General Info Why is it called 8 Bit Kit? [top] 8 Bit Audio is the name of BFD 8BK's sound engineer, S. Husky Hoskulds, audio production company. BFD 8BK is recorded at the same 24bit, 44.1 kHz quality as all BFD-series libraries. 
Tell me about this kick drum with the chains... what's with that?? [top] The same 1967 Ludwig blue sparkle kick that was recorded for BFD was treated in various ways, including having chains dangling down in front of the skin. This produces a small burst of softer jangling hits after the main hit.
Why are none of the 'bottom-snr mics' actually _bottom snr mics_, and why are the 'kick in-mics' not that either? [top] The idea for 8BK was to have a drum set / sound set that matched Husky's style of recording more than the original BFD kits.
As a result, there is _one_ channel for snare, _one_ channel for kick, and in addition, the spare channel has some added processing, as Husky would do while tracking.
What happened to the PZM's? [top] Again, the style of Husky's recordings would typically not include two pairs of 'regular' room mics. Rather some type of processed rooms, or processed drums in general.
How did you record the drum machines? [top] All the drum machine Kicks and Snares are recorded _dry_ to the 'Kick out' and 'Snr top' slots, respectively. In addition, they were all sent through a close mic'ed PA for the 'Kick in' and 'Snr bot' slots. Then they were sent out through the room at the Sound Factory, via nearfield monitors and the PA - at 15 different velocities, to capture the room and overheads.
The percussion bits were recorded the same way, without the close mic'ed speaker option.
Why does the 'Handdrum Toms' set have the dry mics show up on the snare fader? [top] These drums were originally recorded by Husky as Snares, but he liked the sound of them as toms, and wanted people to have the option of loading them up as a pair that way, so rather than limit the sonic possibilities, they load up in the tom slots - for use as a pair, but with control over the top / bot snare mics too.
Think of them as a 'bonus overdub tom set'...
Why the 'AMPED' versions? [top] This is another feature, unique to 8BK, where Husky wanted to create some drums that were in a sense mostly thought of as overdub tools. In other words, if you wanted to overdub 'the largest / longest kick drum in the world'... it's there. Also, if you want the Hand Drums, but less 'polite'... for a remix you're doing.. it's there.
Why do some of the Drum Machine Percussion items (claps etc) show up twice? [top] As the acoustic snare drums have 5 hit types, we put the drum machine 'rims' and 'claps' on the apropriate snr hit keys, but left them as percussion pieces as well, for maximum flexibility.
What the hell is a 'Spy Mic'? [top] It's a favorite of Husky's, for all things mangled... It's a toy 'surveillance' mic, with a headphone jack - plugged straight into the API console mic preamps. It has an extremely low threshold for distortion AND compression - easily the two most important ingredients in 8BK
How can I get a "clean" sound from 8BK, if I don't want to use the overdriven mic channels? [top] In 8BK, the Amb3/PZM channels carry a processed channel - typically the sounds were overdriven and played through a PA and recaptured with a "spy mic" or a microphone sitting inside a gramophone horn. Or something equally odd.
The Kicks feature processing on the Kick in channel, while the Snares feature processing on the Snare bottom channel.
If you want to access just the "clean" channels in 8BK:
BFD1:
- go to the output options panel, and MUTE the PZM outputs for the 8BK kit pieces
- turn the kick in/out control completely towards 'out'
- turn the snare top/bottom control completely towards 'top'
BFD2:
- set the send level for Amb3 to zero for all 8BK kit-pieces in your kit
- turn down the kick in channel completely
- turn down the snare bottom channel completely
In the new downloadable version of 8BK for BFD2, Kit-piece presets are provided which turn down the Amb3 send to various degrees.
The manual says there are additional hit types available for registered customers to download, but I cannot see any...? [top] The manual went to print before the DVDs. At the last moment, we found a way to rearrage the data on the DVDs and managed to fit everything on. Apologies for the confusion!
Do you allow license transfers? [top] Yes, however:
- If you're the seller, you must contact us in advance of the sale. If you're the prospective second-hand buyer, you must check that the seller is cleared to sell. If in doubt, contact us.
- There is a flat $50 fee per product for a license transfer, which can be purchased from our online shop.
- Review copies, NFRs (Not For Resale copies, sometimes used for in-store demos), etc., cannot be transferred under any circumstances.
- We reserve the right to refuse a license transfer request.
Many other companies charge a fee as well as forcing annoying copy protection (such as challenge/response, dongles, CD-checks etc.) on their paying customers. Several well known companies do not allow license transfers at all!
Once a transfer is authorised and the fee has been paid, the new owner is entitled to exactly the same upgrade paths and technical support resources as if they had bought the product new. | 
