Question for BFD3 users - recording tracks instead of grooves?

ThePrettyDamned

I'm trying the trial version, which is really quite crippled, but I *do* like what I'm playing with.

MY workflow is:

Load preset (for some reason, the demo doesn't have 'kits' to load, you have to load a full preset)

Delete preset drum track

Create grooves for certain parts of the song, drag and drop into the drum track.

Easy! It sounds great, and I've no doubt the full version unlocks plenty of kits for me to test (I'm just using the dry rock preset thing on the demo, which has a usable rock sound, though I turn the gain up on the kick). 

However, I'm having trouble getting the drum TRACK into Reaper.  When I record, it basically records the GROOVE I've selected.  I've just spent all that time making the grooves and arranging into a song, why should I have to arrange it again?  

So, is there a way of arming reaper and recording the entire track? Or am I better off just completely ignoring the TRACK function, making grooves and recording them all separate?

Is this something the full version would unlock?  I've decided that I'm going to go for BFD3 as it seems pretty easy to just use a mouse to click beats together and arrange into a song, but it would be neat if you can just record the whole thing at once, rather than lots of smaller takes.  I think, in the manual, it talks about exporting it as audio, but I'd rather keep it as MIDI and plugin so I can tweak sounds in the mix later.

PolarityMan

Im a BFD2 user but it shouldnt be *that* different

Are you using the BFD editor? 

Personally I never bother and just use reapers midi editor, I don't get the advantage of duplicating that in the BFD interface personally.

digitalscream

I think @Drew_fx needs to pop in here...

ThePrettyDamned

PolarityMan said:

Im a BFD2 user but it shouldnt be *that* different

Are you using the BFD editor? 

Personally I never bother and just use reapers midi editor, I don't get the advantage of duplicating that in the BFD interface personally.

Everything is laid out in a way that makes sense to me on BFD.  Not used BFD2 though.

On Reaper's editor, you need to remember the key map - rather than do that, it's much easier for a beginner like me to just click on the beats on BFD3 which have the drum name next to it! 

I can record fine, it just seems odd that I can only record a groove at a time, rather than the track as a whole.

Definitely saving up for it though - I get the impression that, although a noob like me will only scratch the surface, eventually I'll want more power and it'll be nice knowing that I have it.

Drew_TNBD

Hey dude. Not 100% following what you're trying to do. Are you putting the grooves into the drum-track inside BFD3? If so... did you enable the 'track' option in the BFD3 transport area (top of the window on the right hand side)? It is next to the metronome button, there are three options:

Grv Off = Groove engine is disabled.
Track = Drum track syncs to the host when you press play inside Reaper.
Palette = Selected groove in the palette listing syncs to the host when you press play inside Reaper.

Are you trying to record the output of BFD3 to the track inside Reaper? If so, you don't need to do that. You can just drag and drop from the groove palette straight into Reapers midi track.

Drew_TNBD

(Sorry for the wait, been really fucking busy since Friday!!!)

ThePrettyDamned

Dass cool man! I'll give it a go tomorrow, drag and drop sounds much more friendly to me!

I'm really liking it. It's easy to broadly change the sounds of the drums in the software, but there is so much I won't even look at because I wouldn't have a clue what it was. Lots of growing room.

I suspect there are more suitable kits for hard rock and heavy stuff in the full blown version, so I'm saving up

PolarityMan

It's really easy to setup a drum map to get the names in the reaper editor btw, I amde one for EZ drummer back when i used that. BFD2 is smart and automatically maps the note names onto the host midi editor though.

ThePrettyDamned

Hmm, maybe bfd3 does, too then.

I'll see if drag and drop works. If so, no worries anywhere the main things I'd want from the full version is saving grooves and more kits. The basic, preset sound of the dry rock kit is already quite good - not metal at all, but functional for me, and actually probably quite good for general rock music.

Blows drummic'a out of the water!

Drew_TNBD

For metal/hard rock I made a pretty good preset for BFD3 called Technical Metal DV, but only for the full version I'm afraid! It's from the main demo song you hear in all the videos, which I recorded+composed+played drums for on a ekit!

ThePrettyDamned

Haha nice, that's probably more like it

Drew_TNBD

Computer Music have done some tutorials. They might be helpful in learning your way around the software.

http://bit.ly/CMBFD3

ThePrettyDamned

Drew_fx;233640" said:

Computer Music have done some tutorials. They might be helpful in learning your way around the software.



http://bit.ly/CMBFD3

Cheers mate.

Saving for the full thing now.