Mardi with a 3X13 Yammi Matt Sorum snare

http://www.4shared.com/file/50446901/2ab63c02/AJ_high_tuned.html?dirPwdVerified=648bf1d4

I am putting some drums on a song by a friend and will put here .. it is not sounding bad.

To wrap up my issues with BFD2 are almost gone:

a) MIDI screen is still freezing .. since I mapped my stuff already it is not a biggie... when it works I do the fine tuning :-)
b) BFD2 is not holding well with Tracktion 3 ... thankfully I have Tracktion 2 .. and it works as a charm...

Notes:

Everything recorded through Tracktion 2 ... no third party effects .. just BFD2 ones.. recorded in 16 bit and coverted to MP3.

Pim

[Joe_K]

Hey, those sound like fun to me! I love playing big loud ambient kit samples and feeling like the kit is right there.

[Pimenta]

Thanks Joe! Being a long time eh? Hope everything is great with you.

I like these big sounds too: it is amazing what these companies are doing.

Just to add some extra information regarding Platinum Samples:

Andy Johns Rides do NOT have edge hits so no three-zone right out of the bat;
Evil Drums have edge hits for their rides available for download once you get your product registered.

What I did was loading an extra Evil Drums cymbal and triggering its edge when using an Andy Johns Ride (since I have been using AJ rides a lot .. particularly the Rude and 2002). This way I always have my rides with three-zones.

Pim

[Chris Jude]

...What I did was loading an extra Evil Drums cymbal and triggering its edge when using an Andy Johns Ride (since I have been using AJ rides a lot .. particularly the Rude and 2002). This way I always have my rides with three-zones...

When I have a cymbal sample set that I really like that is missing either the bell or edge, I have "created" them similarly in the past by using a bell or edge from another sampled cymbal. In a couple of cases, I've even gone so far as to take a chromatic tuner and find out what "pitch" I need for bell or edge to be "authentic". (i.e. When in a music store, grab a tuner, hit the actual cymbal bell, get the pitch, go home, find something similar, and tweak to match)

[Pimenta]

Thanks for the tip Jude. I have been trying to get closer (at least to my poor ears) by using tunning and also paying attention to ambience/room ... in order not to have a big and so apparent "mismatch" ...

Pim

[Chris Jude]

...I have been trying to get closer (at least to my poor ears) by using tunning and also paying attention to ambience/room ... in order not to have a big and so apparent "mismatch" ...

That's another good point about the "ambience/room". That's another one of many reasons I really prefer to be able to work with "dry" sounds and build out the room, eq, and any other treatment myself. I can use a Black Beauty snare recorded on one continent with Sonor toms recorded on another, and mismatched cymbals from whatever fabulous studio(s) whereever and bring them all together to play quite courteously with each other. And I can audition a dozen or so kicks 'til I find just the one (trying each through the same effects, eq and micing in quick succession).

Its truly luxurious if you think about it. Doing that kind of sound palette building in a brick and mortar studio would take serious time, cost serious money and would (arguably) be somewhat pretentious. But in this environment you can indulge yourself like that and find something amazing in just minutes that many times wouldn't have dreamed of trying otherwise.

[elrules]

Hi Pimenta, I also have deluxe and andy johns packs with bfd2. I have been loading the mixer settings of andy johns pack. They sound good.

Could you post some of your mics settings? (the bfd2 file) your mp3 sound very good.

A can give you a trick: copy the Edge sample folder you like from one cymbal to the other folder where you only have Bell and Hit. Then open the .xml file and add a line for the Edge folder and increase the "number of articulations" parameter accordingly. Then, in bfd2, it will load you new samples directly to the piece kit

PD: Im having some problems with my hihat. I cannot set it up correctly. I have a td-6 + vh-11 setup. I don't know if it is better with edrums to set "All variables hihats" on or not. What parameters did you tweak after loading the default bfd2 setup?

[Pimenta]

Thanks for the tip El - will give it a try.
I am currently using the TD10 with a VH11 as well.. the settings on the TD20 are set as foot splash sens +8, CC Max 127 and CC Res Normal.

If I am not mistaken,according to what I read at FXPansion it is better having "all variables hihats" off. What I do is working on the openXclose articulations on the MIDI screen .. tightening some of the hi-hats.

Will post the settings/preset when back home.

Pim

[PlatinumSamples]

Hi Guys,

I just posted a data patch for Andy's pack on our site for registered users... please run it.

Cheers,

Rail

[Pimenta]

The Mid Tom and the Ride patches I have downloaded already.

What is this new patch available Rail? It is just 236k in size ?

Pim

[Pimenta]

I got asked about latency when recording the TD20 hi-hat with VST. Here is an example of a recording .. did not do anything special when it comes to settings within Tracktion 2.

This one was rendered using BFD 1.5 (since I was having problems with BFD2 at that time) and Andy Johns Mardy Grass drums for a friend:

http://www.4shared.com/file/52163231/8782a3e8/luar_de_outono_track_2_Master.html?dirPwdVerified=648bf1d4

Pim