Sooo... What's the verdict, is it any good?
Opinions please
https://www.bfddrums.com/drum-software/bfd-player.html

 

It's free, why not try?

 

Well I just haven't yet but if someone has... That's the question.
Was expecting for that kind of comment, lol
Have you tried it?

 

The player is certainly OK. The factory lib is nice, for free and the UI is modern quite like Superior drummer. Enough to play around a bit.
However, if you have BFD cracked on your PC, assume that you will lose the authorizations.
The upgraded IU will most likely not work for the old cracked versions of libs, so you will have to buy new ones or hope that they will be cracked at some point.
If that's the way you want to go is up to you.


My honest opinion on the subject:
BFD used to be good, but has become outdated because the original vendor no longer loved it. Was sold several times.
Now the company that bought BFD is trying to make up the corpse and squeeze money out of it one last time. Look at the name.
InMusic Brands (freelys translated into human language ~~ "Leftover recycler"?)
They buy up everything they can get their hands on, just like Magix. In any case, I don't believe in any lasting and serious further development. See the acquisition of Moog....Shudder ...
https://www.gearnews.com/moog-music-acquired-by-inmusic-for-a-new-chapter-of-innovation/
For me it's clear that it's all about money, I don't invest any time in it. With Superior Drummer, which is available as Long-Time-Trial on the Sister, I no longer see any need to deal with BFD.

Anyone who has installed k'd BFD and is happy with it should not touch it. Player is just colorful.

 

Last edited: Feb 29, 2024

Only briefly. I didn't find or hear anything that would make me pick BFD-P over any other platform - that's not to say it's any worse than any other platform. Just that it didn't do anything special that made me want to keep it.

 

It's unclear to me if you can import your own- i.e Toontrack's or other vendors' - beats & samples to it.
Even after watching some YT videos.
I mean how versatile it is, being free and all?

 

For beats they are midi files and will work (more or less depending on the midi/drumset config of articulations)
Older/foreign libs: Forget it. There is no standard like Midi to make that work at least at the moment PLUS the soundfiles e.g. bfdlac or .obw are encoded and encrypted. Even old EZD .wav files are encrypted (I have just checked it out)
And I think the vendors just don't want their copyrighted material to be used in other plugins.

 

Last edited: Feb 29, 2024

I had the player installed for five minutes a few days ago and then uninstalled it again. it didn't blow me away.

The only reason for me to switch anywhere from BFD or Superior Drummer would be if there was a way to really implement almost all the articulations of a physical drum kit, a kind of MPE for drums. That would blow me away



It's a bit mean, I know

 

Last edited: Feb 29, 2024

Apparently there seems to be some expansion packs to it, here's a vid by Creative Sauce, released 6 days ago

 

Bummer

 

Yes.
When you look at the expansion libs the guy has installed, they are all called "BFDplayer BlbBla". That means to me the player is only capable to use BFDplayer Expansions. So even the old BFD Expansions won't work. Quite lame. (Ofc. There are the fancy looking pics missing so that Player is just not able to make te old libs look nice. But it should be possible to play (ugly looking) drums and cymbals.
But I suspect the great old BFD expansions will never work (I suspect it not know) but you have to buy new ones and time will tell if they are any good.

With Superior drummer (I'm no fanboy but thats the platform I know best) you can even use very old EZD libraries just by more or less copying some png files into a folder. Free update for owners (and pirates btw. )

And that's the difference between an original creator and vendor and a MusicTech label aggregator like InMusic Brands or Magix.



p.s.: Please don't take me too seriously. My opinion here is colored by the fact that I hate these market and power concentrations.

 

That's cool, thanks

 

I confirm: BFD3 is difficult to use, severely outdated, developed probably by one person (I salute Drew because he does what he can), you can not easily remap MIDI to f.g. GM or SD3, often crashes daw… The list of red flags is cruelly long, one BFD3 is, in my opinion, the most realistic-sounding drum plug-in that has been developed.
BFD3Player probably was supposed to be an answer to trendy programs like GGD priced up to $30/50, it was supposed to renew the brand and introduce a new formula and new expansion pack. For me, it was mega disappointing that my collection of extensions from BFD3 wouldn't work, and inMusic was reaching out their dirty hands for extra money for smaller libs made exactly from old huge libraries I already have. shame.

 

I have just redownloaded most of the old BFD libraries form the sister site. While BFD3 is a bit clunky and weird to work with, the realism is still very much there. My only grippe is that it's all 16bit 44.1kHz, it's fine but it does have a bit of "CD" sound (I've become quite accustomed to 96kHz). Though, in a mix with everything else at 24bit 96kHz, I doubt it would be obvious.

I'm also rediscovering the core Superior Drummer 3 library, which I find works better in a mix than most shiny new libs. The new libs sound too full, and it becomes a problem in a dense mix.

Anyway, the new BFD Player isn't a platform I would invest in. The fact it isn't even retro-compatible is a big no-no (it's freaking samples, come on man). At least Toontrack got that right.

 

File/Load Key Map... and select it from the list. ;)

 

Funny, I must admit
Have you checked how they are mapped? Do they actually coincide with the GM or SD3 map, for example ? How are the cymbals assigned to midi notes across CymbalSlots?
I tried to map that shit inside BFD3 and using NoteMapper software, but it is impossible because BFD3 maps are inconsistent.
I am not the only one who has a problem with this - just visit the BFD3 forum for more similar threads.