BFD3 drum software - Thoughts?

    Quote from londonjeepster

    i havent found any cymbals which i think are better than the ones in the ez drummer basic rock/pop kit,and i have tried out a lot of cymbals.in fact that whole basic kit is incredibly useable for just about any style of music. however its not for folk who like to get in and tweak drumsounds extensively. and maybe the kicks are the weakest aspect but they are ok.

    I did not dare to say this. Fortunately Jeepster spoke those words and took them right out of my mouth. No seriously! I have spent a lot of money on expansion packs for EZ
    AND Superior drummer. But for many, if not most of my songs, the basic 8o kit for EZ sounds (IMHO) best. And, yes: the kicks are weak, but we can use SDs kicks instead.
    Unfortunately Ingolf is also right: SD sounds very raw to my ears and the tracks shoud be tweaked like with real drums, for which i do not have the time. I am a guitarist
    after all. :D I have checked the samples of BFD2 and they dont impress me at all. EZ rules for me!

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    Quote from Geraldo7


    Unfortunately Ingolf is also right: SD sounds very raw to my ears and the tracks shoud be tweaked like with real drums, for which i do not have the time.


    OK, but this is not unfortunately but FORTUNATELY. :)
    Because you can treat your drums yourself and don't get the same flavour everybody uses.
    And it's quite easy when you make a compressor/EQ template in your DAW for every drum instrument.

    I think, Superior Drummer is pretty good and I'm very happy that the drum samples are raw. The real magic begins when you use presets based on the raw drum kits (or build/tweak your own). Maybe you just bought a few additional kits but you didn't know why to buy additional Presets for these kits? It's a good idea to get a few. This way you can easily see what the pros did with these kits and you can "copy" or extend on what they did. It took me a while to understand the full potential under the hood of SD, but now I really enjoy it. :)

    Quote from Ingolf

    OK, but this is not unfortunately but FORTUNATELY. :)
    Because you can treat your drums yourself and don't get the same flavour everybody uses.
    And it's quite easy when you make a compressor/EQ template in your DAW for every drum instrument.

    Quote from lightbox

    I think, Superior Drummer is pretty good and I'm very happy that the drum samples are raw. The real magic begins when you use presets based on the raw drum kits (or build/tweak your own). Maybe you just bought a few additional kits but you didn't know why to buy additional Presets for these kits? It's a good idea to get a few. This way you can easily see what the pros did with these kits and you can "copy" or extend on what they did. It took me a while to understand the full potential under the hood of SD, but now I really enjoy it. :)

    Okay guys, got it. That was new to me. Once i knew where to look i found this video . Thx for the hint! :thumbup:

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    Quote from Geraldo7

    I have checked the samples of BFD2 and they dont impress me at all. EZ rules for me!

    You´re right BFD2 was a total fail. BFD1 with its expansions was so amazing. Completely raw, but the basic sounds and the miking was very good. But it always comes down to the choice and the setup of the drums and how they are recorded. There wasn´t a single kit within BFD2 that could be tweaked to sound good with heavier stuff.
    Nonetheless the best cymbals i ever heard on a sample are from an expansion for BFD2:
    http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=198
    Amazing detail, huge amount of sample layers. But i simply don´t like splitting up mit MIDI drums into several drum samplers... So Superior2 is the best compromise for me at the moment.


    EZdrummer has some great expansions out there. However the choice of drums within a single expansion is very limited. I would really wish that they would make something that has the processed sounds of all the EZDrummer expansions with the detail of BFD.


    If you are into heavier stuff, check out the new Metal! expansion for EZDrummer. I think it goes into the right direction. If offers more choices to build a custom kit that suits your own needs a little better.

    Now this is a never ending story. I am glad to hear that it is not that simple. It seems to me that none of you is satisfied with a product as it comes
    out of the box. And for me it should be even more simple: i do not want to mix drums like a pro like you do.
    I just want the drums to keep me inspired. I need a simple good groove and not this crazy fumbling around which comes with those MIDI files of those
    swedish drummers for EZ. I am happy with almost everything of EZ, i like the snare with a little verb, and i love the cymbals.
    Still, the hihat, hmmm, not so good and the bass lacks all the punch of my SD bd. I will try now to combine those two. This seems to work, while -
    on the other hand - for some unknown reason, lightbox, i cannot load those presets mentioned in the video above, my hardware is running into trouble
    no matter how much RAM i give SD ?( . Cracks and crackles plenty! This would have been interesting. Sad.
    But anyway, i should get along now with the combo of EZ with SD's bass drum, but i still search for a good hihat. I think the best for me would be the
    Nashville expansion hihat. Is it possible to load the Nashville hihat into the standard EZ drummer kit, havent found where to do this.





    cheers

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    geraldo: reading your post you should check out addictive drummer. Out of the box I think it sounds way better in mix then the ez drummer expansions, but thatÄs only if you dont wann take the time to tweak the sounds. Which would always be the better approach as there is no preset that will fit 100 percent with what you wanna actually achieve sonically.


    I prefer superior drummer. Like it was already said you have raw samples and it's up to you how you tweak them and everythin is possible. It's probably not the best software for beginners I guess. But for example the x-drum feature is fantastic. An X-drum actually allows you too add another part of the drums to your kit. That way you can have three BDs or two SDs, pprocess them seperately, map them on the same keys and mix them together. There are simply many benefits, so I don't need any other drum software. But what I actually bought was the Evil Drums pack by Joe Barresi. It's an absolute must if you wanna do rock music. Those samples are fantastic but on the other hand what do you expect from a guy who engineered, produced and mixed Queens of The Stone Age and Tool records ("only" engineering and mixing with those guys). I think this pack is also available for BFD, so if you dont have it, get it! ;)

    Quote from KoMa

    geraldo: reading your post you should check out addictive drummer. Out of the box I think it sounds way better in mix then the ez drummer expansions, but thatÄs only if you dont wann take the time to tweak the sounds. Which would always be the better approach as there is no preset that will fit 100 percent with what you wanna actually achieve sonically.


    I prefer superior drummer. Like it was already said you have raw samples and it's up to you how you tweak them and everythin is possible. It's probably not the best software for beginners I guess. But for example the x-drum feature is fantastic. An X-drum actually allows you too add another part of the drums to your kit. That way you can have three BDs or two SDs, pprocess them seperately, map them on the same keys and mix them together. There are simply many benefits, so I don't need any other drum software. But what I actually bought was the Evil Drums pack by Joe Barresi. It's an absolute must if you wanna do rock music. Those samples are fantastic but on the other hand what do you expect from a guy who engineered, produced and mixed Queens of The Stone Age and Tool records ("only" engineering and mixing with those guys). I think this pack is also available for BFD, so if you dont have it, get it! ;)


    Koma, did you get deeper into the X-Drum feature? I tried it several times, since i wanted to integrate and merge multiple expansions while using the more detailed cymbals of SD metal forge. However, the sound of the EZdrummer expansions changes completely when used in a X-Drum slot. For example the metal machine snare drums. I suspect that this expansion has a different mic or channel layout. Somehow, as a X-Drum it´s not mapped the same way as if you were using it directly in EZDrummer. It sounds completely dry and i could not find out how to get this fixed...

    KoMa
    I gave addictive drums a listen and am seriously pondering about buying it for Xmas. Sounds well balanced and if it were true a good solution for my needs.
    This Barresi Evil Pack is discontinued for SD, musician's friend has got one still, but i dont know, maybe again too complicated for me.
    Tool are the best! Sad they make one record in a decade. :D

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    Hey Tyler,


    I'll write this in german as it's much easier to explain.


    Ich hab das Programm jetzt leider nicht vor mir und muss zugeben dass so gut wie dieses Feature ist, es ist nicht gerade total intuitiv gemacht ;) Ich müsste es selbst heute noch vor mir sehen, um es genau zu erklären. Was ich dir aber so schon mal sagen kann, wenn du ein X-Drum Slot hinzufügst musst du im mic assignment im X-Drum Fenster die jeweiligen Spuren der X-Drum hinzufügen.
    Sagen wir mal du fügst eine Snare hinzu und stellst weiter nichts ein, dann hast du glaub ich nur das direkte Microsignal der Snare. Im Mic Assignment kannst du rechts weitere Mikrofonsignale der X-Drum hinzufügen, also Overhead, Ambience Mono, Medium, etc. Diese ziehst du nach links unten wo "new" steht. Jetzt hast du dann also den Overhead-Kanal der Snare, den Ambience Mono usw. je nachdem was du hinzufügst.
    Kann auch sein dass du im Superior Mixer dann im jeweiligen Kanal noch die Snare aktivieren musst, also dort wo du das Bleeding festlegst. Auf diese Art und Weise funktioniert das eigentlich. Ich hoffe es ist schlüssig erklärt ohne das Programm gerade hier zu haben ;)


    Back to english :D


    geraldo: Download the demo and try it. I think it's perfect for your need. I always thought it sounded mediocre on its own but within in a mix you get nice results without much tweaking. And yeah I've just seen that they have discontinued it. What a shame. That was the best library I have ever heard.


    super, danke... das hab ich echt die ganze zeit nicht gepeilt...

    Im a big fan of Steven Slate drums and like what has been said about the kits in superior drummer being natural and not over processed is what i like about the Steven Slate drums too. There are lots of mix ready kits which sound great just out of the box, but there are also the bare bones of the drum sounds to allowing the user to make the kit sound how they please. I used to use Superior drummer and EZ drummer before i came a big slate fan :D

    Hey guys, I actually work for FXpansion - I'm here purely as a Kemper enthusiast though, so don't barrage me with support requests please! ;)


    Saying that, the BFD2 stock libraries can be made to sound heavy. But there is a limit; with drum samples it's all about the raw setup of the drums. I'm happy to say that with BFD3, we had John Emrich covering the poppier, jazz, more natural side of things. For the heavier aimed kits, we had Rail at Platinum Samples handling the recording. His work speaks for itself: http://www.platinumsamples.com


    I did this with BFD2 and some of the Platinum Samples expansion drums:
    http://thelandswithmetalbeasts.bandcamp.com/


    (ohhh, except the last track... that one is Superior Drummer 2)


    But I do really love the BFD3 kits, particularly the DW kicks and the Gretsch toms. With BFD stuff, it's all about giving you the tools to craft out your own drum sound. We don't prescribe a "here are you metal drums, here are your rock drums, here are your pop drums..." mentality - I've used stuff in our Jazz & Funk pack in metal productions before!! It's all about how you treat it.


    Anyway.. getting off my soapbox now. We'll have a demo of BFD3 very shortly which will come with some demo drums and kits, presets. You'll be able to grab it at our site, hopefully before the end of the month!

    Edited once, last by drew_fx ().

    Before i steal this thread about BFD3 entirely - sorry - i return to my drum problems thread.
    Here are some news and things i have learned from you.

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    I prefer the real thing obv... But otherwise bfd3 is great....thats when I can use it...it takes over my PTHD system and eventually crashes.. Cant even load a full kit... Customer services have failed to help me, purly by ignoring me for months... Last i heard from them was a employee of fx said cant help u im on vacation.


    Shame.


    So i use addictive drums now. Superior is a joke to me.


    But with most drum replacements you really have to work hard to get somthing ideal and workable. At least thats my take on it... But then I mix commercial records so everything has to be perfect... And thats the problem drum software is always TOO perfect...

    Here´s my advice: Get Andy Sneap to do a full Library. Using the awesome detail with all those sample layers that made BFD so outstanding but putting all the processing into the samples. Imo this would make all the other metal stuff obsolete.

    Quote from nightlight

    But why? :D


    To a certain level i agree with Andy. The basic features of superior2 were a bit underwhelming when it came out first. I really liked the Avatar Tom Set but the rest just wasn´t there. Now with all those SDX and EZX expansions, you really can get your sound out of it. Thanks to Koma´s hint i was finally able to get the X-Drum feature right and it´s really awesome. I think that you could still get even better results by providing more sample layer variations and more intelligent "humanize" options. Maybe it´s something for the future... developing better algorhythms for interpreting midi data in a more human like way.