All hats can do it, if they have variable articulations available like below.
After you assign the articulation to a key, (B in this photo), you come over to the Hihat tab, next to response, and you adjust the transitions between articulations (closed, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, open). Then it’s a matter of writing just tip hits or shank hits, and painting CC4 for the high-hat’s travel.
Thanks for that. I will try it today. This is just the kind of thing I was hoping for.
raino the tip you posted is very useful, so thank you for that.
I have only one issue with BFD3 in that I cannot get BFD3 to see the Cocktail kit when I download it. The search starts and the wheel circulates and it was still searching after half an hour. I stopped and then selected the folder to be searched and that did not work either. I retried the download again but to have to same issue. Shame as I like that cocktail kit.
That’s very cool. Can’t believe I overlooked it so long.
Yeah, BFD’s got a metric-ton of stuff we can do, and one thing I still can’t get straight is a disciplined workflow. One time I’m doing stuff from Cubase, others from BFD and if I set a project aside and come back some time later, I find it tough to remember why I’ve set up stuff the way I did. (Some projects I don’t even use MIDI parts for BFD, I just make grooves into a palette and lay out a track from within BFD. And then I’m back and asking “why did I do this?”, and then spend time dragging and dropping grooves to the instrument track in cubase. It’s the same thing, but it’s not. And my head hasn’t settled to a method yet. There are many little things like that)
Oh, and another trick for the hat. Sometimes I use a little velocity to pitch articulation trim for the closed articulation and a little damping, so that I get that effect when you really step on the pedal, and the pitch goes a bit sharp and dry.
I’ve recently(past 6 months or so) updated my BFD2 to BFD3. The only problem I have is render in place with a mix of stereo and mono outs. When I was using Sonar I just rendered in place…stereo outs would make stereo files, mono outs would create mono files but in Cubase I can’t get the same results.
With that said I’ve been so happy with BFD that I never looked at any other drum software…I prefer the BFD2 interface to the cartoon BFD3 interface but I guess they had to please the kiddies 
Bill
That’s pretty much what I do 90% of the time. Typically I’ll only use the Cubase Track for for separate percussion.
Here is my typical workflow within BFD3. This is for a whole song that has the same basic groove all the way through, but the approach works for sections fine.
Generally I don’t have snap on, and almost always edit with the mouse and not by playing in. I use the grid as a visual indicator and put hits slightly before or after a beat depending on the desired vibe. Playing to enter hits is fine, just not what I typically do.
First build or play a 1 or 2 bar groove (I mostly use 1) that will make sense playing through the entire song, often with maybe a few ghost notes - you’re looking for a full solid groove not just a rhythmic sketch. But avoid fills and any flourishes for now.
Next replicate the groove in BFD3 3 times. For each of these new grooves make a bunch of small changes - change some velocities, move a couple of hits a smidgen earlier or later, change the articulation, or move a hit from say a low tom to a mid, add move or remove a ghost note. The goal here is to make these sound pretty much the same but actually be a bit varied under the surface. But not so varied that you hear it when casually listening.
Repeat these 4 grooves in sequence for the length of the song. This leaves you with a basic groove that fits you song’s vibe that has subtle variations which repeat every 4 or 8 bars. At this point stop working on the drums and mostly finish the rest of the song.
After the songs vocal(s) and any solos are finished (comped and edited to their final state) then come back to the drums. Now start making changes to individual instances of the 4 groove variants. Edit grooves as needed to add fill and flourishes. For example say the singer has phrased a line in a unique interesting way. Maybe you’ve got a straight Ride Cymbal going that you change the timing on to match the singer’s phrasing - now it sounds like the drummer & singer have worked together for ages. Or maybe move a few hits around to highlight something a rhythm guitar is doing. You get the idea, but don’t overdo these changes or it will start sounding contrived. But with just the right amount…
It is interesting to see what other people do, or rather how they use BFD3. I prefer to edit in Cubase. Mainly because I feel more at home with the Drum edit page especially when I am looking for different fills. To be honest I often change the bass drum and snare patterns quite a lot and do some intensive editing. Pushing the snare hits slightly forward. You can do wholesale changes more easily the Drum Editor.
Having said that I do basically what raino does until I have the song mapped out. The main differences is that I use drummer played grooves because I want a feel different to what I am capable of doing myself.
One annoying development has been that I can drag the individual grooves into Cubase but not the Midi Drum pattern. Which means that I have to export it. Annoying.
I am interested with how reverb is used with BFD3. I used to use the Ambience but have now mainly use reverb plugins. Lately Melda’s MTurbo Reverb.
I have put some examples in a shared My Drive folder.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PFVk-3dbYyshGtc4OUtL0F-zmn2bvLqE
BFD3 Dry
BFD3 + BFD Ambience
BFD3 + MTurbo Reverb
part of a track with MTurbo Reverb
I am not making any great claims for the music, but would be interested to see how others use Reverb with BFD3.
I suppose I am just curious as to how people might use reverb with BFD3. I am hoping to learn from the experience of others. Given that I tend to use reverb over the whole kit with slightly less feed for the bass drum and I also apply a high pass filter. Interested to see what people think.
Long time BFD user. Following this thread with much interest and hoping for BFD4 update soon.
BTW - Has anyone heard anything about a BFD4 release timeline?
Thanks for starting this thread!
Cheers -
I did receive a reply from inMusic Support that has reassured me that the development of BFD3 is taking place:
Hey David,
Thank you for reaching out, I apologize for the delay in our response- we have been restructuring our BFD support.
That being said, I’m happy to help!
I’m assuming you are referring to BFD’s acquisition by InMusic; moreover. our temporary drop in support.
I’m happy to say that the temporary drop has essentially been restored- we have been going through the backlog of accumulated cases from the acquisition, and are happily back to a rather snappy turnaround time for new inquiries.
What our acquisition of BFD should signify is an ability to better focus on BFD as a whole; while I can’t share specifics, the original Dev team is hard at work on further updates and builds/future developments.
Rest assured, BFD is not discontinued/dead in the water- while I’m obviously rather biased, I would purport that it has a rather bright future ahead of it. Apologies again for taking so long to answer you!
Best Regards,
Sam Morris
Technical Support & Return Authorizations Specialist inMusic Brands AIR
No other info than that.
Thanks for sharing. That is reassuring. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
Well the only issue is I haven’t had another reply. So fingers crossed.
oh yesss
count me in … i love BFD 3… i was begining to think its dead … no updates and no BFD 4 …
but… its the best out there
I’ve been a BFD user since V1.0 I haven’t really used it much though in the last few years. Since Superior drummer V3 came out I’ve been using that extensively. This thread is making me want to check out my BFD3 again though so thanks. I’m sure they both have things to offer so i should go back to my BFD and give it another shot.
I find the grooves easier to audition in SD 3 that whole menu and layout is easier to navigate and therefor quicker than the BFD one which I find very clunky and time consuming.
M
It is a bit odd that we think about virtural instruments this way. No one would think they’ve got great 1962 Les Paul, but there haven’t been any updates so, who knows if…
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I always use the BFD3 editor until the song is sketched out and has been reasonably well developed. I then transfer to the Cubase Drum editor as I am really comfortable working in that environment. However I am willing to try and see how I get on editing in BFD. The main issue I have had in the past is when I alter a part I have to copy to another slot to prevent any other use of the original part being affected.
By the way any thoughts on using reverb?
Many times I do the opposite, heheh! I start scetching out in Cubase, because I like to have a midi part in the project window that I can see. But then I’m locked in Cubase and I can’t use all the goodies Bfd’s groove editor offers.
I have to remind myself to start in BFD, no matter what doodle I’m starting, setup a groove palette (for future use even, why not), and then quickly drag and drop to Cubase. That way, I get my rudiments, better dynamics, I can shuffle, I can swing, I can randomize velocities or add subtract weight, all the good stuff, AND my parts in the project. Not that it’s not possible to do these edits in Cubase, it is, but it’s way easier in BFD.
Regarding reverb, I don’t consider myself an experienced mixer. With that in mind, I find reverb to be very project specific, and kit piece specific. Most of the times, I set up a send for a snare reverb, and use it for the kick too sometimes. Other times, a very very tiny amount of reverb over the whole kit will do. Other times I don’t use reverb at all, and just play with the Amb3 balance (from within BFD) and bring the fader up so that it brings some room over. (Most of the times Amb3 is way too loud for me! I might leave it so that it averages at about -24 to -30) and use dedicated sends as discussed before if I want a “thicker” reverb for the skins (kick, snare, toms).
Yes indeed!
Reverb use is weird because there are genre specific expectations and also a bunch of personal taste considerations - creates a lot of variety.
I have all my individual kit mics as individual Channels in Cubase along with the ambient pair. If I’m going for a normal room sound then I’ll initially get the kit pieces balanced with no ambience or reverb. Then I’ll bring up the ambience to add some space around it all. I almost always have a reverb where a little bit of a lot of Channels go to ‘glue’ the whole mix. So from BFD3 I’ll usually send it a small amount from the ambient Channel; anywhere from none to a bunch on the snare; and usually none on the rest of the pieces, almost never on the kick.
