Browsing for sounds

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The Browser panel is actually switchable between the Browser and Automation mapping panel. It is also capable of being hidden entirely.

If the Automation mapping mode is currently active or if the panel is currently hidden, click any of the following Browser mode buttons - each of which switches the Browser view to one of 4 loadable elements in BFD3:

Presets

Kits

Drums

Grooves

the entire state of BFD3

a set of Drums with additional Drum Editor settings

individual drums, cymbals or other instruments within a kit
such as kicks, snares, hihats, rides, crashes, toms, cowbells
and other percussion

drum performance patterns

The Browser lists only 1 of these 4 types of components at any one time - click the Presets, Kits, Drums and Grooves tab buttons to switch between them.

Click the currently active Browser tab button to hide the Browser panel if required.

By default, the Browser shows the available factory presets. Presets are loaded in either of 2 ways:

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Double-click a Preset in the Browser listing to load it.

Loading a preset replaces the entire state of BFD3 including grooves, key and automation mappings and session-specific settings. Therefore, you are prompted for confirmation before the Preset is loaded.

This confirmation prompt can be disabled by deactivating the Confirm Preset loading setting in the Options menu.

Drag and drop a Preset from the Browser listing onto the main part of the BFD3 interface. Again, you are prompted for confirmation before the preset is loaded - the prompt can be disabled in the Options menu.

It is possible to avoid loading parts of presets by deactivating the various Include when loading buttons - see the Browser reference section.

Try loading one of the factory presets - this loads a set of Grooves, so press Play in the BFD3 transport or in your host/DAW to hear the sounds being played.

A Kit is loaded in the same ways as a Preset. In both cases, you are asked for confirmation when loading a Kit by default - this prompt can be disabled by deactivating the Confirm Kit loading setting in the Options menu.

Drag and drop a Kit from the Browser listing onto the main part of the BFD3 interface.

When loading a Kit it is possible to choose whether to Include its stored Drum Editor Tweaks and whether to Reset the current array of Drum Slots and Mixer settings - see the Browser reference section for more details on these controls.

Drums are the basic building blocks for building your own kit or for replacing parts of an existing Kit or Preset. There are several ways of loading Drums:

Let's say you've loaded a preset as described above. Try swapping out the snare as follows:


2. Double-click the Snare channel in the mixer or the Snare in the kit display. The snare slot is now selected and the Browser switches to show the available snares in your library (the Focus Browser setting in the Drums Browser Options menu must be enabled for this to occur).	3. Click a snare in the listing - this previews it in place of the previous snare and will be heard whenever the snare slot is triggered by the Groove engine (or by incoming MIDI).


4. Try out the various snares until you find one you want to load into the kit permanently - click the Load button flashing at the right in order to do this.	... or click the Cancel button to return to the previous snare without loading anything.

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First, select the desired destination Drum slot by clicking it in the Kit display or in the mixer.

Then double-click a Drum in the Browser listing to load it to the currently selected Drum slot.


To load to a specific Drum slot, drag and drop from the Drums Browser onto the desired Drum mixer channel.	To load to a new Drum slot, drag from the Drums Browser and drop between channels in the mixer.

Drums can also be dragged to the Kit display - into a specific slot or to an empty area in order to load the Drum into a new slot. In the above example, a 2nd Kick is being added to the current Kit for a double-kick configuration.

In addition, Drums can be loaded to Drum lanes in the Groove Editor page - either via drag and drop or by double-clicking to load to the slot associated with the currently selected Drum lane.

The Target slot indicator always shows the currently selected destination slot when loading a Drum, along with its currently loaded Drum if it exists.

The preview-in-context system, enabled by the Preview drum on channel when selected setting in the Options menu, is described above.

Hold down ALT when clicking any Drum in the listing to audition its main articulation.

The preview click area is velocity-sensitive: click towards the left side of the Drum item in the Browser for lower velocity layer previews, and towards the right for higher velocity layers.

If the Audition when clicking drum setting is enabled in the Options menu, the main articulation of the Drum is played when it is selected - without the ALT key having to be held down.

The Info display panel contains functions for auditioning any articulation within the selected Drum. See the next section for details.

Many Drums in the listing feature the same underlying Drum, transformed with additional damping, tuning, effects and other settings within BFD3. The purpose of these Processed Drums is to have an array of production-ready sounds which can slot straight into a mix with little or no further adjustment. You can think of them as 'Drum channel strips'.

To show Processed Drums in the Browser, activate the Processed button. To revert to viewing only raw Drums with no additional processing, deactivate the Processed button in the browser.

Presets and Kits from BFD 1.5 and BFD2 are shown in the Browser if they are found within any data locations scanned by BFD3's Content Locations panel. Their settings are recreated within BFD3 as closely as possible, bearing in mind the differences within BFD3's audio engine and approach to dynamics and humanization.

If you have chosen not to add your BFD 1.5 and BFD2 file locations to BFD3, the Load from file and Import functions in BFD3's File menu can be used to load files into the current session or to convert files to BFD3 format manually.