BFD3 - Is it right for me?

[Tommy_D]

Hey all,

I think this is my first post here, so please excuse the ignorance.  I did search but my questions are not so much on the technical side of things like many posts here are, I just have questions on the basics of this whole VST stuff. 

So here's the deal, I have a 2Box module with the 32Gig card mod.  I want to load VST's on to it.  Pretty simple, however 1) I currently do not own any VST software 2) don't have the time to test all the different companies products out there 3) want something with nice full/rich sounds, and 4)want something that's easy to convert and offers great playback with a 2Box module and A2E kit (Intriggs with Yamaha cymbals and HH (Jman Box)).

I have done some research and some people like SD 2.0, others think AD2 has the best software, but sounds thin and doesn't mix well, others think BFD3 is great but its software is convoluted, etc.  I just want something that has good sound, and is relatively easy to work.  If I want to go nuts with tuning, I have my TD-30 for that.   I just want to make the whole 2box/VST process as simple as possible.  I am realizing that my life is getting more and more hectic and having to sit here and tweak VST software, and conversion software, and module tweaking, yada, yada, yada is just not what I want to do with my free time.  I just want to play drums and not get so lost in the technical side of all this.  Like I said earlier, if I want to go all technical and tweak things, I have my Roland kit for that. 

So as far as sounds go, I like what I am hearing with BFD3, but its software is a bit confusing, and its also the newest to the game, so the bugs with conversions may not all be shaken out.  Are people having any issues with conversions and playability using BFD3?  AD2 seems to have the easiest software to use, but people don't think its sounds are as good as BFD3's.  Again, I don't have time to test all these out, but if anyone else here has tried both, what were your thoughts?  SD 2.0 looks good too, but I don't know.  Its all just software to me.  They all seem like they have lots of sounds to work with.  All have metal, jazz, rock, pop, D&B, etc kits to choose from.  I'm just looking for something that works, that sounds good, and wont cause a lot of fuss.  I want to keep my 2Box kit simple.  The Roland kit is big and requires a lot of work.  I'm looking for the opposite with this kit.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Tom

[hemiboy]

Tommy , I have bfd 3 and love the sounds, but I honestly had a friend here set it up for 2 box . Bought Ad1 and never hooked I up and now it has has been automatically upgraded to Ad2. I still have to get that going. When the old poop hit the fan in my personal life, all of this fun stuff went on the back burner. But anyway, I think Jman has ad1 and bfd3 and by now probably AD2 as well. Check him out! You know he will hook you up!

[Jman]

BFD3 is excellent and there are no glitches for creating dsnds with the latest version of SDSE. Here was my initial impressions when I first got BFD3:  http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php?topic=1837.msg16505#msg16505
My suggestion would be, if you start into doing your own dsnds, if you run into any snags contact Lustar, he'll get you running. J

[Tommy_D]

So despite BFD3's interface and editing tools, you don't find it to be something you spend hours with tweaking sounds and then converting and getting it to work with the 2Box module? 

[Jman]

So despite BFD3's interface and editing tools, you don't find it to be something you spend hours with tweaking sounds and then converting and getting it to work with the 2Box module?

The beauty of having all those tools is you can build different variations of the same drums, almost endlessly. But you don't have to. The factory preset kits are already very nice. Once you have SDSE installed you simply open a Reaper project in SDSE, load BFD3, load one of the factory kits and click the button. This demo video I did quite a while back has BFD3 kits I built from 7:30 to the end. All those were just default kits, except the last one where I built that using a previous Hard Rock preset I had setup from BFD2. The kicks are a little weak sounding on the video because I found out later I had a low pass filter activated on my mixer by accident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CddZ28W-RH4

[Tommy_D]

Alright, I will give the demo version of BFD3 a look at lunch.  I hear its a bit lacking (the demo version) but it should give me some idea of what it will take to tweak sounds and make a kit.  I will also have to get my head around the conversion process and assigning sounds to the right pads.  I'm sure its easy once you get the process down. 

[Tommy_D]

Holy Crap!  FXpansion says their library for BFD3 is 55 gigs.  I think I will have to get a larger hard drive just to run the program.

[Jman]

On my PC I use external USB hard drives for the sound content of my VSTs. It works fine that way.

[Tommy_D]

Well, BFD3 is a no-go for me right now.  Requires Windows 7 and I'm still on Vista.  I guess I can still use Addictive Drums and Superior Drummer.  I will look at those a bit harder and see what they offer.

[Tommy_D]

Okay, so I'm looking this over and it looks like for ~$250 I can get Superior Drummer 2 with one kit.  Addictive Drums 2 can get me 3 kits, 3 midi packs, and 3 extra kit pieces for the same price.  It looks like there are 15 "AD Packs" with addictive drums to Superior Drummers 8 "SDXpansions" and the AD packs are $15 cheaper than the SDXpansions.

I find the sound of Addictive Drums to be equally as good as Superior Drummers sound, so I will probably go this route since it offers me more bang for the buck.

I will probably have a bunch of questions about all this in the future, but I will read over the SDSE software thread to see if my questions are already answered somewhere in there.

[fulrmr]

I'm confused.....S2.0 with one kit? There are lots of kit pieces in the there. Well...more than one kit configuration anyway.  Especially when you consider the endless settings you can manipulate to make any single piece into multiple variations.

[Jman]

I have Addictive Drums and a few AD packs. Personally it is not my favorite VST as far as sounds go, but that is personal preference for sure. I haven't even bothered upgrading from AD1 to AD2 ($79) since I have tons of kits already from my other AD packs that I already don't use. BFD2/3 and Superior Drummer 2 and SD2 Expansions are much better IMO...

But AD2 is a good inexpensive way to get going. I think just picking up AD2 with the newest Fairfax Vol. 1 kit that came out at the same time as AD2 for $79 would be a good way to test the waters:
http://audiodeluxe.com/products/xln-audio-addictive-drums-2-fairfax-vol-1-adpak

[Tommy_D]

I'm confused.....S2.0 with one kit? There are lots of kit pieces in the there. Well...more than one kit configuration anyway.  Especially when you consider the endless settings you can manipulate to make any single piece into multiple variations.

Yeah, you only get the NY Avitar kit with the standard bundle at $249.  Sure there are some different kick drums and snares to choose from, but cymbal selection is rather limited.  I'm sure you can make all sorts of different kits from all the options, but its just not as broad of a spectrum as you would get having multiple kits that were recorded in different studios with different mics, etc.  That's where the ADpacks or SDXpansions come in.  Even then, the SDXpansions are more expensive than the ADpacks, so you just keep spending more money to try to get the same thing you would have with AD2 and the 3 ADpack bundle.

I'm sure Superior Drummer is great, but I think I like what I hear and see from Addictive Drummer better.