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BFD 3

Premium Acoustic Drum Software Plugin by BFD Drums
MyKVRFAVORITE186WANT40
BFD3 BFD3 BFD3 BFD3 BFD3
BFD 3 by BFD Drums is a Virtual Instrument Audio Plugin and a Software Application for macOS and Windows. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, an AAX Plugin and a Standalone Application.
Product
Version
3.4.5.28
Minimum requirements:
Core2Duo 2.0ghz (or equivalent)
2GB DDR3 RAM
7200rpm mechanical hard disk or fast SSD
BFD3 v3.2 - Win 7/OS X 10.9 or later
BFD3 v3.3 - Win 10/OS X 10.11 or later
Internet connection for authorization and downloads
1280x800 screen resolution

Recommended for high detail settings:
Quad-core processor or faster (Core2Quad, i3, i5, and i7, or equivalent)
3GB DDR3 RAM or higher
Dedicated drive for audio content
Product
Version
3.4.5.28
BFD3 now supports Apple's "M-series" chips (Mac M1 + M2 ARM). No more need for Rosetta!
Instrument
Formats
Copy Protection
Serial Number
My KVR - Groups, Versions, & More
366 KVR members have added BFD 3 to 52 My KVR groups 428 times.
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KVR Rank

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30-Day: 454; 7-Day: 318; Yesterday: 252

BFD3 now supports Apple's "M-series" chips(Mac M1 + M2 ARM). No more need for Rosetta.

BFD3 is the third generation of the flagship software acoustic drum studio: new levels of realism and ground-breaking features in an intuitive redesigned engine.

With stunning new kits, mix-ready presets and modelling technology for tom resonance and cymbal swells, BFD3 delivers uncompromising detail. The revamped interface has a new mixer and sound browser for the easiest BFD experience yet:

  • 7 new kits recorded in 2 locations.
  • Dedicated rock, metal, jazz and brush kits.
  • More detail in less disk space.
  • Tom resonance / cymbal swell modelling.
  • Streamlined new browser and workflow.
  • Faster, more efficient audio engine.
  • Extendable interface for larger screens.
  • New effects including algorithmic reverb and DCAM EnvShaper.
  • Wide range of mix-ready presets.
  • Fully editable, improved groove engine.
  • Rudiments tool for creating grooves.
  • Grooves by Steve Ferrone, Brooks Wackerman, Bobby Jarzombek, Peter Erskine & Stanton Moore courtesy of Platinum Samples.

Effortless Power

BFD3 is designed to sound great while offering as much depth as you need. Browse for entire presets, quickly compile custom kits or mould any drum sound you desire by retuning, damping and processing multiple mics with the powerful internal mixing engine.

The built-in Groove section offers a versatile range of session drummer performances alongside pattern editing and creation functions. Select from a wide range of musical drum rudiments and paint your own realistic parts.

New Sound Library

With detail levels of up to 80 velocity layers, rim-clicks and rim-shots for toms and bells and splashes for hihats, BFD3's sounds are more expressive than ever before. The library's 160GB of audio data is squeezed into 55GB thanks to BFD3's lossless compression system meaning less space usage and playback strain on your hard disk.

4 of the included kits are recorded in LA's Ocean Studios and feature additional mono room and hardware-compressed channels in addition to stereo overhead and room mics. The remaining 3 kits are stick, brush and mallet versions of a custom Mapleworks kit recorded in a tight but vibrant room at Omega Studios in Rockville, Maryland.

Augmented Realism

BFD3 introduces modelled tom resonance and bleed which provides a natural-sounding 'glue' which blends the sound of the kit together. The modelling varies with the characteristics and tuning of any combination of drums - something that cannot be achieved only by using samples. BFD3 also includes improved dynamics matching across drums and a swell-modelling algorithm for more realistic cymbal washes.

These features can be applied to your existing BFD libraries if you're upgrading (and to any expansion packs you buy in future).

Mixing and Exporting

The internal BFD3 mixing engine has DCAM-modelled compression, filtering and other effects alongside great-sounding EQ and algorithmic reverbs. You can even use an external signal as a compression sidechain source.

New workflow enhancements let you hide multiple drum and ambient mics for simpler mixing approaches and it's easy to route multiple channels to discrete outputs for processing with other plugins or outboard gear. BFD3 even provides multi-channel audio export direct to disk. Grooves can be exported using drag and drop - perfect for compiling loops.

{See video at top of page}

SoundCloud.com/fxpansion/sets/bfd3-all-audio-demos

Latest User Reviews

Average user rating of 3.89 from 9 reviews
BFD 3

Reviewed By hrih67 [all]
November 23rd, 2023
Version reviewed: 3.4.5 on Mac

I regret buying it - I've been disappointed by the sound and usability (and don't start me on the licensing stuff). I wish I'd saved my money and bought EZ Drummer 3 (which I will get now). It sounds old and needs a massive update to be in the same league as it's main competitors.

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BFD 3

Reviewed By Jgk [all]
May 9th, 2023
Version reviewed: 10.12.6 on Mac

I love the program, I run it on a Mac and it runs great, I'm looking forward to 4, there should be more goodies and I like goodies. I think with this program, if you like to tweak and play, it's great, if you want it to do everything for you, , well maybe that's part of any issues. I'm a button turner so I dig it. Great Sounds!!! Love the DW stuff.

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BFD 3

Reviewed By Mr Arkadin [all]
November 17th, 2022
Version reviewed: 3.4.4.31 on Windows

A once mighty piece of software has been decimated by long periods of no development. Sadly the future does not look bright with the take-over by inMusic.

The new licence manager for BFD3, for example, introduced a 90-day subscription-style reauthorisation system. Even though you buy a perpetual licence you have to reauthorise BFD3 online every 90 days. This was introduced with no new terms of agreement and it was the users that spotted this change with no announcement from inMusic. I do not believe the website has ever been updated to reflect this new system.

Perhaps you're OK with reauthorising every 90 days. Except the software is so buggy it may not let you do this, or may do it at a seemingly random time period other than 90 days. You will not be able to use BFD3 at all if this happens.

I state this facts so that potential customers know exactly what they're getting into as inMusic surely won't tell you.

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BFD 3

Reviewed By Orphy [all]
June 15th, 2021
Version reviewed: 3.4 on Mac

I've used BFD for many years to get better sounds for my electronic drum setup. I mostly want the raw, unprocessed sounds as these make playing feel more realistic. Processed sounds are fun but can "muddy up" the feel of your playing quite a bit.

The transition to InMusicBrands has been a bit tough but I'm hoping that this will be resolved soon.

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BFD 3

Reviewed By Beardedone [all]
April 10th, 2006
Version reviewed: 1.5.39 on Windows

I have been a fan of FXpansion’s Dr008 drum sampler/synthesizer plug-in for years. Dr008 combined with Musiclab’s Drumtools: Slicy&Fillin-Drummer plugins made my initial forays into computer music making fun and productive. I then invested in BFD and my world of drum sounds expanded exponentially. BFD’s huge multilayer kits with microphone placement variations, bleed-through mixing and unprecedented hithat control allow production of drum tracks that I bet even Omar Hakim couldn’t distinguish as being sampled. BFD put me in drum heaven. The only thing I was missing was a brush kit of comparable quality to the deep, spacious kits supplied with BFD.
Along came BFD Jazz and Funk. Brush kits as well as mallet, stick, rod and hand struck Jazz kits. Recorded by John Emrich on Gretsch, Yamaha, Slingerland toms and kicks. The snares: let’s see : Ludwig Super Sensitive, Pearl Free-Floating, Greg McDonald 6x14 inch and an incredible sounding 60’s era Rogers Powertone snare. The latter alone is worth the price of admission. Kit pieces (except the kicks of course) are all available as brush and stick wth sekected rod, mallet and hand hits. I won’t go into the cymbals except to say – Thank you for filling every hihat and cymbal possibility I can think of! Installation was easy but be prepared to patient as there are five (5) DVDs to load. There is, thankfully, the option to install in three formats, 20, 48 or 128 velocity-dependent multilayers. This permits those of us with less than bleeding-edge machines to load kits playable at reasonable latencies. My main DAW PC has a dedicated hard drive for BFD that is rather tiny at 80 GB, so I opted for the intermediate multilayer kits. With the stock BFD plus 48 layer J&F compltet kits this drive is nearly maxed out at 75% though it plays smoothly at 3-6 ms through my RME Multiface II. One thing I should mention is that users can install selected kit pieces and can choose to deselect kit piece they may not use or do not have HD space to install. This came in handy on my laptop system drive (80 GB) where I only installed the brush kits. Even though it is a 5400 rpm Seagate drive with an 8MB buffer I can play BFD at less than 10 ms.

Bravo FXpansion!
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Comments & Discussion for BFD Drums BFD 3

Discussion
Discussion: Active
Genetic_Junk
Genetic_Junk
17 November 2022 at 3:23am

Yeah. I worry about the 90 authorization period. If the authorization server goes down (permanently) without a release of a version that doesn't require periodic authorization, that will be pretty bad.

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