BFD 2 Review - Recording Drums by Music Recording Software on Blogspot

Recently I overlooked the posts on my blog and surprisingly discovered that I have not posted about BFD 2 yet. I thought that this completely amazing music recording software really deserves a post from me.

So what is BFD 2: it is an acoustic drum production environment. Well you may have used software like EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, Native Instruments’ Abbey Road Drum Studio etc. BFD 2 does the same as the softwares I mentioned above. However it is my favourite one for its unprecedented power and flexibility, its sound quality and extreme realism. Most of the Drum Production Environment Software are user-friendly but they have much less features than BFD 2 and it is easier for a software to be user-friendly if it has less features. I use BFD 2 as an integrated plug-in with Ableton, however it may be used with any digital audio workstation like Cubase, Sonar, Nuendo etc. At our Youtube channel you may see some video tutorials and samples, so that you can see and hear what you can do with BFD 2. Below I will write in more details about its possibilities.

BFD 2 comes with 55 GB sample library recorded at famous Air Studios in London. The components of drum kits have up to 96 levels of velocity layers. BFD 2 comes with several already set-up ready to use drum kits, however you are able to set up 10, 18 or 32 piece kits using any available drum kit components.

BFD 2 comes with about 5000 stylistically different patterns. These are MIDI files that are very likely to fit your needs and provide with the groove your musical track needs. However BFD 2’s Groove Editing is just another great thing I love in this software. BFD 2 lets you make your own grooves. It’s easy, editing and creating is intuitive and you get realistic results. You can easily assign velocity to just any MIDI tone, so that at the end you can’t tell whether it is recorded live with the drummer playing real drum-kits or recorded with BFD 2.

Samples at Air Studio have been recorded using different sets of mics. So BFD 2 lets you control the recording fully just if you were recording it live. You may choose to move your virtual recording mics close to the virtual drum-kit, move away or hang them above it. If you are more professional you may go to a bit more complicated mixing process and use BFD 2’s ability to let you mix each mic channel individually. BFD 2’s built-in processors have flanger, ring mod, delay, different kinds of filters and distortion and other effects to create even more realistic drum tracks.

BFD 2’s built-in mixer has many advantages and I may dare to say that it is better than many expensive full-fledged sequencing hosts’ mixers. However Ableton, Cubase, Sonar and Nuendo are not among such music recording software.

BFD 2 offers a free trial. One wonderful thing about it is that it never ends. However several important functions can’t be used including using BFD 2 as a plug-in and Saving, Importing or Exporting anything to or from the software. But if you need to play live at home and are in need of quality drum parts, DEMO version should work. You can visit Fxpansion’s web-site and get BFD 2’s DEMO version. Here you can listen to the separate components of drum kit – samples recordedat different velocities.

Skanner Review by Music Recording Software on Blogspot (SKANNER is Free)

Native Instruments decided to make a holiday gift for musicians and released SKANNER which is a free virtual synthesizer. Stephan Schmitt is the creator of SKANNER. Those who do not already know, Stephan Schmitt is the father of REAKTOR perhaps the most well-known and powerful virtual synthesizer available. SKANNER, which is based on unique synthesis architecture, can be used with the free REAKTOR 5 PLAYER. So that it is Really Free.

I have just had my first touch with SKANNER. I’d say it is wonderful especially for its price (0). Although there is quite complicated synthesis mechanism built in the software, it is very convenient and user-friendly, so that amateur musicians can use it as well as professionals. In fact it has two interfaces: Panel A – which displays just four macro controls so that you can control the synth easily by just being in touch with those controls. It should be mentioned that each control is interlinked with multiple internal parameters, so even a subtle tweak can have great impact on the final sound you get. Panel B – is more complicated version of the interface as it is for professionals – for those who want to dig deeper into the SKANNER’s architecture. You can see this interface in details on the picture. You can even use your own samples and get them Skanned. 

 In fact SKANNER is a wonderful mix of a synthesizer and a sampler. It comes with two oscillators which are used to scan (or SKAN) a sample. At higher frequencies you get oscillators being shaped by the sample waveform as the dominant force while at low frequencies you get scratch sound produced from the sample being read back and forth. What you get are the sounds dirty and raw and highly unpredictable. 

Versatile Preset Morpher is another thing in the creative arsenal of SKANNER. You can get unique and unusual sounds by morphing between eight different snapshots. There are controls for LFO modulation and speed of morphing. 

You Can Download SKANNER By Clicking Here

You Can Listen To Some DEMO TRACKS Created by SKANNER By Visiting Our YOUTUBE Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicRecordingSoftwa