As you may know I am a Battery 3 user for awhile now. I just did a song using BFD 2 and I am impressed. 

Battery 3 is still a very useful drum machine but BFD 2 is the way to go if your needs are not as eclectic as mine are. Having both is the ideal situation.

One neat thing that is a bonus is BFD2 shows up in the PRV with the drum names without the need of a drum map. DR008 did that too. Battery 3 doesn't. 
 

John


As you may know I am a Battery 3 user for awhile now. I just did a song using BFD 2 and I am impressed. 

Battery 3 is still a very useful drum machine but BFD 2 is the way to go if your needs are not as eclectic as mine are. Having both is the ideal situation.

One neat thing that is a bonus is BFD2 shows up in the PRV with the drum names without the need of a drum map. DR008 did that too. Battery 3 doesn't. 

I'm a huge BFD2 fan. It's just a fantastic plugin, offers great flexibility, has great effects, is expandable, works great in Sonar. What's not to like?


In addition, Platinum Samples has the best expansions for BFD2 (IMO), with some of the best drum sounds I've ever heard in the Joe Barressi and Jim Scott packs, and if you're more of a classic rock guy, there's always the Andy John's pack too, which also sounds great. They also have a ton of grooves in different genres.


Disclosure: I test for both companies, but in both cases, I was a customer first and later became a tester. If I didn't strongly believe that these are just fantastic products, I'd just keep my mouth shut and not post at all. 

Indeed. I'm only on Eco but what a great program.

John - I'm a Superior user and am entrigued with your comment about drum names showing up without a drum map.  How does that occur?  And can you alter the order of the drum piece names so that you can put all the toms together, all the hihats together, etc.?

Funkybot

John


As you may know I am a Battery 3 user for awhile now. I just did a song using BFD 2 and I am impressed. 

Battery 3 is still a very useful drum machine but BFD 2 is the way to go if your needs are not as eclectic as mine are. Having both is the ideal situation.

One neat thing that is a bonus is BFD2 shows up in the PRV with the drum names without the need of a drum map. DR008 did that too. Battery 3 doesn't. 

I'm a huge BFD2 fan. It's just a fantastic plugin, offers great flexibility, has great effects, is expandable, works great in Sonar. What's not to like?


In addition, Platinum Samples has the best expansions for BFD2 (IMO), with some of the best drum sounds I've ever heard in the Joe Barressi and Jim Scott packs, and if you're more of a classic rock guy, there's always the Andy John's pack too, which also sounds great. They also have a ton of grooves in different genres.


Disclosure: I test for both companies, but in both cases, I was a customer first and later became a tester. If I didn't strongly believe that these are just fantastic products, I'd just keep my mouth shut and not post at all. 

Funkybot you've become my new best friend. That information is very welcome. Right now I already have the Maple Jazz kit. Just got it with half price sale. 
It is a very versatile drum synth. My only problem with it is not having more percussion sounds. Thats why Battery 3 will not be sitting idle. Although BFD 2 is not as easy to use as many others it repays the complications with totally controllable sounds. 

Beepster my good friend. I posted the thread thinking of you. If you ever get the chance get it. No ifs ands or buts. Just get it. I think its still on sale. 

BFD Eco is nice but its really nothing like BFD2.  The kits are bigger in sound and have a lot more layers. I would compare BFD Eco with Session Drummer 3 with Eco getting a bit better sound. BFD2 is the drum synth to get. Along side Battery 3 BFD2 make the most useful drum synths there is. 

Agreed - BFD2 has always been my favorite drum program. To me, the acoustic drum sounds are much richer and bigger than other programs.  

BFD2's sounds aren't as processed out of the box as some other packages, but i don't want that - just give me fantastically recorded, great sounding acoustic drums and let me add effects if I want.

guitartrek


John - I'm a Superior user and am entrigued with your comment about drum names showing up without a drum map.  How does that occur?  And can you alter the order of the drum piece names so that you can put all the toms together, all the hihats together, etc.?

I don't know. Your idea is a darn good one.  Keep in mind although I have had it for awhile now I haven't done much with it. The last couple days I was using it in a serious way and found it outstanding. Before that it was very casual use. Ever since I got it I have been impressed but haven't done much to know enough to post anything about it. Normally I would use Battery 3 because I know what I will get with it and it is extremely tweakable down to the underlying wave files. Really its the only drum synth that can be used in any music. BFD2 is aimed at pop and rock music, country too.  

I don't know clearly how a synth shows patches to Sonar but many do. The problem with drum synths is that each note is a sort of patch and when you want to edit a MIDI drum track you either have to use a drum map or with BFD2 or even BFD Eco Sonar is able to read the kit pieces and display them in the PRV. 

Maybe when I know more I can answer your questions better. All I know now is it sounds great and is not too hard to get the sound you are looking for.

I only started to use BFD 2 more recently, despite having BFD 2 installed for quite a while. It's mainly due to the interface change as I'm more familiar with the Session Drummer 3 / Step Sequencer programming approach. 

But guess what.. just today, I noticed the same Step Sequencer icon at the BFD 2 interface.. and clicking on it enables you to work with the familiar Step Sequencer environment. Perhaps the only additional work is to figure out all the midi notes and setup a template for it as BFD 2 has so much more articulation.

Should have noticed this earlier.. as I find that the Sonar's Step Sequencer is a little easier to work with - the click / right click combo to add/delete note is much faster than using BFD pencil / eraser approach. Also, the Step Sequencer cell/grid is easier to click on.

I still need to learn up the BFD 2 interface fully, but at least I'm now back to full speed programming BFD 2 via Step Sequencer.

Cheers!

It definitely helps to have a professional, 3rd-party virtual instrument to help better the sound of your projects. Toontrack Superior Drummer is also excellent.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

guitartrek


John - I'm a Superior user and am entrigued with your comment about drum names showing up without a drum map.  How does that occur?  And can you alter the order of the drum piece names so that you can put all the toms together, all the hihats together, etc.?

There's something in BFD2 that tells Sonar the note names. How it works is beyond me, but it does. 


Can you change it? Yes, if you adjust the keymap in BFD2, those changes will be reflected in Sonar's PRV.