is Superior Drummer better than BFD3?

[EvilDragon]

A good studio drum recording wouldn't be "dirty", it would sound just right and not need a lot of post-processing.

[Ploki]

A good studio drum recording wouldn't be "dirty", it would sound just right and not need a lot of post-processing.

why does BFD3 sound dirtier then

[EvilDragon]

To me it doesn't sound dirtier, to me it sounds thinner/wimpier, exactly calling for a lot of post-processing (and even then not really sounding as good as SD3 can). De gustibus...

[Ploki]

To me it doesn't sound dirtier, to me it sounds thinner/wimpier, exactly calling for a lot of post-processing (and even then not really sounding as good as SD3 can). De gustibus...

Guess so. Maybe i should give them another shot, last time i used it was SD2 and the only kit i liked was Roots, even for Rock/Metal stuff.

There's something about how Snares behave in SD3 that's bugged me since forever.

I think that the "dirt" i'm talking about is that SD sounds "detached" as opposed to "a drum kit"
which can be great in certain genres.
Maybe the dirt i'm talking about is actually "coherency"? But if it's geared towards metal that's usually better anyway.

Maybe i just don't personally like the drummer/mic/drum/room combo they use.

I really really liked the sound of Mixosaurus and it's too bad it was bought out and then effectively discontinued.

[EvilDragon]

Maybe the factory/default kits of SD3, produced by George Massenburg could tickle your fancy. They're not exactly geared towards full-on metal, but have a lot of range. (Not to mention ridiculous perspectives recorded, so that you could even do surround mixes. Or just use those tall, tall mics on their own for weird stuff... who knows?)

[jancivil]

BFD3 content does not have the sort of thinness of BFD2 factory, and if you know how to treat drums the BFD2 factory has some truly awesome pieces.
BFD3 is very lively. Joe Barresi Evil Drums records with processing, others do as well.

This is like people struggling to use VSL, they want it all mixed for them so they hate it when it's dry.

[jancivil]

"detached" as opposed to "a drum kit"

It's all going to be like that, it's NOT a drum kit. Drums you know from records are exhibiting numerous acoustical behaviors and interesting interactions. I don't know from SD or how much bleed there is by default and so forth.
But this is why features such as bleed and resonant spill are brought it.

I haven't actually used anyone's presets but I'm sure some, a lot of it is a lot more like it. Kit is just the drums; Preset is the drums plus what you did with the mixer, which is about as detailed as a mixer gets in software with BFD3.

[jancivil]

Your killer snare IRL, you know somebody with skills has messed with it, compression and EQ and exciter etc, mic placement, transients attention...
So, eg., the Evil Drums sound much bigger than a dry drum can out of the box.
A lot of us want a clean beginning, not someone else's tastes, albeit some Joe Barresi in a box is a pretty good deal.

[EvilDragon]

Yeah but after all that it still remains that BFD3's UI/UX is atrocious when compared to SD3 UI/UX...

[jancivil]

one wonders if there are people that mainly just look at the thing

actually a couple of the decisions made rather piss me off, to look at a send fully should be easier for instance

[Ploki]

Nah. I just like that it doesn't take 1,5s when i switched tabs, that I can have simple direct-out routing without jumping through hoops, that i can simply ignore groove and such crap, and that everything works -snappy-.

I like how BFD3 looks, i hate how its laid out and how laggy the UI is on HiDPI screens.

[jancivil]

I don't appreciate all of those notes robbed by Grooves, which I have never used, but pretty soon in building a kit I will go up there and delete en masse.

[EvilDragon]

I don't like how BFD3 looks or how it behaves (yes I tried working with it, not just looking at it), it's sluggish and absolutely not smooth workflow, SD3 has that smooth workflow. BFD has some unnecessary animations you can't disable (that spinning circle when you select a kitpiece), no dark theme (the white is way too glaring when most of your workspace is dark)...

[epiphaneia]

I´ve been called to help with a remix that calls for really *heavy* heavy metal-style drums. I´ve worked my way through demos of SD and BFD expansions (I haven´t bought either of these plugins yet, so I´m still open here), but of course they all sound kind of good (as is the purpose of demos..).

Are there any expansions you guys would recommend for larger/heavier-than-life sound?

[medienhexer]

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.

On the BFD side, try the Oblivion and The Black Album (not just for Metallica fans).

https://www.fxpansion.com/products/bfdx ... doblivion/
https://www.fxpansion.com/products/bfdx ... lbumdrums/

I also think the Mapex by Drumdrops fits your requirements.

https://www.drumdrops.com/drum-samples/ ... ck-kit/bfd

Overall, I find BFD more confusing, the presets usually don’t sound like what you hear on the website (if they did, that would totally rock. So natural and expressive). Also, I get better results with toontrack‘s MIDI loops. I assume that BFD is really targeted towards actual drummers.