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Anti-machinegun mode
With this setting enabled, BFD2 never plays the same velocity layer twice in sucession for an articulation. This effectively removes
the ‘machinegun’ effect which can make drum rolls and other intricate parts sound unrealistic.
If the Vel Rnd parameter is set to 0 for any articulation, it is not affected by the Anti-machinegun mode setting. See section 2:8 for
more information on using the Vel Rnd parameter for articulations.
All Hihats variable
The All Hihats variable setting provides a quick way of turning a set of regular hihat articulations into a variable hihat setup. It
works by changing all hihat articulation mappings (with the exception of the pedal articulation) to variable equivalents. See section
9:3 for more details of this function.
Retrig threshold
This setting defines a period of time after each received MIDI note, within which further received notes are ignored. This setting is
useful if you own a triggering system prone to cross-talk and double triggering.
The value is set in seconds.
The default value is 0.050 (50 milliseconds).
Hihat reopen thresh
Hihat Trans time
Hihat tip tighten (base)
Hihat tip tighten (range)
Hihat shank tighten (base)
Hihat shank tighten (range)
These settings are related mostly to controlling hihats from electronic drum systems. See section 9:4 for a guide to setting these
preferences.
However, even if you are not using an electronic drum system, you can make closed tip and shank hihat articulations sound
tighter by setting the Hihat tip tighten (base) and Hihat shank tighten (base) preferences as required.
Vel to Amp default amount
This value specifies the default amount set for the Vel to Amp parameter for each articulation in each loaded kit-piece.
Firstly, this setting is useful when using lower detail levels (for example, if you installed BFD2 at a low detail level, or if you have
reduced detail levels using the Max velocity layers and Detail settings). Using a high Vel to Amp setting gives you a smoother
dynamic range than a small number of velocity layers would allow.
Secondly, you may be used to the velocity response of drum sounds in synths and samplers, when a drum sound’s amplitude
scales down to silence over the velocity range. This is especially true if you’re used to the sounds used in electronic drumkit
brains.
However, this isn’t really how real drums respond, so leave this set to 0 if you are using a sufficient amount of layers and prefer a
natural response.
If you prefer an amplitude scaled response, set this preference to anything from +50% to +100%.
The default state of this preference is dictated by your answer to the first question in the BFD2 setup wizard (see section 1:9).
Fade preferences
A choke fade, or fade, occurs if an articulation in a kit-piece is triggered before an older articulation from the same kit-piece has
finished decaying. For example, if you play 2 high toms rapidly in succession, the first is faded out while the second is triggered.
The fade settings allow you to adjust the fade times for the kit.
The hihat, tom and cymbal slots have their own fade settings, while all other kit-piece slots use the ‘default’ fade settings. Differ-
ent kit-piece types require different choke fade times to sound realistic. While short fade times for snares and kicks sound fine,
cymbals need much longer fade times, for instance. Hihats, meanwhile, need special attention as their choking behaviour is very
different to other kit-pieces.
How fades work
There are two components to the choke fade time for each of the above categories: fade (base) is the minimum fade time, while
fade (range) is a maximum of extra fade time added to the (base) value, according to BFD2’s ‘dominant excitation preservation’
algorithm. This algorithm allows longer fade times for louder articulations (higher velocity) when choked by softer articulations
(lower velocity), while reduce the fade time when a low velocity articulation is choked by a successive higher velocity articulation.
This approach achieves realistic results, while reducing the disk streaming load when possible.
A low velocity articulation choked by a high velocity articulation has a fade time of fade (base), whereas a loud event choked by a
soft event has a fade time of fade (base) + fade (range).
Please note that the settings are quite powerful, and with extreme settings you can achieve results which may sound unrealistic.
Subtle use is advised if you want realistic results! Extreme settings are, however, facilitated as an aid to creativity and experimen-
tation.
