KVR Audio

AC222 · Post by **AC222** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 7:55 pm

Hi Folks,

I see that BFD3 is on sale for $175ish and well I've always been interested in jumping on this since I was always interested but thought the asking price at full was a bit absurd.

I am interested to know what you guys thought about the following and don't feel the need to address all of them just whatever comes to mind

1) quality of cymbals vs. Superior, Slate, etc...
2) quality of sampler as a whole - not a fan of the robot machine gun sounds
3) value versus competition

I have SSD 3.5 (never bothered to upgrade to V4) and Drumcore and have been pretty satisfied. I can't stand the cymbals on the old Slate (something about them very fake) and on the other hand I really like the cymbals in Drumcore though they are pretreated and I have to add reverb the whole kit or something on some libraries to get them to blend with say all the other Slate elements.

I'm not so sure the Slate cymbals in v4 are that much better for that matter. But BFD3 looks really cool.

Always wanted that Evil Drums library that I can get as an addon for BFD3 but apparently I think Superior stopped making it.

But anyways, I've always heard BFD3 was the bees knees. Not sure if that still holds up in 2015. The cymbals that I heard from the samples did sound pretty darn realistic if not slightly dark.

Maybe my fellow KVR drummers can shed some light.

By the way, I think Drumcore is awesome. I'm surprised nobody every talks about that one...

Thanks!

AC

jinotsuh · Post by **jinotsuh** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 9:31 pm

BFD3 is worth it at twice the price. It is simply the best, end of story, it really is that simple.

Do yourself a favor, you wont regret it

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Sat Mar 28, 2015 10:30 pm

I'm a tester, but that doesn't impact what I'm about to tell you: BFD3 is the bees knees when you're looking for realistic drums. Especially when paired together with the Platinum Samples packs (Andy Johns', Jim Scott, and Joe Baressi packs are my favs), which I think are just beyond good. The new cymbal swell and tom resonance features really just take the realism up another notch.

If you want realistic rock drums, I don't think you can go wrong.

DocAtlas · Post by **DocAtlas** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 11:01 pm

Yes, it's well worth the money. I've had BFD2 for a long time now, and it's usually my go-to drum plugin. I have Superior 2, but I rarely use it. I'll be upgrading to BFD3 soon; JRR Shop has the upgrade for $129 right now.

AC222 · Post by **AC222** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 11:13 pm

Wow. Thanks for all the great responses, guys. Have you compared BFD3 to Superior? I always see way more threads on Superior for whatever reason but I don't quite subscribe to the whole more popular meaning better. Interesting bit on the cymbal swells. In general, the cymbals I hear on the BFD3 seem to sound better than most of the other samples I am hearing with other samplers.

no_one_knows · Post by **no_one_knows** » Sun Mar 29, 2015 12:18 am

BFD has been one of my absolutely essential pieces of software since v1. Couldn't live without it.

electro · Post by **electro** » Sun Mar 29, 2015 7:52 am

jinotsuh wrote:BFD3 is worth it at twice the price. It is simply the best, end of story, it really is that simple.

Do yourself a favor, you wont regret it

Yes, BFD3 is a monster, much more like a DAW than a synth.

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:16 am

AC222 wrote:Wow. Thanks for all the great responses, guys. Have you compared BFD3 to Superior? I always see way more threads on Superior for whatever reason but I don't quite subscribe to the whole more popular meaning better. Interesting bit on the cymbal swells. In general, the cymbals I hear on the BFD3 seem to sound better than most of the other samples I am hearing with other samplers.

i'm a long time superior guy, and in the interests of a change of pace for a new album project, i took advantage of the sale, and picked up bdf3 (via audiodeluxe, so i saved an additional $25 or so...total price: a couple of bucks cheaper than ezdrummer!). So far, i've been enjoying it.
Generally speaking, i only export "dry drums+room, as would be recorded", so i couldn't vouch for either's effects. But in that context, after a couple days' use on the new project (replacing an s2 drum track), bfd seems largely on par to me, with the same control for editing drums/articulations, bleed, etc (though i need to check for snare rattle on kick hits in bfd!).
i tend to like superior's cymbals more (a little more variety out of the box), but i prefer bfd's kicks.
most of my gripes thus far are with bfd's percussion. it doesn't seem to have the articulations that superior1's stock library does (i still use it in s2, i know...not fair). more specifically, the bfd tamborines could REALLY use a rim hit (instead of center on the drum), and an alternate shake (on and off beat shakes would be nice). S2 only has cowbell and drumstick clicks for percussion out of the box, so...like i said, unfair.
Also, re: percussion, while I don't mind bfd's "flat" look, i do wish percussion was differentiated from other drums/cymbals graphically, or could at least be moved away from the drum kit (that's probably do-able, but i just haven't figured out how yet), instead of just appearing as another cymbal or whatnot.

minor gripes aside (and those probably simply due to inexperience...hey, it's only been a couple of days!), i'm liking it. my current project is for someone whom i'd used quite a bit of superior2 for previously, so i'll be curious to hear any comments from them when it's done.

all in all, pretty sweet for less than 2 bills.

AC222 · Post by **AC222** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:31 am

Thanks Guys. You all rock. Got me convinced to get BFD. I've got one more related thread so might need help with that one too. Rock on

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:54 pm

AC222 wrote:Thanks Guys. You all rock. Got me convinced to get BFD. I've got one more related thread so might need help with that one too. Rock on

The more i've been using it, the better i'm liking it.
Some followup to my last post:
Support has been pretty good for me...they're investigating a crash on bounce issue with DP (which i'm not too concerned with, as BFD, like superior, has its own internal bounce mechanism).
Also, support let me know that the percussion expansion has tambourine rim hits and additional articulations, so that should cover me.

Anyway, congrats, and enjoy!
what's the other thread, btw?

cheers!

Maincat · Post by **Maincat** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:47 pm

I was trying to decide between Groove Agent 4, EZDrummer 2 or BFD3. When I saw BFD3 at 50% off, I watched the videos, read the reviews and bought it. I'm very glad I did.

It's a monster drum synth. If you want eye candy, go elsewhere, but BFD3 is very special - workflow, control and above all the sound. If in doubt, just buy it, or download the trial version first. Enjoy.

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:51 pm

i'd say it's worth at full price.

tonymax · Post by **tonymax** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:03 pm

any 606,808 or 909 kits to use with this..

Maincat · Post by **Maincat** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 4:04 pm

BFD3 is just acoustic drums. No electronic drums at al.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 4:14 pm

So not this then:

Maincat wrote:It's a monster drum synth.

BFD3 Worth It At Half Off?