I tried the BFD demo. No doubt, it's a great piece of software. Not sure if it is so great that it justifies spending full price if you already have a product so similar. I would love to hear actual examples of people who have owned AD or similar level drum program, switched to BD3 and suddenly had their tracks sound significantly better. The actual samples in AD are arguably just as good as BFD although BFD has more. AD seems to take the quality over quantity approach. BFD also holds a big advantage in areas like pattern creation. With that said, I would opt to buy another fxpansion product like Geist to increase my range of drum types over BFD in this situation. For me, AD +Geist > BFD3
If you're happy with what you have that's fine. I've noticed a lot of people are raving about AD now that it's included in X3 and it's a great piece of marketing for XLN Audio but it's not in the same league as BFD3. I can only think of 1 thing AD has that I'd like to see in BFD3 and that's an pitch envelope. I'd forgotten AD had one until recently. I put it up as a feature request on the fx forum and Skot_FX said there is one coming. I don't know quite what it is but every time I hear AD it sounds too processed and fake to me now.
Like I said I used to love it until I got BFD2.
It does tend to sound much better to me with the fx off so perhaps that's what makes it sound a little fake. I just had a listen to the reverb and there was a horrible twangy ringing to it that sounded really cheap.
I would love to hear actual examples of people who have owned AD or similar level drum program, switched to BD3 and suddenly had their tracks sound significantly better.
I used to think that but the problem is it's far too subjective, a not so good programmer/mixer/engineer can easily make BFD3 sound awful just as a good one can make AD sound great so it's not the best test. Most of my stuff on line was originally done with BFD2 but is now using BFD3, you won't hear any difference though as it's the same kits and effects and mixes.
Ultimately the best test is to try it out for your self but you really do have to spend some time with it to appreciate it's depth.
It goes far deeper than AD and has so many more features, the drum editor is very powerful with some great tools that sonar doesn't have.
Steve