BFD2 vs. Session drummer III and Sonar X1 Producer Expanded

well there are some ad ons for s.d.3 from a few 3rd party vendors that are real nice..theres even one made to sample neil pearts drums..have you tried the zep kit?..the mowtown?..the steven slate sizzle kit?
in my opinion dude..those blo bfd2 away,only problem is those are the best three they have..you need to buy the expansions which is were they get you.

I had BFD 1 and loved it. I was never dove into it very deep, but the drum sounds were fantastic and i was able to make some minor editing of the sounds if I needed to (room abience, mix match kits etc), however that was not very often. I also liked that it labelled the "piano roll" with the drums mapping in the legend. I am willing to try the cakewalk Sessioon Drummer, however i feel like i have been bleeding money for the last couple of months (new computer, new version of Sonar, New version of Guitar Rig, New versions of a few other plugins, etc) now new version of BFD + Hard Drive?   I have found 3rd party drum packs on the Sonar site, but the sample audio files are not working so I can't hear them. relucatant to purchas without hearing.

Thanks bj and chuck

do you know if the dedicated hard drive (for BFD sound library) needs to be firewire or will a usb drive work?  my firewire drive died.

BJ,
    When I had BFD 1, I had to install the program on the c: drive, and loaded all of the sample files onto an dedicated (external firewire) hard drive as described in the preffered install methods in the BFD documentation. Did you do something similar for BFD2? I was under the impression that the samples / drum sounds needed to be on a dedicated drive so it could "stream" them to the program. perhaps the software has changed. 

Not sure what you meant by: "Sorry, didn't know it shipped like that. "  btw, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, i appreciate it!

chuckebaby


well there are some ad ons for s.d.3 from a few 3rd party vendors that are real nice..theres even one made to sample neil pearts drums..have you tried the zep kit?..the mowtown?..the steven slate sizzle kit?
in my opinion dude..those blo bfd2 away,only problem is those are the best three they have..you need to buy the expansions which is were they get you.

Umm...I'd have to strongly disagree. SD3 sounds like pots and pans compared to BFD2. Check it out online - you'll be impressed even just from the videos. 

jamescollins

chuckebaby


well there are some ad ons for s.d.3 from a few 3rd party vendors that are real nice..theres even one made to sample neil pearts drums..have you tried the zep kit?..the mowtown?..the steven slate sizzle kit?
in my opinion dude..those blo bfd2 away,only problem is those are the best three they have..you need to buy the expansions which is were they get you.

Umm...I'd have to strongly disagree. SD3 sounds like pots and pans compared to BFD2. Check it out online - you'll be impressed even just from the videos. 

+1 I almost fell off my chair when I read chuckebaby's comments. Nothing on this planet blows BFD2 away.
Superior is a close second in my opppinion.


Steve

I know I'm saying this at the risk of upsetting some on here but I do sometimes get a feeling that a number of people here think that what they hear on a record is actually what a real kit sounds like.
This might perhaps be down to their age and that they've not played with other musicians in a live situation and so couldn't really apreciate what a real kit sounds like in room. I was probably the same when I was 16 but then I got a band together.
All they seem to want is something that sits in the mix out of the box which I guess is understandable since I am a musician first and a reluctant engineer second. But sometimes learning CAN! be fun (as surely my school teachers must have once tried to drum into my head whilst I gazed out the classroom window) and I'm really glad that I stuck with it though 


In answer to Tracey's question/s,
Running your audio/data for BFD2 from a separate drive is definitely the way to go and most VSTis with large sample sets would recommend the same thing for the same reasons.

I can't remember whether fxpansion recommended fire wire over usb but the fact is all three work very well and the differences in performance are quite small these days especially if your board has usb 3.
Like Jonesy I too run all my data from an internal drive with no problems what so ever. I would suggest posting that question on the fxpansion forum though if you want a definitive answer.

Although I really wanted to buy BFD1 at the time, I was unemployed and just couldn't afford it so it's hard for me to make comparisons between the two but from what I have read BFD2 was a major overhaul from BFD1. From the demos I heard of BFD1 I would say the sound quality is better, more definition and just, bigger sounds. The mixer too is, "I think" the best I have used and I wish sonar had a few of it's features.

You say you didn't get to in depth with BFD1, was that a fear or a time factor? I was really quite daunted at first but as thebiglongy pointed out, there are some great tutorials on youtube and there is also (when you have some money) this one which is very useful. 
 
Another thing I think that BFD2 has which often goes unmentioned are some seriously good effects that are tailor made for drums. 
 
I know what you mean about bleeding money and we don't all have bottomless pockets. 
Normally I might have suggested getting BFD2's little brother "BFD Eco" which although a scaled down version is really not too far behind it's brother in terms of sound and features and all those lovely effects too. 
 
But currently Eco is $99 and with the BFD2 sale until the end of March you are only paying an extra $50 for BFD2 which is well worth the extra so I would say without any hesitation, go for it.

Steve

jamescollins

chuckebaby


well there are some ad ons for s.d.3 from a few 3rd party vendors that are real nice..theres even one made to sample neil pearts drums..have you tried the zep kit?..the mowtown?..the steven slate sizzle kit?
in my opinion dude..those blo bfd2 away,only problem is those are the best three they have..you need to buy the expansions which is were they get you.

Umm...I'd have to strongly disagree. SD3 sounds like pots and pans compared to BFD2. Check it out online - you'll be impressed even just from the videos. 

+1
 
Session Drummer is not on the same playing field as BFD, or the other major players in drum software. I wasted a bunch of money with Session Drummer 3rd party kits, just to realize the software itself was way too limiting. Even BFD ECO or Toontracks EZ Drummer is better option than Session Drummer.

 twaddle : You say you didn't get to in depth with BFD1, was that a fear or a time factor? I was really quite daunted at first but as thebiglongy pointed out, there are some great tutorials on youtube and there is also (when you have some money) this one which is very useful. 

I didn't get too in depth with bfd1 cuz i was more into writting and recording and i thought the drums sounded great with little drum sound editing. Most of my time was in programming (drawing the midi data/creating the drum beats or grooves). BFD1 just seemed to work really well with minimul effort and sounded pretty convincing.  Nothing ruins the creativity like having to be an engineer or computer tech.  so for me, simple is great while writing and recording. Don't mind the editing prior to mixing.

Thanks!
 

sorry you guys feel that way..but maybe there is a reading problem going around..i said those three kits..and in my opinion..they do blo bfd away(THOSE THREE KITS..)..got that part..THOSE THREE KITS..let me say it one more time now...those...three...kits...bfd2 is awesome..does it compare to superior drummer?...not really..or what about drumagog??..or what about kontakt 3,5 with the steven slate samples?..or abbey road drums?...does it compare to session drummer?..o yes..and then some..but those three kits..better than anything ive found on bfd..sorry you guys disagree..having an opinion and making one fall off his seat is pretty strong dont you think?
or maybe i just dont know what im talking about?
session drummer 3 was made to play with x1 perfectly.
sample this,sample that...ive heard enough samples to know a good fake kit..lol...but just like you have your opinions..i certainly wouldnt be falling off my seat because you like bfd more..id respect your opinion,and state mine..i sure as hell wouldnt drag you into it by quoting my comment into your posts 5 times in this thread.. yes 5 times. a few of these posts are borderline trolling.
 

chuckebaby


sorry you guys feel that way..but maybe there is a reading problem going around..i said those three kits..and in my opinion..they do blo bfd away(THOSE THREE KITS..)..got that part..THOSE THREE KITS..let me say it one more time now...those...three...kits...bfd2 is awesome..does it compare to superior drummer?...not really..or what about drumagog??..or what about kontakt 3,5 with the steven slate samples?..or abbey road drums?...does it compare to session drummer?..o yes..and then some..but those three kits..better than anything ive found on bfd..sorry you guys disagree..having an opinion and making one fall off his seat is pretty strong dont you think?
or maybe i just dont know what im talking about?
session drummer 3 was made to play with x1 perfectly.
sample this,sample that...ive heard enough samples to know a good fake kit..lol...but just like you have your opinions..i certainly wouldnt be falling off my seat because you like bfd more..id respect your opinion,and state mine..i sure as hell wouldnt drag you into it by quoting my comment into your posts 5 times in this thread.. yes 5 times. a few of these posts are borderline trolling.

 

It's alright Chuck, I think we're all quite happy to feel that way.
You're right though, I read your post as saying that session drummer 3 blows BFD2 away which is quite obviously absurd.
I just listened to the motown kit and I grew up listening a lot of motown and I'm not in the slightest bit impressed, sounded awful to me.
The zep kit however is very good, but anyway, these are just the kits that came with session drummer 3 anyway so I guessed the Op would have tried them. But when comparing the two products we're not simply talking about how they sound when you load them up, it's more about the flexibility of those sounds how you can shape them and in that sense BFD2 blows session drummer 3 "to quote buzz light year" to infinity and beyond. 
In what way do you think BFD2 doesn't compare to superior drummer? Feature wise it does everything superior does and the bundles effects (pun intended) are far superior in quality and more than 5 times better in quantity.


I did a search for neal Peart drums and the stuff I found for session drummer 3 didn't have any audio demos to listen to so I've no idea what they sound like but I did find this one for BFD which I've not head before and sounds so good I might have to get my wallet out which is rare thing.
I was exaggerating for comic effect when I said I nearly fell off my seat, although I did almost spit a mouthful of tea over my keyboard 


I don't think anyone means to be, or is being disrespectful but clearly we have different opinions as for the reason you were quoted five times? Well that's because your were quoted by five different people, so are we all borderline trolls?




Steve

Maybe i should have waited another few hours cuz I just spent the $150 for BFD2 and $100 for a hard drive.  oh well....ignorance is expensive!!!

By the way, the Neil Peart kit was available as a BFD kit well before it was ready for Session drummer, I've had it for a while and it works great in BFD2! Bill

this 

Cookie Jarvis


By the way, the Neil Peart kit was available as a BFD kit well before it was ready for Session drummer, I've had it for a while and it works great in BFD2! Bill

Hey Cookie
Is that this  Neal Peat kit ? Sounds fantastic in the demo's ?

Steve

have to be honest, BFD looks a bit overwhelming at first.  i loaded bfd 1.5 and got it to work, much easier.  i'm sure bfd is more powerful, but how long will it take me to learn it? not sure, also not sure i want to spend a tn of time learning it. oh well. i will continue to plug away....thanks to all for you advise, opions and answers!!!!  PEACE!