Hi there, I have an Alesis Surge Special Edition, and I was able to download the BFD Player today, but I’m disappointed to find the advertising for the Surge Mesh has drum packs that are not included in the player we get.
So two questions:
hello
where can you download bfd player
cheers !!!
As of now, it’s only available to purchasers of the Alesis Surge Mesh Kit. It’s supposed to be available to everyone sometime this year.
Heya,
Player soft launched as an included bit of software with the new refreshed Alesis kits. It will launch as standalone software very soon.
The included pack with the Alesis kits is BFD Dark Mahogany kit, which is a very rich collection of sounds derived from the larger BFD Dark Farm expansion pack. It has dedicated presets for the BFD Player software, and the newest version of it (which you will get as an update) has a ton of grooves and small content fixes too.
The packs in the screenshot above are in various states of development, and will be released when they are ready. They aren’t all going to be launch packs. One of them will be completely free (the Core Library) and the others will be affordably priced.
There isn’t anything I can see on the Alesis or BFD websites that says all of these packs would be included with the Surge kit - that wasn’t ever the intention. Apologies for the confusion.
I can show you where I saw them, at the bottom of this page: Alesis Surge Mesh Special Edition
So if I understand correctly, Alesis owners will later get the “Core Library” free, and will soon be able to buy other packs for BFD player without buying BFD-3?
But the current listed BFD-3 Expansions are not going to be compatible with BFP Player?
Alesis owners already get the Dark Mahogany pack for free, whereas it will be a paid pack at launch. Everyone will get the Core Library for free. Other packs will be paid (cheaper than existing BFD packs!)
One of my future goals is to ensure compatibility between existing BFD3 packs and BFD Player, and I’m looking into the feasibility of that now. It requires a lot of content upgrade work, so it won’t be something that happens immediately.
In essence, BFD Player will eventually have access to an entire universe of drum sounds, preset packs, and groove packs.
nice one , looking forward to it !! .
I’m very much looking forward to that. as soon as they’re ready you’ve probably got at least one or two packs sold to me 
Any update on when the Core Library will be available for BFD Player? I see that a London 70’s expansion pack is now available, but the samples for the Core Library sound great. Hope the waiting ends soon. 
The BFDPlayer v1.1.0.30 has been released with a 5GB Core Library (Based on the DW Collectors Kit from Dark Farm).
The install/Authorization process is different than the BFDPlayer that came with the Alesis Kits …
No Serial Number…
I have had it up and running since yesterday…the Alesis Nitro Max was also released.
I installed on a spare e-kit with a Tablet I use for testing.The install did not require the License Manager…nor does it show up under registered products in my InMusic Profile.
Once installed there is a login prompt/serial number (expansions) check on startup against your InMusic Profile.
The Core Library and the 2 available expansions are 5pc…(3 Toms) and you cannot add kit pieces or expand the kits…since the smallest e-kit I have is 4 toms I have no interest in the expansions at this time.
The majority of e-kits including entry level currently on the market are 6pc as the modules have the option to add 1 tom and 1 cymbal which is the 1st thing users do.
I do not know if you can upgrade your existing…or if it’s better to uninstall/re-install.
The BFD Player | Tutorials support page is currently blank…
That’s so cool. Finally the wait (public) is over. 5GB of BFD goodness, for a free kit is pretty wild. Gonna have to check this thing out. Thanks for the heads up @CHASER.
I see there’s 2 expansions already available and reasonably priced at around $30.
Thanks for the heads up.
Probably, silly question that I don’t need to ask, but…
Will existing BFD3 be affected by the installation of BFD Player? (Sorry for being nervous…)
Is it possible to use each other’s libraries?
Is it a completely different library format?
Does the login prompt only appear when BFD Player is launched for the first time? Or does it appear every time it starts?
Sorry for all the questions.
The first time the BFDPlayer starts up is the online sign in Prompt…after that it does do a content check on startup , but I disconnected from the net to make sure it was an offline check.It only last a couple seconds or so.I presume once a licensed expansion is installed it may check after 90 days.
The Presets…Grooves…Resources etc for the Core Library are installed in the same folder as the Audio Data…I see BFDPlayer folders in the same locations as BFD3.There are also Vst2…Vst3 and AAX plugins installed , but I haven’t tested any of them and I don’t have Pro Tools or a DAW on the Tablet.
Keep in mind I did the install on a separate Tablet which does not have BFD3 installed on it.
As far as compatibility/interchangeability…check Drews post above…Currently BFDPlayer and BFD3 are not.
I see the compression is the same…the source engine is BFD3…the presets are similar in a lot of ways and different for a lot of others and as with the info.xml …are looking for the BFDPlayer Core Library.
I am sure all the mixer settings, effects, Tech etc etc is completely different between the 2.
BFD4 will probably be compatible…
Thanks for the report. @CHASER
I’ll try it when I get some time and if it’s good, I’ll recommend it to my friends who don’t have a BFD.
Hopefully there will be a section added to this forum for the BFD Player, so we can post bug reports, feature requests, etc. After messing about with it in standalone, I definitely found a few things that need tweaking. Should have a polarity switch on the mixer channels for one and an easier way to deselect all solo/mute buttons without having to select channels.
The macro controls really help you fine tune the sound, once you have your fader balances good. Does the macro section get bypassed when you route to individual channels in the DAW?
It sounds good and definitely has the potential to be a force amongst some of the competitors.
@BFD_Drew I’m already building a list of observations/bugs early on. In Pro Tools, there are only 8 mono outputs available for routing, whereas the Player has 16. Can you add category here so we can post our bugs, etc?
@CHASER That’s a fantastic update! Thank you!
It seems like there’d be an alert or something for us Alesis Command/Surge Mesh SE purchasers, with instructions on how to get the new content. The Dark Mahogany pack that came free with my kit has a serial number, so I have to believe it’ll work to uninstall and reinstall and then add the pack back in. I’ll give it a shot! I also need to work on my latency problem… ASIO helped a ton, but I have the slightest delay that drives me nuts. I plan to play with the buffer size some more and hopefully get it solid. Thanks again CHASER!
Alesis hasn’t had a press release since 2019
BFD Player is a very basic player and other than some routing options in the mixer there is no editing of any type other than the 4 Macros at the top for some fine tuning of the overall Kit.
MIDI is limited to the keymaps available …nothing else , basically WYSIWYG.
e-drummers will need to be familiar with the MIDI abilities of their module to dial in to their playing style
Maybe in the future there will be a feature to create/edit presets in BFD4 and export.
I keep information for Alesis Drum products as current as possible over at the alesisDRUMMER Forum
The Nitro Max was released the same day and has a new module embedded with BFD Samples.
Uninstall/reinstall worked like a charm! Even asked if I wanted to add back in the other expansion pack when authorizing. Core library has some great drum sound.
I spent some time and created a template in BFD3 for use with Dark Farm to BFDPlayer…
I tried some trickery to add additional kit pieces and expand the kit , but was unsuccessful.
A lot of the effects in the BFDPlayer info look to be completely different than BFD3
The Preset requires editing for location changes after created in BFD3 including one of the instrument names changed…
One of the instruments Zildjian K Sweet Crash 20 is actually Zildjian Sweet Crash 20 in the BFDPlayer Library.
Unzip and Drop the BFDPlayer Preset and the audio file into the Preset folder in the BFDPlayer Folder.
It will show up under the Core Library menu.
Up Dated 10/09/2023…Longer Audio Audition File 24 bit Stereo requires Host Service…info/Author added to Preset…Macro mods
I wanna see a BFD4 with a friendly GUI alternative as BFD Player, but also a vectorial GUI improved as the BFD3… The quid is to rearrange the elements to have an ergonomical and more clean interface with controls, mixers, options, as same as powerful as BFD3 but rethinking every place and everything.
