BFD3 Library for Kontakt Kit 1
A Kontakt library using the BFD3 Factory content.
I have read about a lot of complaints from posters about BFD3 use of too much RAM. That they have to resort to recording each instrument separately because it was killing the DAW.
Personally, I like to use Kontakt, but I could never find an excellent library for drums. The Native instruments libraries sound constipated, the Vir2 one is buggy and others are not flexible enough. So I thought, maybe I can convert the BFD3 kits to be used in Kontakt. I am a developer in real life, so I created my own program to convert the WAV files used by BFD3 to be used in Kontakt. BFD3 uses multi channel wav files (Kit2 for example use 16 channels) in order to send sounds to different Mics. Kontakt on the other hand can only accept up to 2 channels (i.e. stereo files). So the program I created parsed the BFD3 files and converted them into separate WAV files. Now, in order to not overtax the machine, I opted to mix all Direct mics into one Mic (i.e. Kick in, Kick out, Snare Top, Snare Bottom and Direct Mics) for 2 reasons. One: Minimize the number of voices used when playing a note (so, for example, Kit 1 uses 14 channels (stereo for Overhead, stereo for Room, 5 mono channels for Amb and 5 for Direct). So basically if I wanted to convert the files as is, each time you play a note in Direct, it will use 12 voices. The second reason is memory and space. So instead of having 12 wave files, I have 4 files.
I have tried to make the interface similar to BFD3. Here are some screen shots:
Mixer View
Mapping View
Settings View
Mixer with EQ
Mixer with Reverb
For the EQ, I have also created a function to import all the EQ settings for all instruments types from the Factory presets and list them in the drop down list.
For the Reverb, I don't have my own IR samples, so I extracted the IRs used in NI Abbey Road 70s Drummer and used them here.
Note: EQ and Reverb are the only effects used by these instruments.
There is nothing out of this world in my script. It is just a simple one to provide you with control over the important settings. All instruments use the same script. There is no hardcoding of any kind. The group structure enables you to provide whatever info you need to display on the screen. The initial panning of the Direct Mic and key mapping is based on the XG Standard Kit map. All hits have been imported, but I have purged some hits that I don't personally use.
Also, all knobs (other than those of the EQ) can be automated. M and S buttons are also automated. Purging Mics of articulations are not automated.
Also, I wrote another function to import the BFD3 Grooves into Type 1 Midi files using the initial mapping of articulations. Right now, the converted midi files use one track per instrument, but it is very easy for me to create a new one to convert the Midi files to be a one track file.
After compressing the wav files to ncw, the total sample size for Kit 1 is 5.75GB. Even with the compressed format of BFD3, the space used by the Kontakt kit is less than that of BFD3.
This library is for personal use only. But I wanted to share it with anyone who would be interested.
Kits 4, 6 and 7
Kit 5
I have read about a lot of complaints from posters about BFD3 use of too much RAM. That they have to resort to recording each instrument separately because it was killing the DAW.
Personally, I like to use Kontakt, but I could never find an excellent library for drums. The Native instruments libraries sound constipated, the Vir2 one is buggy and others are not flexible enough. So I thought, maybe I can convert the BFD3 kits to be used in Kontakt. I am a developer in real life, so I created my own program to convert the WAV files used by BFD3 to be used in Kontakt. BFD3 uses multi channel wav files (Kit2 for example use 16 channels) in order to send sounds to different Mics. Kontakt on the other hand can only accept up to 2 channels (i.e. stereo files). So the program I created parsed the BFD3 files and converted them into separate WAV files. Now, in order to not overtax the machine, I opted to mix all Direct mics into one Mic (i.e. Kick in, Kick out, Snare Top, Snare Bottom and Direct Mics) for 2 reasons. One: Minimize the number of voices used when playing a note (so, for example, Kit 1 uses 14 channels (stereo for Overhead, stereo for Room, 5 mono channels for Amb and 5 for Direct). So basically if I wanted to convert the files as is, each time you play a note in Direct, it will use 12 voices. The second reason is memory and space. So instead of having 12 wave files, I have 4 files.
I have tried to make the interface similar to BFD3. Here are some screen shots:
Mixer View
Mapping View
Settings View
Mixer with EQ
Mixer with Reverb
For the EQ, I have also created a function to import all the EQ settings for all instruments types from the Factory presets and list them in the drop down list.
For the Reverb, I don't have my own IR samples, so I extracted the IRs used in NI Abbey Road 70s Drummer and used them here.
Note: EQ and Reverb are the only effects used by these instruments.
There is nothing out of this world in my script. It is just a simple one to provide you with control over the important settings. All instruments use the same script. There is no hardcoding of any kind. The group structure enables you to provide whatever info you need to display on the screen. The initial panning of the Direct Mic and key mapping is based on the XG Standard Kit map. All hits have been imported, but I have purged some hits that I don't personally use.
Also, all knobs (other than those of the EQ) can be automated. M and S buttons are also automated. Purging Mics of articulations are not automated.
Also, I wrote another function to import the BFD3 Grooves into Type 1 Midi files using the initial mapping of articulations. Right now, the converted midi files use one track per instrument, but it is very easy for me to create a new one to convert the Midi files to be a one track file.
After compressing the wav files to ncw, the total sample size for Kit 1 is 5.75GB. Even with the compressed format of BFD3, the space used by the Kontakt kit is less than that of BFD3.
This library is for personal use only. But I wanted to share it with anyone who would be interested.
Kits 4, 6 and 7
Kit 5