Bumping this thread. Pretty much every expansion is on sale right now at a few retailers, a few of the oldies which I haven’t seen reduced in a while. This is great for the recent newcomers to BFD3 to snag some more kits for cheap. I might have to bite as well.
http://store.dontcrack.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=bfd&page=1&sort=4a
Ohhhhh nice find been hoping to see these on sale
Subscribe to their newsletter and get an 18% off coupon you can apply to these sale prices. Probably the best deal you can get.
Anyone new to the forum, please don’t buy BFD3 just because its cheap. Read around and check the ongoing issues first.
I wound up snagging the Dunnett Ti expansion. Just pulling it up quickly to take a listen, really liking this one. Huge 26" kick (and a 24"), cool snare, nice cymbals and the trashed out Amb3 mic has lots of vibe. This one has kinda been on my radar for years and I’m glad I finally picked it up. A steal for $23. And to my surprise, I think this was the first time I was able to successfully download an expansion in one go without errors.
Here’s a bunch of info about the kit pieces and outboard gear used.
John Emrick who recorded the expansion goes into some detail.
What would you say are the best and hard to get ones you recommend with this sale?
I am looking at vintage grooves and orchestral. Iam already getting Horsepower OR Oblivion as a freebie for purchasing bfd3. I am not into much metal.
Vintage recording techniques is very nice and quite a bit different to the others with regards to the way the mix is set up and the use of microphones etc
Another good one:
Orchestral is terrible. Avoid.
Horsepower is the only expansion I’ll really miss. If you’re not into Metal get this.
@Sixstringaxis I would definitely choose Horsepower (BFD’s best expansion imo) as your freebie. It’s one of the pricier expansions and only goes as low as $39.99 on sale, whereas Oblivion is $10 cheaper when on sale. Oblivion does sound great too, just more geared towards harder rock/metal.
I’d say a lot of the older expansions don’t tend to go on sale that often… Dunnett Ti (which I recommend), Jex, Cocktail, Maple Custom Absolute, Oak Custom, Heavy. Crush is another that doesn’t go on sale much and this is the lowest price I’ve seen, but that is definitely a Metal-oriented kit, so might not be applicable to you from what you said.
If you’re new to BFD, I’d say just explore the stock kits, your freebie (Horsepower) and maybe grab one more on sale right now. That will be plenty to keep you going. You will just wind up using Horsepower all the time anyways (I do). I suggest taking a deeper dive into the manual as well and understanding how all the kit tweaks and everything works. That’s a huge part in making the kit sound it’s best.
For grooves, I have Vintage Rock Grooves and it’s not bad, but the stock grooves are pretty decent. Maybe check out Groove Monkee, Platinum Samples as well.
I’ve always been surprised by how well Horsepower was received. When we conceived it I was listening to tons of dirty nu-country type stuff. Murder By Death, 16 Horsepower, Black Angels, The Bad Seeds… yknow, filthy oil-soaked vibe.
I wasn’t sure if anyone would dig it, but we went with it anyway. One of the most loved packs to this day!
I think one of it’s strengths is how fat-sounding overall it is and yet, can still cut through the mix with ease, especially the snare… it has that snap, but still full in the fundamental. The cymbals and ride in particular are exceptional. The ride just has a great energy about it and really adds to the groove. Also, having 3 toms is the sweet spot for me. It keeps it a pretty compact kit.
I only use the unprocessed version in a more straight-up rock context, than the influences you mentioned. Once I tweak a kit to my liking, I usually just stick with that, but maybe someday I’ll explore the processed version and blend the character mics different than I do now.
Only thing missing for me is one extra cymbal to be used over the floor tom, but really two is enough. Any recommendations for a third cymbal from another library that would fit in well?
I’ve got quite a few great sounding BFD kits, but for some reason Horsepower just always gives me that satisfaction and inspiration when writing a new track.
Vintage Recording Techniques is probably the most similar, and was done in the same room with the same mics in roughly the same positions. So maybe try that? The ride in that is good too as it happens!
Thinking of adding ‘Jazz & Funk’, ‘Sabian DV’ and ‘Modern Drummer Snare Selects’ to the base software, before the sale ends. Looking more for funk, fusion, pop, and just basically tight and intricate (delicate, even) snares, hats and cymbals. Any overlap/redundancy in what I’ve selected? For instance, would SDV and MDSS give me that tight funk stuff without needing J&F, or are there reasons for that, also?
Can’t even get the base software to work yet, so it’s a bit of a gamble 
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
If you can’t even get BFD3 to work, why would you want to go sinking more money into it? You should take care of that first. Sabian will definitely be on sale again sooner than later, maybe MDSS too, not sure about J&F though.
What technical issues are you having?
Fender_Bender is spot in. Dont sink any more money in this until you actually get BFD3 working.
You may find that the aggro of getting it working, then having it stop working, repeat cycle not worth it and you may even drop it altogether (like i have after 18 years of use). At least if you find out now your loss is minimal.
As stated there are plenty of sales. BFD does not have the status it once had and, unlike a premier piece of software like Superior Drummer, does not hold its value. Plus it’s inMusic we’re talking about here, look at the prices AIR stuff goes for, it will all be on sale soon enough.
If you can’t even get BFD3 to work, why would you want to go sinking more money into it? You should take care of that first. Sabian will definitely be on sale again sooner than later, maybe MDSS too, not sure about J&F though.
What technical issues are you having?
Thanks
Well, it is a bit of a gamble. But my assumption is that my problems are due to being on an M1 Mac. A further assumption would be that with BFD4 in Beta, this latest crazy discount on the main software package was probably to bring a glut of new users into the BFD fold, primed-and-ready to upgrade to version 4 when the dust has settled.
If I’m right (And I might not be), I can’t imagine InMusic/BFD taking such a huge risk without being very confident that the next iteration (current, and in testing) will address all the issues that have plagued the transition thus far.
The problem for me, currently, is that I can’t find the sound I’m looking for in the base package without a lot of fiddling around. Even then, I doubt I could get it close to natural sounding. So waiting means I could end up with a fully working bit of software that is not fit for the specific purposes I bought it for.
And just to be clear, I’m not knocking the content and quality of the base package. But I already have drums that I’m mostly happy with. I have come back to the BFD fold (Had to sell earlier this year due to dire financial circumstances) looking some very particular sounds, along with the flexibility that none of my other drum software offers.
So, do I buy some expansions hoping to be all fine 'n dandy if/when a Apple Silicon fix drops (Perhaps even before V4?), or do I have to wait for a sale that could be anytime off in the future, and just not use BFD till then. Not sure I’d be so confident of sales patterns matching those of the past few years. Seems everything is full steam ahead to restore BFD as a major player, so perhaps they’ll stop the constant sales.
Anyway…my current issues are failed validation within Logic Pro, both running in ‘Native’ and Rosetta. And while I did manage to get the standalone app running on day one, it now crashes on startup, every time.
Well, if you’ve dropped it but are still here on the forums perhaps it’s not so “aggro” after all
J/K
Anyway…Like I said, I didn’t want to sell the software. And the transfer process ended up taking so long that by the end I didn’t even need to sell it (But I had to go through with it, for the sake of the ever-patient buyer). Until that point, I saw how Drew was handling himself through all the troubles, and firmly believed (still do) that he’s in this for the long-haul.
But yeah, perhaps I need to stop at this point…just in case.
Either way, I’d stil appreciate if anyone could give me an idea about my original question regarding the expansions. Whether I buy now or hold on, I’d still be interested to know.
Thanks 
@el-bo There is currently a BFD3 M1 build that’s in beta, but BFD4 will not happen until early 2024. There is a BFD “Player” that’s in the works and slated for early 2023, but I’ve gathered it’s going to be a very slimmed down version of BFD with not a lot of tweaking or mixing capability. No one knows what kind of compatibility it will have with existing expansions.
So it seems you’re already familiar with the core library and know that what you’re looking for isn’t there. I find the core library to be very versatile myself and high quality.
Just to further elaborate on the BFD sales… Since Jan/Feb of this past year, there were BFD expansion sales every week and for many consecutive months. There was a pretty decent rotation of different expansions on sale, including Sabian DV which was on sale frequently, along with some of the snare expansions. So that may hold true again. I myself don’t have those 3 expansions you mentioned, so I can’t comment on the overlap.
Don’t have J&F, but the Sabian expansion is very nice, and the Modern Drummer Snares are fantastic. Good selection of wood and metal snares with a variety of articulations and all well recorded. MDSS is a steal at the current price (they’re even cheaper over at pluginboutique).
Hi FB
Have you seen the Jazz & Funk expansion anywhere other than the BFD Drums site? It’s not on PB, JRR or Don’t Crack. That’s a pretty old expansion that they’ve resurrected from BFD1 days, right?