8 BIT KIT INSTALLATION GUIDE Welcome! The data on the 8 Bit Kit DVDs is arranged by manufacturer. You can run installers which copy all the data for each of the three DVDs. Alternatively, if you only wish to install certain Kit-Pieces, you can drag and drop individual Kit-Pieces from the DVDs to your BFD/Data folder. If you are using this manual method, then it is inadvisable to use the pre-made kit definitions provided on each DVD as they may reference Kit-Pieces which you have not installed. Instead, you should compile your own kits using the individual Kit-Pieces (which, as you know as a BFD user, is a breeze to do). You should also make sure that you have the latest version of BFD installed. To get the latest version, please visit our website at http://www.fxpansion.com and use your FXpansion customer account. Using the Installers: On Windows, insert DVD1 and run the Win BFD 8BK Setup.exe file and follow the on-screen instructions. Ensure that the install location is your existing BFD folder. On MacOSX, DVD1 contains a file called BFD8BK_MacOSX_Setup.dmg. Drag this file to your desktop and run it. The disk image will be mounted to your desktop. Open this and run each installer contained within it (named MacOSX 8BK Setup N.pkg, where N is the number of the DVD installed by the file), and follow the onscreen instructions, making sure you specify the install location as your existing BFD folder. Using the Manual Copy method: Each DVD has Kit-Pieces arranged inside the BFD/Data folder, arranged by manufacturer. Simply drag and drop one or more of these manufacturer folders to your BFD/Data folder. If you only want certain Kit-Pieces within a manufacturer 2 folder, you will need to create the manufacturer folder manually, then copy the desired sub-directories over to it. Alternatively, you can copy the whole manufacturer folder, and delete the parts you don't need. If in any doubt, make sure the directory structure in your hard disk's BFD folder matches that on the DVDs. When you next launch BFD, the newly-copied 8 Bit Kit Kit-Pieces will be available to you within the Kit-Piece Selector panels. Again, you will need to compile your own kits if you choose to install 8 Bit Kit Kit-Pieces selectively in this way. SOME NOTES ON 8 BIT KIT'S SOUNDS 8 Bit Kit was recorded at LA's Sound Factory studios. The drum room used is smaller but fatter sounding than the Eldorado Studios room used in BFD and BFD XFL. Despite the new space, 8 Bit Kit integrates perfectly with BFD while providing a distinctly different flavour. Also, different microphones were used, including Calrec Soundfields, parabolic `Spy Mics', and Grundig dictaphone mics, as well as old favourites like SM57s, RE-20s and Neumann U-87s. A more comprehensive list is provided in the Recording Notes, just before the Kit-Piece listing below. It should also be noted that the different mic positions for the various Kit-Pieces do not necessarily use the same mics. Whenever this is the case, it is indicated in the Kit-Piece listing later in the manual, or the Kit-Piece Selector panel info displays. Custom API/Sound Factory preamps were used throughout. A different acoustic space and microphone setup Certain 8 Bit Kit sounds use touches of creative processing such as overdrive and filtering on certain mic positions. These decisions were made purely to end up with the funkiest, most unique sound possible. Further details of this processing are specified within the Recording Notes and Kit-Piece listing later in this manual, and also in the info text visible within BFD's Kit-Piece Selector panels. 3 Creative processing and recording techniques on selected sounds In addition, selected Kit-Pieces are provided in `Amplified' versions, which are more heavily post-processed with various techniques such as filtering and overdrive, toy echo mics, vintage compressors, plate reverb and ADC subharmonic synths. Finally, several unorthodox recording techniques were used during the 8 Bit Kit sessions. For example, some kicks were detuned, had chains attached, or struck with a paint roller instead of a kick beater! Elsewhere, mallets and brushes are used on certain drums. Again, full details are provided in the Kit-Piece listing or in the Kit-Piece Selector panel displays. Continuing with its creative approach, 8 Bit Kit provides many unique, custom and modified drums and cymbals/hihats. Highlights include custom-built snares and stainless steel cymbals, as well as roto-toms and frame-drums used as tom sets. The percussion selection, in particular, features such esoteric delights as cooking pan lids and steel bowls, as well as ethnic percussion such as bongos, African hand drums and darbukas. Some of this percussion is available within the cymbal Kit-Piece Selector panels, while others have been recorded as tom sets, or even as snares (fully utilizing the top/bottom mic positions to great effect), and are selectable from the respective panels. The full listing later in the manual specifies which Kit-Pieces are provided as snares, kicks, toms or cymbals. Exotic Kit-Pieces and Percussion Vintage analog drum machines One of the highlights of 8 Bit Kit is the inclusion of classic analog drum machine sounds, recorded dry and with room ambience while played out over a high quality Vocalmaster P.A. system. Rather than using samples, the original machines were sourced and selected settings dialled in. These sounds are great for layering with acoustic Kit-Pieces to achieve a fatter, more contemporary-sounding result. 4 As in BFD XFL, the hihats included in 8 Bit Kit contain extra positions such as ¼-open and ¾-open, in addition to the usual closed, ½-open and open positions. Also, some acoustic cymbals have bell hits which, in certain cases are used by some percussion pieces: for instance, the 8BK Bongos uses them for alternate hits. Understandably, this extra functionality leads to a sizable RAM overhead. If you have a small amount of RAM (512MB to 1GB) please see the Performance Tips section in our BFD FAQ at http://www.fxpansion.com/product-bfd-userFAQ.php Improved Hihat and Cymbal detail Due to space constraints, some Kit-Pieces (including some elements of the analog drum-boxes) and certain hit-styles within some types of Kit-Pieces (for example, NoSnare hits in the kicks, and Flam hits in the snares) were omitted from the DVDs and will be provided for download. Please register at http://www.fxpansion.com and check your account regularly for details. You will need to have your 8 Bit Kit serial number handy when you register. It can be found on the back cover of this manual. Many thanks, The FXpansion team. http://www.fxpansion.com Additional downloadable Kit-Pieces 5 CREDITS Lead Programming: SKoT McDonald Audio Engineering: S. Husky Hoskulds, Steve Duda Drum Technician: Josh Baldwin Additional Programming: Angus Hewlett Design and Graphics: Adam Ferns (www.raresense.co.uk) Manual: Mayur Maha Project Management: Rhiannon Bankston-Thomas Recorded at Sound Factory Studios, CA Husky would like to thank: Phil MacConnell - as well as Jason, Matt and Wren - at Sound Factory; Tony Hoffer, Jay Bellerose, Brian Reitzell, John Wicks and Wren Rider for the loaners and support; Josh for the drumming; and Steve Duda for countless hours of editing and continued enthusiasm... 8 Bit Kit concept by S. Husky Hoskulds http://www.eightbitaudio.com 6 RECORDING NOTES The following microphones were used (exceptions are indicated in the Kit-Piece listing below): Kick in: N/A (Misc. 8 Bit Audio processing) Kick out: ElectroVoice RE-20 The 8 Bit Kit kicks offer the dry sound on the kick out and a processed version on the kick in: the Kick In/Out control is used to blend between them. Snare top: Shure SM57 Snare bot: processed version using Grundig dictaphone mic In a similar way to the kicks, the snares in 8 Bit Kit offer a dry snare sound in the snare top channel, and a processed version in the snare bot channel, with the Snare Top/Bot control being used to blend between them. Hihat: Shure SM57 Toms: Coles ribbon mics Cymbals: Calrec Soundfield (half of) Percussion: Sennheiser 421 Overheads: Calrec Soundfield, with an original blackface Alan Smart (SSL copy) stereo compressor in the path, followed by an Avalon Stereo EQ. Room: Neumann U-87, with an Alan Smart silverface stereo compressor en route to tape. PZM: Parabolic Spy Mics, with an Electrix Filter Factory in the chain to varying degrees. Where indicated in the listing, a Vocalmaster P.A. and Edison Grammophone horns were used for some Kit-Pieces. The preamps used were custom Sound Factory/API console mic pres: the console is heavily modified by the staff at Sound Factory. 7 8 BIT KIT KIT-PIECE LIST 8BK 808 Claps Hi BFD/Data/8BK 808/Claps Hi Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive also available as rim in 808 Snare Dusk Hit 8BK 808 Cowbell BFD/Data/8BK 808/Cowbell Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 808 Crash A 8BK 808 Claps Lo BFD/Data/8BK 808/Claps Lo Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive also available as rim in 808 Snare Short Hit BFD/Data/8BK 808/Crash A Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 808 Crash B BFD/Data/8BK 808/Crash B Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 808 Claves BFD/Data/8BK 808/Claves Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 808 Crash C BFD/Data/8BK 808/Crash C Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8 8BK 808/Hihat BFD/Data/8BK 808/Hihat Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Decay knob used for different hihat positions Closed Tip Half Tip Quarter Tip ThreeQ Tip 8BK 808 Snare Dark BFD/Data/8BK 808/Snare Dark Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: Kick Out = Dry Kick In = P.A.Close O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit, Rim 8BK 808 Snare Dusk 8BK 808 Kick Long BFD/Data/8BK 808/Kick Long Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: Kick Out = Dry Kick In = P.A.Close O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit BFD/Data/8BK 808/Snare Dusk Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: Snr Top = Dry Snr Bot = P.A.Close O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Rim = Claps Hi Hit, Rim 8BK 808 Kick Short 8BK 808 Snare Short BFD/Data/8BK 808/Kick Short Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: Kick Out = Dry Kick In = P.A.Close O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit BFD/Data/8BK 808/Snare Short Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: Snr Top = Dry Snr Bot = P.A.Close O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Rim = Claps Lo Hit, Rim 9 8BK 808 Tom Floor BFD/Data/8BK 808/Tom Floor Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 909 Crash BFD/Data/8BK 909/Crash Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 909 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 808 Tom Hi BFD/Data/8BK 808/Tom Hi Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 909 Hihat BFD/Data/8BK 909/Hihat Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 909 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Closed Tip Open Tip 8BK 808 Tom Mid BFD/Data/8BK 808/Tom Mid Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 808 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 8BK 909 Kick Long 8BK 909 Claps BFD/Data/8BK 909/Claps Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 909 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Also available as Rim in 909 Snare b Hit BFD/Data/8BK 909/Kick Long Manufacturer: "Unknown" Model: 909 Vintage Drum Machine Date: Early 1980's Notes: Kick Out = Dry Kick In = P.A.Close O/H & Room = Vocalmaster P.A. PZM's = P.A. + Overdrive Hit 10 8BK 909 Kick Short BFD/Data/8BK 909/Kick Short Manufacturer: "Unknown" M ...