My Zildjian Gen 16 DV Z-Pack arrived today. Got a few questions on using it with BFD Eco.

Beepster


I already have BFD Eco and I know I can toss the cymbals into the kitpiece slots but that obviously takes up slots I may want for other stuff and I'd really like have access to ALL the cymbals. So I'm thinking I should use Eco DV on top of the full version of Eco. I'm just wondering if anyone has some insights on this. I'd also like to know if I can have both instances of Eco viewable/editable with in the same PRV so it's easier to write. Make sense? Cheers, guys.

Hmmm I'm quite jealous you know.


You can use the percussion slots too for cymbals so you can have 6 in total. 
I'm not sure about Eco but FXpansion don't recommend running 2 instances of BFD2 (or at least they don't support it) but that said I have used two instances without any problems but I didn't really push it to be fair.

When you say "editable from the same prv) you mean one midi track feeding two instances? I think this might be possible by creating a drum map although I imagine it would be time consuming too.

I would try running two instances of either and see how you get on. 

Either that or upgrade to BFD2 ?  

Steve

Beepster


Right on, twaddle. Gonna have to play around with it to see what's what. I'm too sore to play guitar again tonight anyway so maybe I'll dive into BFD. I'd love to upgrade to BFD2 but I can't swing another $200 and Eco is pretty rockin' as it is. I'm curious... Eco doesn't export MIDI files when using the groove constructor in stand alone. Does BFD2 have an option to export those grooves as MIDI? BTW the Z-Pack is still on sale on AudioMidi's website. If you know anyone in the US who could buy it then ship it to you it's a pretty awesome deal. That's what I had to do. Cheers.

Yes BFD2 can export and import midi files. You can just drag the grooves on to your desktop to save time if you prefer. Unlike Eco BFD2 has what are called palettes. 
These are a collection of grooves that make up a song and when loaded in to the drum track )lane) can be sellected as one song and dragged on to your desktop or in to sonar.


Although you can't export your midi grooves via Eco you can load them in to the drum track and from there drag them on to your desk top. 
In fact I seem to have discovered a work around to not being able export your midi grooves. I just tried doing the same in Eco as I did in BFD2 and it worked.
As long as you load your grooves in to Ecos drum track (make sure the "TRACK" button is on to do this)  you can arrange them how you like. Once you ready to export them (which you can't do) control select each part so all are highlighted
and then just drag them on to your dektop (or in sonars midi track.
I didn't think you could do it like that but it works for me and I don't see any difference between what I did and the export feature ? 

By the way, I did this in both stand alone and in sonar. 
What Eco can't do and BFD2 can is import any midi drum file.

Steve

FWIW, I haven't noticed any problems using BFD Eco and Eco DV side-by-side.  Not that I've finished a complete song or anything, but they seem to behave OK from my brief tests.  

fxpansion also have a forum ;-)

@Fog... Meh. I like you guys better. ;-p

true, but I deal with their support and they have been ok reply speed wise :)

(I'm also on their forum as I use/bought geist/tremor/d-cam)

@Fog... It is good to know they are there once I build up to power user level but I'd probably just look like an idiot at this point... so I'll just keep my idiocy here where people expect it from me. :-p

Beepster, you can display multiple MIDI tracks in a single PRV... at least you could in SONAR 8 and previously! Not sure if/how that may have changed in X1...

I think I'm just gonna send the FXpansion guys an email about these updates. I'm all kerfuzzled... same as last time. I wish they had little descriptions on what this stuff is.

Those cymbals are nice, huh.  I don't think it's something that's overly obvious when compared to better kits, but when listening side-by-side they seem to be "crystal clear" to me.
 
FWIW, the ZP1 is the Zyldjian Pack 1 (there are other packs available).   After I installed regular Eco the ZP1 showed up as unregistered, even though I had been using it in Eco DV.  So I hadn't tried the cymbals outside of Eco DV yet.   Then again, one of the things I wanted with this was the ability to pick from a wide variety of cymbals all at once.  So I'll probably just continue to use DV for that reason.   Hard to beat the cost for what it does!

Hi, stevec. I've got a lot to say about this cymbal pack but I wanted to point out that you need to a) use the FXpansion License Manager to register the Z-Pack (which you've probably done) but then b) when you open your full version of Eco (not the DV version) rebuild your database. Then they should all be cool. Also I tried tossing some of the cymbals into the percussion slots in Eco and it worked fine. I'm shut down for the night but between replacing the ride/hi hat/crash/ride slots and then taking up the percussion slots you should have enough options to get that Z-Pack working very hard for you without a second instance. Cheers!

@bapu... huh, didn't realize it was 32 bit. It was working fine in BFD 64. Haven't tried it in X1 (64) yet though. Hope I don't run into problems. Thanks for the heads up. Hope you and the Mooch dude had some awesome wedding fun. Cheers.

Man... this 32 vs. 64 bit stuff sure does confuse the BLEEP out of me. :-(