KVR Audio

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 7:59 am

After a fair amount of looking around I feel Superior Drummer 3 seems the way to go. I don't own it yet as my realistic drum requirements are minimal at the moment.

I have MODO Drums which is OK for now, I'm sure it'll keep getting better. I have some Kontakt libraries (8dio had good prices on their drums recently, sound good), so that covers me for the moment.

I researched Slate, Addictive, EZ and others, but there seemed to be things in them that made Superior the better choice. Can't remember what things though! My only issue with SD3 is the expansion packs seem to mostly be geared towards rock or metal. Maybe a user can chime in on their flexibility beyond that.

InMusic really have shot themselves in the foot with BFD. What a sad waste of a once great instrument.

Cubehog · Post by **Cubehog** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:13 am

Yep. I´ve watched some tutorial videos. BFD could be a very competent contender against Superior Drums. The natural recordings and the feel of massaging the raw drum tracks into something unique made it so valueable.
BFD doesn´t seem to be put into the equation for realstic drums anymore when you look for comparisons. Wow, just wow.
I´ve had the same thing with Alchemy and Logic 5.5.1 being "taken away by Apple". E-MU getting laid by the wayside by Creative. I´ve seen some gross "changes" provoked by these big, stock driven companies.

NI try to sell you dumbed down sample players and "nice interactive and creative UIs" and don´t care that much about OS updates. Compare that to the revolution they started with 2 guys making Reaktor.

I really liked the Linplug Spectral and Octopus. Peter quit the endeavor of making very good plugins, because he couldn´t make enough money from it.

I really want to warn people to take note early when some innovative small developer gets eaten up by one of these money driven companies. Nice words and then it gets complicated. Not with the product itself, which worked before, but the copyrighting and the updates are the culprits.

I´m afraid that Fabfilter or U-He might be taken by some bigger company at some day with these same bullshit merger announcements of some PR fckrs and bean counters.
Suddenly my hardware synths seem to be a quite rational choice of gear compared by their rising value

Strange times.
So. Superior Drums it´ll be. Thank you Mr. Arkadin.

revvy · Post by **revvy** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:32 am

Apple took Logic and Alchemy and made them better (hurray!) but Mac only (er, YMMV).

BFD’s demise is distinct.

NI? Dunno.

odod · Post by **odod** » Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:11 pm

is BFD3 still worthy today?

Oberheim 8000 · Post by **Oberheim 8000** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 1:52 pm

If you can forgive it a small user interface in 4k Monitors and after each 90 day re-activation, it is worth (at least for me). I bought BFD3 before I had 4k monitor and when it owned by FXPansion (without this re-activation nonsense). Today I would look for alternatives.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Thu Dec 15, 2022 4:10 pm

I've been with it since BFD1. I would not buy it now. There's a point when the number of days trying to fix something outweighs its usefulness. BFD3 reached that peak with the inMusic buyout.

mtaborsky · Post by **mtaborsky** » Fri Dec 23, 2022 1:09 pm

G'day, new to this forum, long time user of BFD3 but now having an issue after moving to Windows 11. I know it's not supported on Windows 11 according to an article on the BFD site, but I've made the move and by the time I realised BFD didn't work, I couldn't go back to 10. The error I'm getting on launch is: "Unable to launch because although the plugin exists, it could not be loaded from: C:\Program Files\BFD Drums\BFD3\BFD3.dll"
I have tried a full uninstall then reinstall and I also looked for any obvious locks by my AV (Bitdefender) but to no avail. If there is anyone out there able to help me sort this one out I would be super grateful...

flashaha007 · Post by **flashaha007** » Mon Jan 16, 2023 11:13 pm

Hi, interesting thread, for what it's worth, I've recently upgraded to W11, and I have pretty much most of the big hitters in Drum Software. I mainly use SD3 for ease of use with Tap to Find, groove search etc, and have tons of SDX/EZX, yet I still think BFD3 has it beaten in hyper realism. Also, BFD3 working fine for me in 10/11. the odd crash, but I get as much with SD3. So, I guess I'm lucky. Hope for BFD4 soon, with better groove/midi search capabilities, as It would be a real contender. Good luck with drum programming/playing guys.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Tue Jan 17, 2023 12:01 am

BFD4 is 2025 at earliest. Unless you consider that soon.

mabian · Post by **mabian** » Tue Jan 17, 2023 7:24 am

Mr Arkadin wrote: Tue Jan 17, 2023 12:01 am BFD4 is 2024 at earliest. Unless you consider that soon.

Good luck with this, I'll believe it when I see it.
If they behave the same as AiR (same owner, inMusic) I don't think a major update will ever see the light.

- Mario

chroma · Post by **chroma** » Tue Jan 17, 2023 12:59 pm

i am hopeful.... bfd is still great, and with all the sales now you can get the packs cheap if you wait. There are a lot of good options these days but it would be a shame to lose it...

Also - on that front - for those who like some of the sounds but don't like working in BFD anymore (and even here, I can't use it yet in M1 mode, so it's not always convenient):
https://audioplugin.deals/product/drum- ... ate-audio/

This is basically Modern Retro, Imperial, Black Album, and Contemporary Vintage (which I don't think has any equivalent in BFD). Says time limited but it's still up at $69. requires full kontakt but seems pretty flexible and sounds great. (my edrum kit comes today and I'm hoping to give these more of a workout

Cubehog · Post by **Cubehog** » Wed Jan 18, 2023 6:13 am

I just wanted to chime in here just to say that I managed to make BFD3 run on a Win11 computer.

The drums sound as nice and realsitic as always and I actually like to work within the BFD3 provided UI. It may vary on your side. I´ve created 4 songs and so far no crash or anything. No weird behavior. But I´m afraid of this reactivation crap.
I could get access to the BFD managing software. But it wasn´t possible a couple of days before. Hence my first post.
So I would recommend to try to make it work, because most of the BFD users are probably using some expansions. So the money invested goes far more than just the standard library.

I want to thank the remaining FXP crew for providing us with a solution that works (for now). But I also wouldn´t recommend this product to new users although it does sound great and can be used for realistic drums. So if I can fool a drummer, who asks me who drummer was on one of my tracks, it can´t be a bad software. It is too bad that a big conglomerate boughtt this up and made a licensing mess out of it. Why do bean counters do that?

flashaha007 · Post by **flashaha007** » Mon Feb 13, 2023 12:00 pm

As stated previously, I have had no issues with BFD3 on W11, no need for any workarounds, so maybe I'm lucky. Also, I recall seeing in a thread not that long ago (from recollection) someone in the know (maybe a beta tester) giving the impression that BFD4 wasn't far away. I still think it sounds the most realistic (and yes so does SD3, yet BFD just seems to have the edge imho), so fingers crossed, but in the meantime, best get programming, those hits won't write themselves!

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Mon Feb 13, 2023 4:23 pm

No, BFD4 is late 2024 at best, probably 2025. And that was from the owner Drew on the BFD Forum saying as much.

Smasha · Post by **Smasha** » Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:51 am

BFD 3 is AWESOME!