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

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.

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.

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

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.  

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

Dang... I finally got EZ Drummer going and now I want BFD. :-(

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.

For a more mix ready BFD sound check out our expansions

https://www.platinumsamples.com/index.php


Cheers


Rail

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?