There's a very interesting thread on this forum at the moment about mixing in BFD vs mixing in Sonar. I wanted to ask the same question regarding making patterns. Do you prefer to use BFDs own pattern editor or Sonar's tools?

I think the internal editor is for use in standalone mode only. I've used it. It's a pain in the butt. You're better off with the PRV or Step Sequncer in Sonar.

JMO

I hate the pattern editor in BFD2 with a passion.   I spent days trying to come to terms with it when I first got BFD2 and it made itself quite clear from day 1 that we weren't going to get along.

I always use PRV and drum maps.

You know what... nevermind. I think with BFD2 you can actually export the MIDI file which can then be loaded into Sonar. With Eco you can't. It's still a pain in the butt to use though.

But why would you go through all the heartache of creating patterns in BFD2 just to import them into Sonah where it's dead easy to create them in the first place?

I avoid the Pattern Editor like the plague.

I do sometimes audition a few of their inbuilt patterns and drag any useful sounding ones from the Palette into Sonar, then clear the palette.

Just like Karyn - it's PRV & Drum Maps all the way.

@Karyn... Howdy. When I first bought BFD I was still trying to learn how to use Sonar (just getting the hang of the PRV now) and I wanted to slap together a quick beat so I used the BFD sequencer. After wrestling with it for an evening I got something slick together then went to save it as a MIDI file. It would only let me do a stereo mixdown. BLERN! I couldn't seem to figure out how to get it to save the project either so if I wanted to go back and work on something I wouldn't be able to. For such a great program that aspect of it is pretty darned crummy.

One thing I got to figure out is how to drag the BFD patterns into Sonar. There are some cool grooves in there I'd like to mess around with. I figured they'd show up in the Sonar Browser but I have yet to find them. Haven't looked very hard though.

Beep - if you've got any pattern loaded in BFD's palette, just click it & drag into a Midi track in Sonar - preferably the one connected to BFD

Good to know, Jonesey. I'll try it out later. I seem to recall attempting that and it not working but I was till pretty overwhelmed with everything so I probably just screwed it up. Thanks.

Currently I'm putting together manually inputted drum track with the PRV just to get my programming skills moving more smoothly. What I'd like to do eventually though to save time is use the included BFD grooves and edit them as need be. I like the way they are categorized. It's a lot easier to find what I'm looking for compared to the whackadoodle Sonar groove files. BFD = Choose genre, find beat, select a variation. Sonar = Poke around for hours and hope that MAYBE you can find 3 beats that KIND of work well together. lol