User Guide

25
Different ways of playing Grooves…
You may remember that when we first introduced the Groove Librarian above, we
made the playing Groove repeat by clicking the Auto Groove Repeat A button. This
button is just one of a number of options which let you change different aspects
of the Groove Librarian’s behaviour. On the right of the BFD interface, there are
two columns of three buttons. Each column relates to one of the Groove Librarian’s
Banks. As well as the Auto Groove Repeat button already discussed above, there
are another two buttons in each column: Auto Bundle Shuffle and Auto Fill. When
Auto Groove Repeat is enabled for any of the two Banks, turning on Auto Bundle Shuf-
fle randomly shuffles between Grooves in the Bank instead of repeating the same
Groove, while Auto Fill inserts a random Fill from the Fill Bank at an interval speci-
fied by the Auto Fill Period option in the Play Options panel. In this way it is possible
to create convincing, varied drum-accompaniment with minimum effort.
The Play Options panel contains several other options which control how
BFD’s Grooves behave. Click the play options button in order to bring up
the panel. Perhaps the most important parameters to understand here are the
Sync modes and Transition Mode options.
Sync to Song
This function makes Grooves play in phase with the song clock. You will have
noticed that, so far, when you initiate any loaded Grooves, they start playing
immediately, and are not synchronized with the song. With the Sync to Song option
on, start the sequencer playing, and trigger one of BFD’s Grooves via MIDI. You
will notice that, depending on when you hit the note within a bar, the Groove
starts playing from that point within it. For example, if you trigger the Groove on
the 2nd beat of a bar, it will play from the 2nd beat - so that if there is a kick on the
1st beat, and a snare on the 2nd, it will start playing with the snare.
Sync Groove Phase
This method of synchronization makes subsequent Grooves play in phase with
the first Groove played. Press play on your sequencer, and trigger a Groove
via MIDI on, say, the 4th beat. Now, when you trigger another Groove, it will
synchronize to the original Groove you played.