Thanks for response, disappointing, been user for over 10 years with 100’s of AAX projects with BFD imbedded, I would think a majority of users are PT users, and are on silicon by now, we are losing at least 15% performance running on Rosetta, is it that AAX is difficult to code or does it have to do with Avid licensing of the plug-in format? would really like to know if this will really be supported in 2024 or if I just need to move on, thoughts?
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We have to completely rewrite our plugin wrappers, the entire host automation system needs re-plumbing, and all of the associated testing it requires. Certainly isn’t a quick job unfortunately. There truly are plans in place to address all this stuff, but it isn’t going to be quick - wish I could say otherwise!
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I am finally able to have a project in Cubase 13 that’s Silicon, incl. VE Pro in its silicon version.
‘insert plugin’ in VEP and there BFD3 actually shows but I prefer not, as there’s no BFD3.vst3 plugin on the drive and for some reason Cubase still likes to act like there is no audio driver with all-silicon where VEP is connected. During the life of OS13.6 it never remained stable long enough to do anything at all, now @ OS14 thru 14.1.2 it is possible but I’ve had to reinstall Cubase twice in the week I’ve been at it.
I bought a really nice-sounding drums plugin, MINDst (pron. mindset), which is viable VST3, ie., which will load in the pure silicon environ. $79. As it is I’ll have to finish the whole arrangement short of drums and instantiate a Rosetta project just for BFD3. It is the last straggler here.
the thing is here, performance is dramatically better with the silicon versions.
I’m using MIR Pro 3D with “Vienna Powerhouse” which offloads the Ambisonics and what-not to the GPU (an upgrade leveraging this thing “GPU Audio” made in collab w.) which took my latency down from 768 to 256 samples buffer, immediately. But it can’t happen under Rosetta 2.
No replies in 25 days, I would take that as a sign.
edit: I apparently can use it in VE Pro as AU. I had quit loading AU for a couple of reasons.
No, spent days wondering what on earth was wrong, finally I had the project with no_other_instrument loaded and it was still completely impossible to use, the cymbal tails, an open hihat, anything would bring the system to its bloody knees. It’s not viable in VE Pro at all. I made Cubase do as much buffering as it will viably do (1024), multiplied x4 buffers in VEP, nothing mattered.
I suppose something about porting this particular situation over a network is suboptimal. So I did what I figured I would do, have separate projects to do the one piece, the drums in a Rosetta 2 Cubase; which perform very well. I have a lot of latency but it’s compensated fantastically, I am hitting things on time despite it.
weirdly, I discovered something working in a bit of a hurry, VE Pro in Silicon mode (including MIR 3D, same which means it offloads CPU to GPU) works connected to Cubase Pro 13 in Rosetta mode with no issue whatever.
When initiating an instance of BFD3 in Logic 10.8.1. - I’m getting a message in Logic that reads - An Audio Unit plug-in reported a problem which might cause the system to become unstable. Please quit and restart Logic Pro. - - Running on. a M1 Macbook Pro - Ventura 13.6.6.
BFD v3.4.5.28
You would be better posting this as a separate thread on its own,
I’m a windows user so not much help.
Steve
This is my first post here, but I would really like to know if this product is going to get viable pro support in the future, meaning will AAX native be anything possible anytime soon, or should I just look at other drum programs?
The entire system of having to log online to use BFD player makes it a no-go here in our studio, we currently are using BFD3 in Bluecat Audios patchwork as a work-around…but having invested a lot of $ over the years and having older projects is really kind of a bummer if FXpansion is not going to at least try to catch up to the competition.
We also have SSD and AD2 as well as ProTools and Logics built in programs and EzDrummer 3…but we like the sound and flexibility BFD gives us…
Our preference is to keep this program loaded on our newer Mac M2’s but we won’t wait too much longer is there any kind of estimate as to when AAX native might happen?
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FXpansion is dead. We aren’t called FXpansion anymore. Just BFD Drums.
BFD3.5 is currently in progress - it will bring our audio wrappers up to date with VST3 and M1 native AAX support.
I won’t commit to a release date for it. But I don’t mind saying we are working on it.
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Thanks for that info Drew…I’ll be patient, I’m sure it will be worth it. Did not know the FX-nomenclature was gone…but now I do.
And please, adjust the authorization period from 90 days to 5 years or more.
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I think that’s out of Drew’s hands. He’s mentioned before that his bosses won’t budge on this authorization mess and I don’t think he’s really in favor of it. He can only communicate the concerns of the users who are having issues with it. Perhaps those concerns aren’t being communicated as urgently and seriously as they should be.
If the authorization system worked as designed and advertised, then users could just say that it sucks, they don’t like it and then choose to either deal with it, or not. However, the LM has demonstrated enough times that it doesn’t even work as advertised. Users shouldn’t have to pay the price by not being able to use their software when the servers are down, or they have their licenses arbitrarily deauthorized. There should be an extra grace period of 48 hours or so, to be able to successfully connect to the servers as a safety net imo.
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A five year grace period.
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How did you upgrade to this new version of BFD3? I have license manager 3.0.6.22 (which is the latest ) and I can find no way to install the newest version of BFD3 I’m on 3.4.4 build 31. thanks for any help
Open your LM, scroll down to where BFD3 is listed on the right hand side, click on it and will tell you what the currently installed version.
It should tell you there is a new version for you to download, so click on download, (make sure you download software installer and NOT content installer) and then when it’s done either hit the play button and it should install if for you.
Alternately, you can navigate to where it’s downloaded, close the LM and run the installer from it’s folder.
Steve
Well… one year waiting for Apple silicon native support for Pro Tools AAX. Thanks for take it in your road map. Next time, my money go to the roadmap of the other 3-4 really good instruments for PT with support many months ago (thanks God I did it months ago). ONE YEAR!
Yeah I don’t want to put pressure on the devs or anything but the lack of communication is concerning.
I fully understand that the M1 dev was very complicated and long… but I have a bit of a harder time understanding why we haven’t had any bug fix or anything in a year… Especially with a rather iffy behaving plugin in Logic.
If you’re cooking the next major release just tell us and we’ll be patient. But, as I said in a previous message, I’ve stopped buying expansion because I’m concerned about the health of the project.
Hope you can spare a minute to reassure us.
thanks.
Drew just posted on Gearspace a couple days ago looking for additional beta testers for the 3.5 release.
https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.php?p=17094309&postcount=764
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I have it on good authority that it’s arrival is imminent. 
Steve
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A day or two I hope!
Cross platform VST3 support
M1 Native AAX
Bug fixes
New UI
New content licensing system (death to BFD License Manager!!)
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