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Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 4:12 am
by Smasha
Hi Aerodrums crew.
I was wondering if I could get a BFD Eco drum map from you guys as my hats are playing open and my cymbal is on my tom.

Thank you kindly.
Aerodrums rule!

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 1:17 am
by Richard
Unfortunately we don't currently have access to BFD Eco. However, pages 26 and 27 of the manual (http://www.fxpansion.com/uploadedFiles/ ... Manual.pdf) explain how to modify the key map.

If a drum/cymbal in BFD is mapped incorrectly, select the drum you want to remap and then drag the articulation (hit type) you want fixed onto a note on the virtual keyboard on the right side of the BFD window. The MIDI note to which the articulation should be assigned should be read from the mapping table in the Aerodrums manual (http://www.aerodrums.com/manual/#midi). For example, if the ride bell in BFD is being triggered by the wrong drum in Aerodrums then you should fix it by selecting the ride in BFD, then dragging the articulation labelled 'Bell' onto note F2 on the virtual keyboard.

For the hi-hat, you should select the hi-hat and make sure 'Variable mode' is enabled and that Pedal CC is set to 4. You will then need to assign the tip/shank/pedal articulations to the notes that Aerodrums expects. From the table: tip hits should be assigned to A#1, shank hits to D0 and pedal hits to G#1.

I'm hoping that will fix things for you. Once you have made modifications you are happy with you can use the "Save Key Map..." function to save your changes.

If you can't get the mapping to work as desired I suggest you try some of the other key map presets in BFD Eco. For example, there is probably a preset for the Roland TD20 which is likely to have the hi-hat configured so that it works well with Aerodrums. If you find a preset that fixes a particular problem you can take a look at how it's set up in the key map and make the same changes to your own mapping.

We will try to add a mapping for BFD Eco in the future. In the meantime, let me know if you need more help with this. Thanks.

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 4:57 am
by Smasha
Thank you very much.

I've just about got the hats working properly.

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 1:27 pm
by Smasha
I couldn't get the hats playing right.
Either fully closed or splashed ,no inbetween.

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 11:04 pm
by Richard
Sorry to hear you're still having trouble with this.

One thing to check in the Aerodrums MIDI screen is that the "Continuous MIDI controller to use for hi-hats" option is set to "Foot pedal" and not "Modulation wheel". The foot pedal setting will use CC 4 to send the hi-hat openness information.

If that wasn't the problem, would you be able to run Aerodrums with BFD Eco again using your current setup and go to the Key Map panel in BFD Eco. Then choose "Clear log" in the MIDI Log. Then play the Aerodrums hi-hat a bit (sticks and pedal) and then copy the text from the MIDI Log and paste it here. This should give me the information I need to determine what the problem is.

If we can't get to the bottom of this soon we'll contact FXpansion for help.

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:20 am
by Smasha
I must admit,BFD Eco isn't the best solution for the Aerodrums.
The snare is incredibly sensitive to stick movement.

The slightest movement and BFD Eco performs random rolls.

Not really designed for real time playing,more a composers tool.

there are only 3 midi keys to assign 6 midi functions.

There are closed and open variations of tip shank and pedal so how do you map the 3 Aerodrums midi key assignments to 6 ?

I see here on my Aerodrums midi list that tip is assigned to A#1,shank to D0 and pedal to G#1.

I see an asterix next to the shank and pedal assignments?

What is hihat 2? Is that for the open hits or is it another separate hihat?

I only see one midi key assignment for hihat 2,tip assigned to D#0 and it has an asterix also.

All confusing for me lol.

P.S. I TRIED THE ROLAND TD -20 setup and the hats work but the BFD Eco has a really bad latency on my 7k hd also when just holding the left stick with no movement,snarehits are made by ECO.
Really frustraing experience but I guess it's a budget drum package not designed for this as there are only two latency settings (buffer settings)I have it on 32kOn 16k ,the drums gate off before the sample rings out.

WHEN I CHANGE KITS,the hats change.Some kits I can play them like a normal hat,others the hats splash,when the hihat pedal is closed.

BFD ECO,stay clear of this one Aerodrummers!

Anyone know of a great sounding simple package I can use to ninjam?

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 2:14 am
by Richard
Regarding the sensitivity of the snare, the issue here is that the quietest snare hits in BFD are a lot louder than the quietest hits when using the Aerodrums samples. So ghost notes that would be barely audible with the Aerodrums samples are very audible in BFD. To fix this you should increase the filter threshold value for the snare drum in the Aerodrums drumming menu so that soft, unintended hits are not passed to BFD.

If you haven't tried it, I also recommend you try the example MIDI kit that you can download from here: http://www.aerodrums.com/using-aerodrum ... -samplers/
This kit is already set up with reasonable values for the filter threshold.

As for the hi-hats, if the Roland TD20 key maps works then I suggest you copy the hi-hat configuration from that. Or alternatively, use that preset as a starting point for making the Aerodrums preset and when you've made the desired changes, save the key map under a new name.

It occurred to me that one other thing that might be causing you problems is the "Octave numbering scheme" setting in the BFD key map interface. You should set this to '-2' if you are using the note values from the MIDI table in the Aerodrums manual. If you leave it set to 'Normal' then you will need to convert the MIDI note values from the table by adding 2 to the octave number. So, for example, if the Aerodrums MIDI table says D0 then you should actually use D2 within BFD.

You mentioned that you have the variable tip assigned to A#1, the shank to D0 and the pedal to G#1. If your "Octave numbering scheme" is set to '-2' then that is correct. If it's set to 'Normal' you should assign to notes A#3, D2 and G#3 instead. I hope that makes sense.

Also, don't worry about hi-hat 2. It is only needed if you want to set up a second hi-hat.

Regarding latency, assuming you are running BFD Eco as a standalone application rather than as a VST plugin, the important settings to check are the I/O Settings, accessible from the menu bar. If you are on Windows, I highly recommend you use ASIO4ALL with the ASIO4ALL buffer size set as low as possible.

Sorry all of this is so confusing. These sampler packages tend to be quite complex and setting up a key map is not always a simpler matter. I am confident it will work well when configured correctly - we also hit a few snags with our BFD3 mapping but once we set things up correctly it worked very well with Aerodrums. We will try to get hold of BFD Eco and make a mapping soon.

Re: Request -BFD ECO midi map

Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 2:31 pm
by Smasha
Thanks Richard.

Brilliant support as always.