Sound:
Franky, I expected more. After reading the marketing hype and then finally buying it, I think the marketing is too hyped (but kudos to the sales guys... I was one in a former life!).
Some of the cymbals sound obtrusive. Snares are good as well as the kicks. HOWEVER, I use it almost always over the sounds on the Korg Triton, Roland JV-2080, and some of the other soft synths in my toolbox.
Feature:
Lots of cool features like adding room ambience, level and pan adjustments, pitch, changing kit pieces, etc.
Ease of Use:
Like too much software it seems to be designed by nerds and not by musicians. I use it as a DXi plugin. ONLY.
Quality:
As I said, some of the cymbals are 'rough' sounding (although you CAN find kit pieces that sound better than others). Aside from working with cymbals, I like the sounds.
Value:
For the price I paid at Zzounds ($199), it's way worth the headaches.
Manufacturer Support:
The web site is efficient. Otherwise, I don't know.
The Wow Factor:
BFD has awesome marketing. I bought based on the hype. I believe the product will improve with the next version. I'm not unhappy with the purchase.
Overall:
Conceptually, it's an awesome product. In the real world it needs some work. I'm a producer. I don't produce part-time- it's my full-time gig. I use it every day on my client's songs.
I wish it were a bit more memory-friendly (seems to use lots of RAM). Other than the comments above, I believe it's a great tool for the money.
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Sound:
This thing sounds absolutely amazing. It makes sampled drums sound like you were recording a real drummer playing a great kit recorded in a top notch studio. The individual samples are superb. The BFD module that triggers them does a far better job at easily mimicking a real drummer's playing than anything that's out there. This is the drum module I've been dreaming of.
Feature:
Really, I don't know what other features you could ask for to make realistic sounding drum tracks. All the samples are recorded clean so you can EQ and process them however you like, or not at all. You can output each of BFD's drums (as well the room, overhead and PZM mikes) to 17 different tracks in your DAW. Or you can just use the BFD module's internal mixer and output to stereo. Or you can start with the stereo and then switch to the 17 output version for later mixdown, when you're ready. The humanizing and quanitzation features are outstanding.
Quality:
It shipped with a buggy installer, but otherwise I haven't had bug problems. I'm cutting down the quality points because the system requirements are quite heavy. You need to have a ton of RAM to run this thing most smoothly. Otherwise, samples have to stream off your hard drive. My experience is that I need to make most of the samples for the kit I've got loaded play once to warm it up. After that, it runs smooth and the system load isn't too bad. But until then, you get all kinds of audio problem and system useage spikes. This is really annoying, and I'm sure it convinces some people that BFD is unusable if they only try it for a few minutes. With another gig of RAM, I don't think I'd have much of this problem anymore. Even without the extra RAM, it's just a hassle and not something that interferes with useability. (EXCEPT, if you need something for live performance, you'd have to stick with just the one kit that you "warmed up.")
Value:
They could have charged twice the price and I've had still been glad I bought this.
Manufacturer Support:
Quick responses to questions in the support forum. FXpansion supports their products well.
The Wow Factor:
Drool worthy.
Overall:
If you want realistic drum kit tracks, forget about Drum Kit From Hell, Perrfect Drums and all the rest of the multisampled collections. You don't need that. You need BFD and that's it. For electronic drum sounds, this just wouldn't be your thing.
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