jimkleban
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 19:01:04
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Not a lover of BFD2 but (as already stated) it is a good tool that has its role in music production. I would highly suggest checking out the Zlydian cymbal packs... the absolutely best recorded cymbals I have ever heard and if you get the two add on packs, every cymbal sound you will probably ever need are there. And yes, you can mix the cymbals from BFD2 with other drum programs kit pieces and still sound like one drum set.
Also, I would suggest that you have a good knowledge of how drums are tracked and mixed in the studio because you need a lot of control to make the BFD2 kits fit into your tracks (those being recorded well and not processed).
Jim
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sharke
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 19:23:06
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John
sharke
Ah boo I HATE threads like this ever since my Jan 1 resolution to stop bankrupting myself with new plugs. Having said that I'm doing fine with NI's drummer series and Battery 3.
I guess I was little gung ho about this. I want everybody that is interested and able to have a good chance here. I wont take back what I have been saying about jumping on it but if its not feasible now its something to go after later on. I do think even at the full price BFD 2 is worth it.
Because you have Battery 3 you have a great drum synth already. However BFD2 is a lot easier to get a good sound from and it does seem to like Sonar. Plus it has a mixer! Really, its the sound that is so nice.
Actually that's what I like about Battery and NI's Drummers....they have in-plug mixers. If it's a good sounding kit I can usually get away with doing everything in the plug as opposed to having to multi-out the drums and do everything in Sonar, as long as it's just a little compression and EQ. Hell in NI's Drummer mixers it even has Transient Master and tape saturation built in.
JamesWindows 10, Sonar SPlat (64-bit), Intel i7-4930K, 32GB RAM, RME Babyface, AKAI MPK Mini, Roland A-800 Pro, Focusrite VRM Box, Komplete 10 Ultimate, 2012 American Telecaster!
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 19:33:27
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Sharke what mixer in Battery 3? If you mean you can assign outs yes but that is not a mixer.  This is a mixer!
post edited by John - 2013/01/06 19:41:08
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Beepster
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 19:38:41
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I picked up the Zildjian Gen whatever pack when it was on special for 26 bucks and it rounded out Eco VERY nicely. Great sounding cymbals and the regular price is something ridiculous like $200. yowza!
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twaddle
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 19:50:37
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John
Sharke what mixer in Battery 3? If you mean you can assign outs yes but that is not a mixer.
This is a mixer!
That's the 2nd and 3rd thing I loved about BFD2 aprt from how well the kits were recorded, the mixer is elegantly designed with some great features and the fx we're "at the time" (2007) some of the best out there and you can create so many different sounds with them very quickly. Steve
soundcloud SoundClick Myspace Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, Intel i7 930, 3.40Ghz, 12GB Corsair DDR3 1TB WD SATA 6Gb X 2 Emu- 0404 PCIe Sonar X1d Expanded BFD3 + BFD2 + BFD Eco Dual boot windows 7, 32 & 64bit
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sharke
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 19:56:27
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John
Sharke what mixer in Battery 3? If you mean you can assign outs yes but that is not a mixer.
This is a mixer!
 I guess this is what I mean, in that you have basic compression, EQ, saturation and reverb for each drum, as well as volume and pan. Not as convenient as the actual mixing consoles in BFD2 or Drummer perhaps, but if all you need to do is a little tweaking, you can get away without multi-outs in Battery.
JamesWindows 10, Sonar SPlat (64-bit), Intel i7-4930K, 32GB RAM, RME Babyface, AKAI MPK Mini, Roland A-800 Pro, Focusrite VRM Box, Komplete 10 Ultimate, 2012 American Telecaster!
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 20:02:17
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Steve you're right and it is only part of the mixer. The scroll bar at the bottom shows that some of it is still hidden.
You're right about the effects too. Outstanding, powerful and very easy to use.
To the left are other controls that add a lot to the basic synth as well. You would know more about them then me.
Its a finely engineered plugin.
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John
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 20:12:36
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Here is more of the mixer 
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Beepster
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 20:32:18
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Your BFD looks very different than my puny Eco.
I'm jelli.
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Danny Danzi
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 20:34:03
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Another loyal BFD 2 user here. It's definitely the most realistic drum program of the bunch in my opinion. It does have pros and cons though.
Pros:
Very realistic. You can kill all rooms and overheads and you are left with a drum that still sounds like a real drum. The others in my opinion, do not have this sound. They rely so much on rooms, effects and OH's that when you kill that stuff, you're left with a drum machine sounding drum from the late 80's.
Sample pool is unmatched. There are so many hits per velocity in BFD 2, you will NEVER experience robotic drum lines...even if you have all the velocities set to 127, it still does a really nice job. Though of course you wouldn't want to do that...but it's nice to know it handles them fairly well.
Complete control.....it's the only drum module I know of that literally allows you to control the volume on every instrument individually. Not just with overheads. Finally...one with a ride cymbal control as well as crashes. Ok, that might be a little unrealistic when really mic'ing a kit as most of us will not mic crashes and have individual control over them. But I have always mic'd my ride.
One of the few drum modules that just auto-maps to Sonar's piano roll. Whatever key map you use in BFD is what you see in piano roll. This is an awesome feature.
Locked right in with my TD-10 and TD-20 module. The only things that needed to be adjusted to taste were my hats and chokes.
The cymbals are the best on the market and the stock sounds you get with it are plentiful and fantastic.
Cons: (though these in my opinion, are not cons in my world....I believe they would/could be for others.)
It's not easy to use at first and is a bit intimidating if you've used other, more simplistic drum modules.
It reminded me of a DAW of drums and there was a bit of a learning curve needed to really unlock the power of it.
You have to work it just like a real kit. The sounds will NOT come out sounding processed like EZDrummer or some of the Superior stuff. It does not sound like Steven Slate Drums. If you're looking for "out of the box drums" with no work involved, this will not be for you. This is the closest thing you will buy next to mic'ing up a real kit. I promise you. Because it is so real, you need to work it as though it were real. Compression and processing on every drum....use of room, OH and ambient room are keys. You will need to do everything you would do to a real kit. Tuning, head muffling to control ring, panning, the whole 9 yards.
-Danny
My Site Fractal Audio Endorsed Artist & Beta Tester
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John T
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 20:37:14
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That last point is very pertinent, I think. It's very immediately comfortable to mix if you're used to mixing real drums. Less so if you're used to working with other drum synths. However, I'd say that has a real up-side. If you get good at mixing BFD drums, you're learning a lot that will stand you in good stead for mixing real drums should you ever end up doing that.
http://johntatlockaudio.com/Self-build PC // 16GB RAM // i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz // Nofan 0dB cooler // ASUS P8-Z77 V Pro motherboard // Intel x-25m SSD System Drive // Seagate RAID Array Audio Drive // Windows 10 64 bit // Sonar Platinum (64 bit) // Sonar VS-700 // M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 // KRK RP-6 Monitors // and a bunch of other stuff
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 20:42:45
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Danny I want so badly to pick an argument with you because I just wrote a post in response to Bub in another thread. I hope you understand.,
The problem is everything you said it so true. What am I going to do? Kick the dog? No!
Anyway that post deserves praise and I am doing just that even though I don't want to. LOL
Oh I know, you could have told me before how good it was. There see, I can find fault if I put my mind to it.
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Danny Danzi
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 22:56:41
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John
Danny I want so badly to pick an argument with you because I just wrote a post in response to Bub in another thread. I hope you understand.,
The problem is everything you said it so true. What am I going to do? Kick the dog? No!
Anyway that post deserves praise and I am doing just that even though I don't want to. LOL
Oh I know, you could have told me before how good it was. There see, I can find fault if I put my mind to it.
Wait wait....you wanna pick an argument with me? What for? LOL! I actually don't understand....please tell me what the deal is? If you mean "well why didn't you tell me this years ago Danny" I apologize due to not knowing the extent of what you do musically. :) I know you do lots of stuff, but have never heard anything so I didn't know how much real drums would be important to you. I seem to remember you doing a lot of midi stuff, which most times, doesn't need a super real sounding kit. But then again, being totally in the dark on what your personal genre's are, it's tough for me to say anything. I could have sworn I've shared something similar to my post somewhere in the techniques forum years ago. I know I've posted my opinion on several other sites that I haunt and have done a few write-ups about the drum modules I've tried. Maybe I never posted anything here....I can't really remember now. LOL! I say kick the dog...but not just any dog, John. You gotta kick this dog that lives across the street from me. I shared this in another post a few months back...but if you missed it, it's worth reading as it should crack you up. So I'm trying to sleep on a day where you can have the windows open. I keep on hearing this noise that is driving me absolutely crazy. Over and over like using a circular breathing technique, I see this dog across the street is barking...but it's not your ordinary bark. This lil baystid keeps on going "herf herf herf herf herf herf herf" over and over without stopping. So I finally lose it, jump up and yell out the window as loud as I can "bark like a real dog you mutha %^&*&$#@#$%^ sunnova @#$%^&*(&%^$# piece of @#$%^&*(%$#!!!! You know, ruff ruff freaking rufff!" Then I saw 2 of my neighbors doing a face plant followed by hysterical laughter....then I started laughing too when I had realized what I had done. LOL! Needless to say, the darn dog kept on barking, so I closed the window and put the AC on so I could sleep. LOL! :) -Danny
My Site Fractal Audio Endorsed Artist & Beta Tester
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/06 23:21:46
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That post Danny was meant as joke. I wanted to express my appreciation for the great post you wrote. I was also still feeling irritated with Bub and that I succumbed to posting in response to his. I wanted to roll both reactions up in one post that I thought would be funny.
I wanted it to be a little odd but clear that I thought you and all the others on this thread were absolutely great.
There was no anger what so ever. Just a bit of fun.
You, I am sure know all this but one can never tell for sure. Then some one that doesn't know me well might get the wrong idea.
Basically I wanted you to have a nice long laugh.
What is important though is everything you said about BFD2 is true.
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Danny Danzi
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 00:37:01
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John
That post Danny was meant as joke. I wanted to express my appreciation for the great post you wrote. I was also still feeling irritated with Bub and that I succumbed to posting in response to his. I wanted to roll both reactions up in one post that I thought would be funny.
I wanted it to be a little odd but clear that I thought you and all the others on this thread were absolutely great.
There was no anger what so ever. Just a bit of fun.
You, I am sure know all this but one can never tell for sure. Then some one that doesn't know me well might get the wrong idea.
Basically I wanted you to have a nice long laugh.
What is important though is everything you said about BFD2 is true.
Haha that's cool John. I kinda thought it was a joke, but you know....sometimes text is a crazy animal. The last thing I want is a confrontation with anyone, let alone a Vet like yourself. :) Hopefully my post about the dog made you laugh to return the favor. Thanks for the kind words brother. :) -Danny
My Site Fractal Audio Endorsed Artist & Beta Tester
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Chappel
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 01:18:58
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Dang... I finally got EZ Drummer going and now I want BFD. :-(
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Glyn Barnes
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 02:06:19
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sharke
Ah boo I HATE threads like this ever since my Jan 1 resolution to stop bankrupting myself with new plugs. Having said that I'm doing fine with NI's drummer series and Battery 3.
I think you are pretty well set up there. There is something about drum software that seems to get the GAS going in most of us!  None of the top end products are bad (Superior Drummer, BFD, Steven Slate, NI Drummer series etc.). I tend to use Toontrack Superior Drummer most of the time, not because its "better" but because I know my way around and I can get what I want out of it. I have Steven Slate 4, ECO and the NI stuff in Komplete, the Neil Peart Sonic Reality (Kontakt) kit and Kitcore (old, but the latin percussion is good). They all get used a lot less. I think Steven Slate and to a lesser extent the NI drummer series are better options if you just want sounds straight out of the box without doing much tweaking. I got Battery with Komplete 8 a few momths back but I have not used it in anger.
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Platinum Samples
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 04:13:48
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 08:34:36
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Danny Danzi
John
That post Danny was meant as joke. I wanted to express my appreciation for the great post you wrote. I was also still feeling irritated with Bub and that I succumbed to posting in response to his. I wanted to roll both reactions up in one post that I thought would be funny.
I wanted it to be a little odd but clear that I thought you and all the others on this thread were absolutely great.
There was no anger what so ever. Just a bit of fun.
You, I am sure know all this but one can never tell for sure. Then some one that doesn't know me well might get the wrong idea.
Basically I wanted you to have a nice long laugh.
What is important though is everything you said about BFD2 is true.
Haha that's cool John. I kinda thought it was a joke, but you know....sometimes text is a crazy animal. The last thing I want is a confrontation with anyone, let alone a Vet like yourself. :) Hopefully my post about the dog made you laugh to return the favor. Thanks for the kind words brother. :)
-Danny
The dog joke was hilarious. I think we have all been guilty of something similar. What makes yours so real is that I have had the same thought about tiny dogs. I can't blame them for being tiny but are they really dogs?
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Beepster
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 09:04:32
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A good, low cost, multi purpose expansion kit from Platinum Samples is the Rock Legends kit. It's not huge or anything but the sounds in it are very flexible for most rock and can be tweak out for other stuff. It's much better sounding than the content included in Eco. I'm not sure about the content in BFD2 but from the samples on the fxpansion site I'd say the Rock Legends kit beat those out too.
I got mine free with the $50 special last summer and I am SOOOO thankful it was included. Between that and the Zidjian pack I picked up I can do most everything I want.
Cheers.
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KevinD
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:04:24
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I've used BFD for over 6+ years and I can't think of using anything else. I'm currently building a new DAW X2 and I'm assuming I need to go to BFD 2 since I want to use Windows 8. Has anyone had success with X2 Update 1 and BFD 2 on Windows 8 x64? I see a lot of Windows 7 x64 users, so my *assumption it should be ok...
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:11:54
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Well I am a X2, Windows 8 64 bit user and it was a slam dunk to install BFD 2.
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KevinD
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:19:54
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That is music to my ears! And BFD 2 is on sale, what a great way to start the year. Did you use a 3rd drive to store the audio samples on? Similar to the old setup disk 1 - OS / Sonar X2 Install disk 2 - Music streaming disk 3 - BFD Audio / Samples / Loops
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:26:01
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Kevin I just let everything go their default way. I should say I also like Beepster have BFD Eco too. So I am letting everything go where they wish.
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Beepster
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:30:15
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IIRC the audio data wanted to default to my C drive. I changed that to my E drive. Works fine... of course sometimes it takes a few seconds for the E drive to wake up when I want to do something but once it's spinning all is well.
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John
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:30:30
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Those that are old hands with BFD 2 if you have any tips I for one would appreciate hearing them.
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Beepster
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:31:33
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Oh... and my E (storage) drive is my second drive. I do not have a third.
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Beepster
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 10:33:21
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John... There are a couple BFD vids in the Free section of the groove3 site. I haven't watched them yet but... they're there. There's also quite a few vids up on youtube. Cheers.
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Bristol_Jonesey
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Re:Sonar X2 and BFD 2 is a marrige made in heaven.
2013/01/07 11:02:19
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KevinD
That is music to my ears! And BFD 2 is on sale, what a great way to start the year. Did you use a 3rd drive to store the audio samples on? Similar to the old setup disk 1 - OS / Sonar X2 Install disk 2 - Music streaming disk 3 - BFD Audio / Samples / Loops
Yes - all my BFD samples (and I've got LOTS!) are on a 3rd drive, along with EWQLSO Platinum Plus
CbB, Platinum, 64 bit throughoutCustom built i7 3930, 32Gb RAM, 2 x 1Tb Internal HDD, 1 x 1TB system SSD (Win 7), 1 x 500Gb system SSD (Win 10), 2 x 1Tb External HDD's, Dual boot Win 7 & Win 10 64 Bit, Saffire Pro 26, ISA One, Adam P11A,
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