FXpansion has announced BFD Nano, a streamlined, fun and affordable software instrument for acoustic drums, based on FXpansion's BFD2 engine. Optimized for flexibility and power while being incredibly easy to use, BFD Nano is provided with an extensive built-in library of drum sounds and patterns, and is also compatible with the wide range of FXpansion and 3rd-party add-on expansions.

BFD Nano gives you easy access to the some of the best sounds in the BFD2 library, recorded at London's Air Studios. The included sounds are full of dramatic levels of detail and mojo... Anything but sterile, BFD Nano is imbued with a musical character that sets it apart from the homogenized, flat sounds found elsewhere, according to FXpansion.

Included are over 40 presets that showcase BFD Nano's powerful, punchy-sounding mixing section. The EQ and dynamics/effect processing allow you to sculpt the raw sounds and lush stereo ambience for any situation. DCAM circuit-modelled compression, filtering and drive provide hardware-style tone and grit, while Overloud's Breverb plate algorithm can be used for artificial reverb effects.

BFD Nano also contains a Groove section containing over 1500 drum patterns to drag into your DAW, or to sequence on the built-in Drum Track. Preview patterns in sync with your project and use the humanization effects to adjust the feel to your needs. You can even export a stereo mixdown from the Groove engine - ideal for loops and breakbeats.

Other advanced features are its customizable keymapping, electronic drum support, the ability to combine kit-pieces from different expansion libraries, and an interface perfectly balanced between ease of use and powerful flexibility. BFD Nano also can be upgraded to BFD2 - both are fully preset-compatible to enable a seamless transition.

Feature Highlights:

• 5 kicks, 6 snares, 12 toms and 3 hihats.
• 11 cymbals and selection of percussion.
• 15 built-in effects including EQ, filtering, dynamics, drive, reverb and more.
• Groove section with over 1500 patterns and advanced humanization.
• Customizable keymaps and electronic drum support.
• Built-in Stereo audio export.
• Over 40 great-sounding presets.
• Full plugin integration for your digital audio workstation.
• Compatible with FXpansion and 3rd-party expansion libraries.
• Upgrade path to BFD2.

BFD Nano will be available in April 2010 for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, AU and RTAS instrument plug-in formats. MSRP is not listed on fxpansion.com yet but audioMIDI have it available for pre-order for $149.

The main differences between BFD2 and BFD Nano are:

• All new groove library, much easier to find exactly what you're looking for, very much focused on jamming, accompaniment and song writing.
• 50 (approx) ready mixed kits covering most musical styles.
• Smaller data set, 1DVD, roughly speaking 3 kits + extra snares & cymbals totaling 4GB(ish) of uncompressed lossless audio. Still expandable with all the same add-ons as the full BFD2.1.
• Fixed kit layout, 12 kit pieces instead of up to 32.
• Simplified and streamlined mixer and kit piece tweaking (fixed layout with 2 ambient and 2 aux buses).
• EQ + 2 assignable fx slots per channel.
• A few less fx types (but you still get the DCAM compressors, Breverb Plate and quite a few more).
• Simplified kit piece tweaking and MIDI mapping, still enough to support all popular e-drum systems.
• Simplified and streamlined groove player. Grooves are exportable but there's no custom pattern editor; there's a revised timeline view which makes it easy to assemble entire drum track arrangements in the standalone.