is Superior Drummer better than BFD3?

[Robmobius]

I have both.

SD is by far my favorite. I prefer the sound and workflow. Generally it's easier to use all round than BFD2. Plus, the huge range of add-ons is fantastic.

Personally, I've not heard anything that can compete with SD, YMMV.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I don't have any experience with SD3. Just don't have room for two major drum programs in my life (or on my samples drive) but I have a ton of BFD3 content. I find the BFD3 interface pretty good to work with, but the Groove section could use a big overhaul to improve usability. It's not a sexy GUI, but it does what I need it to, and I know it backwards and forwards.

When it comes to the sound, like I said, I can't compare. BFD3's factory library sounds pretty damn good to me, with some nice diversity. BFD2's library was a little too loose sounding with the tunings and in too big a room for my taste, while BFD1 a little bit on the lo-fi side and just generally wooly sounding IMO. BFD3 really shines with the factory content, Evil Drums (anything Platinum Samples really), and the Drum Drops stuff. I don't own the Black Album drums or any of the other more heavy packs, but I do have some snare libraries, BFD DLX, etc.

I'd kill for the Al Schmidt "Decades" Superior library in BFD3 format, or a version of Superior that shipped with it. That pack sounds amazing from what I've heard. The Massenberg stuff in the default SD3 sounds good too from what I recall. The rest of their stuff is probably too metal for me, but I'm hoping that one day they release a full SD3 out of their Albini recordings.

If I were picking one today, I'd listen to both, check out third-parties and chose which made the most sense for me based on the factory and third-party content. I think both are attractive. But the way I use BFD3 is to program my own patterns (mostly) and mix the drums in my DAW. I'd probably use SD3 the same way. I bring this up because I'm honestly hardly ever in the interface, nor is the groove element that important to me. I just want good drum sounds, with some modeling to help make them sound realistic. I'll do the rest of the work.

I'm pretty sure either platform could get you killer drum sounds with the right content.

[xphen0m]

Having tried both, I think SD3 has BFD3 beat by 100 miles.

[MadDogE134]

just my 2 cents... SD3 (which a friend owns) seems a tad easier to work with but BFD3... to my ears... sounds far better. but i have to agree with some others here that the BFD3 GUI is not the best. if they ARE working on a new version i hope they remedy the GUI flow. i am not a drummer so i tend to build drum parts in other software then funnel to BFD3 for print and final mix. cheers

[epiphaneia]

The heaviest is probably the latest release.

https://www.toontrack.com/product/death-darkness-sdx/

I like the detailed sound of the Progressive Foundry.

https://www.toontrack.com/product/the-p ... undry-sdx/

If you want to sound exactly like a lot of productions, you need the Metal Foundry.

[...]

Danke!

I´ll check toontrack and the toontrack expansions you mentioned; for the desired sound, I won´t need any nuance (think a certain japanese girl-metal band for a rather programmed full-on sound).

Assuming it´s not a question of budget for such a production, and I prefer quick results over detail, would you say I´d still better go for SD 3 or is EZDr enough if I "just want the sound" and don´t need to "set up up to 11 microphones" or need the nuanced 230 gb library of SD which toontrack highlight for SD3?

[medienhexer]

If you want to just pick a sound and build the mix around that, you might even prefer Addictive Drums, Slate Drums or a Kontakt based set. That Drumdrops Mapex is also available in other formats with less detail.

I personally have found all EZXs a little bit too ‚spiky‘, so that lower velocity notes like blast beats completely drown in a mix compared to louder ones like rim shots.

Overall, the velocity mapping per drum/cymbal and Level adjustment per expression in SD3 help a lot with these issues. Also, being able to keep velocity layers and alternate hand samples for Snare and cymbals at maximum for natural expression while turning these down for the kick for maximum machine gun effect helps with the more extreme types of music. SD3 allows doing that.

[epiphaneia]

If you want to just pick a sound and build the mix around that, you might even prefer Addictive Drums, Slate Drums or a Kontakt based set. That Drumdrops Mapex is also available in other formats with less detail.

I personally have found all EZXs a little bit too ‚spiky‘, so that lower velocity notes like blast beats completely drown in a mix compared to louder ones like rim shots.

Overall, the velocity mapping per drum/cymbal and Level adjustment per expression in SD3 help a lot with these issues. Also, being able to keep velocity layers and alternate hand samples for Snare and cymbals at maximum for natural expression while turning these down for the kick for maximum machine gun effect helps with the more extreme types of music. SD3 allows doing that.

For my particular purpose, I´m looking pretty much for the opposite of "natural expression", so my task is basically to find a set of as-hard-as-possible-hitting drums that cut through a dense mix (machine gun repetitions and unnaturally biting trebles are desirables there). If I need SD as opposed to EZDr when I want to adjust the (un)naturalness of the sound, then that´s probably my choice. SSD somehow didn´t "click" with me when I tried it a while ago.

Actually I had originally tried to find good Kontakt-based metal drumkits as I´m well-versed with Kontakt and could get things done faster than with trying to learn another plugin first, but I´m even more clueless as to which companies to trust for quality. I found plenty of (to me, absolutely unknown) smaller companies´ sites, but not a lot of references/reviews online. If you had a suggestion or two for Kontakt-based kits in the vein of what I need, that would be great, otherwise I´ll probably just grab SD3 quickly, as the deadline is tight and it´s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

[medienhexer]

Well, the only one I know from personal experience since the kit is the same for Kontakt or BFD is the Drumdrops Mapex. That one is a heavy hitter and you could EQ it to sound less refined.

You should also listen to these:
https://8dio.com/instrument/8dio-advanc ... st-au-aax/

https://ugritone.com/products/kvlt-drums-ii

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/shreddage-drums/

The ‚larger than life‘ description probably means something different to everyone you ask. These three cover very different areas of metal.

[epiphaneia]

Well, the only one I know from personal experience since the kit is the same for Kontakt or BFD is the Drumdrops Mapex. That one is a heavy hitter and you could EQ it to sound less refined.

You should also listen to these:
https://8dio.com/instrument/8dio-advanc ... st-au-aax/

https://ugritone.com/products/kvlt-drums-ii

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/shreddage-drums/

The ‚larger than life‘ description probably means something different to everyone you ask. These three cover very different areas of metal.

Thanks again, I´ll check these out!

The pricing spread is interesting though, >100 oneshots for $89 @ ugritone, 37.000 samples + deep sampling for $88 @ 8dio. Let´s see if any of these suit my task equally well as the suggested SD3 expansions.

(For what I´m looking for, my "larger than life" is pretty much a dense, compressed, high frequency-laden sound right between "real drums?" and "drummachine?", not "huge room" and "hit the snare really hard"... think Babymetal on steroids rather than Manowar).

[Ploki]

When i was using mixosaurus, SD2 seemed like a toy compared to it. :/

[kelvyn]

Slate, BFD, Addictive Drums and Superior3 are all pretty good actually but SD3 is the most tweakable since the last update to version 3. I used to vary drum VI’s depending on what kind of sound character I was looking for - I think they all sound a little different - but for me the one with the widest spectrum in terms of different character is SD3 and it’s definitely my go to now.
Slates drum VI - for example - has a kind of sameyness in basic character IMO. Not that it’s bad though.
Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[arrakeen]

Own Addictive Drums but just been offered a $75 upgrade from cheap BFD to BFD3.

I don't use either really! Hmm, just can't let a good offer go, why I have too many plugins... as a hobbyist :/

[dickiefunk]

I have both and don't touch BFD3 anymore.

[Ploki]

You must be a guitar player

[jinotsuh]

I owned both, I only own BFD3 now, and a gazillion expansions, sold SD3 as I never used it. SD3 has the better UI by a long shot, and some nice features that I personally would never use, but BFD3 has the best sound, the most realistic sound, it just sounds better IMO. YMMV