I owned BFD 1 and 2. Purchased BFD. I’ve never had so much trouble to get things working. NOW I will check as many forums as possible before purchasing more software. I am too old and stressed by all the effort to get any software working.
Used to be back in the 90’s, there was a lot of user piracy, but now the tables are turned. Too many companies putting out products with poor programming. and the buyer is the one that ripped off.
There is still a LOT of piracy, probably more than in the 90’s. Go on Reddit or Discord and you’ll be able to tell the people using cracked software.
Unfortunately BFD3 does not have a future for me. It is very disappointing, as I have loved it. However, it seems stuck in developmental limbo. The projects I am working on can’t wait. I still feel strange as I have spent so much money on Kits and Packs. I have also nearly run out of storage space, so something has to give
I have moved over to SD3. Whilst it is not better than BFD in some respects, it fits with the way I like to do things. The kits have been recorded in some fantastic spaces and the ambient mics are unbeatable. It has taken me a while, but I have created a drum map to convert BFD kits to SD3/General MIDI, although a number of involved projects will stay with BFD3 as I am having issues with a couple of articulations.
I am still hoping that BFD survives and prospers, but I have waited too long and have been too frustrated the delays and the lack of any real improvements, not to mention all the registration issues. I have to say that I do find that I am getting more realistic drum sounds, more quickly and with less faff in SD3. I might add that I have had zero issues with SD3 and no musical downtime with it unlike BFD3. I broke my ankle very badly last year, necessitating a lot of time out of the studio. It of course gave me plenty of time to readjust my priorities. I am not getting any younger and there are a lot of projects that I need to finish. That’s how it is, sadly.
I still have faith in BFD. I’ve tested the rest of the proposals, either through friends who own them or for trial periods and, honestly, none sounds better than BFD. They have their strengths, of course they do, but overall, BFD is the only one that convinces me.
Obviously it is a personal and subjective opinion and there will be users who prefer other products, but I prefer to continue in this boat.
Are there things to improve in BFD? Of course. They should release a VST3 version as soon as possible, correct “strange” errors, strengthen the stability of the program, give a spin to the issue of licenses, perhaps the interface, etc. but I have faith that BFD will apply the necessary corrections to BFD3 and surprise us for good with a memorable BFD4.
Obviously, faith can run out, in some users sooner than in others and I myself could lose it over time, but for now I prefer to trust.
100% FLK_Pro.
And yes - VST3 needs to happen ASAP - if not sooner.
My faith has run out. I have given my BFD3 and its libraries to another.
Peace out fellas. Keep banging the drum
any gotos or particular favorites yet?
This would be true if the LM was working properly and doing background updates. But I’m sure many have had experiences like I had, where the LM did not work as intended at first, or popped up at inopportune times during a session that it subsequently crashed, or in my case, where some of my licenses disappeared from my account and I had to get them to review the data using my text file records. This experience reminds me of VPS Avenger by vengeance sound. You can read about his LM on KVR. He’s a very small operation and ultimately at one point I had to do manual downloads and get a manual override. But he persisted because he doesn’t want to encourage piracy. I think after 2 years or so it’s better sorted out - but he probably lost a substantial percentage of his electronic producer fans/clients. I feel bad for him - if he would charge a price people wanted to pay for his presets they wouldn’t be so rude. But as it is he doesn’t have decent sales and his presets are almost as much as his synth software. Hard to be a small developer. If BFD hires the right tech people and invests a lot into desired features and expansions that shine, it will be okay. The groove engine, swell algos, and tom resonance are still top of class. (Also the onboard compressors are pretty top notch - I can’t say SD3 compressors are impressive the way BFD2’s had been.) If I were an electronic drummer I don’t think I’d like SD3’s hi hats very much. I need to put Soothe2 all over them.
I think that maybe a BFD4 with a face-wash updated for the GUI (keepin the concept that’s for me is perfect) but making some adjustments will be AWESOME… And of course, would be great to have new libraries expansions but keeping in mind, maintaining some coherence between one library and another, a problem that sometimes arises with the different BFD expansions… Although that’s part of its unique character… But hey, maybe they should try a few more details… Unquestionably, BFD is very powerful and has dozens of layers, rr and joints… But there’s something that happens to me with the environments that I don’t notice in other virtual drums… which I think should be reviewed
Not sure how this post is rellevent to the thread? 
I would post it as a separate post.
It sounds like the server was down, in which case you just need to give it some time and try again.
Did you contact support as advised?
Steve
It’s relevant because this has been the predictable future for BFD every time I open it. It always wants to authorise and never does until the time I set aside to use it has passed. This software doesn’t have a future because it does not work reliably. It may be the greatest sounding drum software on the planet but if you open it and it won’t work, what use is it?
Doesn’t have a future? Bold statement. It’s worked ever since the day I started using it over a decade ago, licensing issues are an issue yes, the software itself works. If every person here or in the world was not able to use it, I’d say that was an issue and no future.
I’m glad you can waste a few days waiting for it to register each time you open it. I can’t. Regardless of how good it is when it works, it doesn’t work when I want to use it and after years of issues with licencing that have never been fixed I’m moving to GetGood drums. I’ll use Reaper to program tracks. I was looking at EZDrummer but GetGood sound great and area better deal.
Great stuff, I’ve only ever had to wait a minute if that, days….never.
Are you seriously saying it takes days to authorize your kits?
I have never heard of anyone having to spend more than a minute to authorise their kits.
I’m assuming you’ve contacted support about this issue?
This forum isn’t the official place for support so if you haven’t contacted them, you really should.
Steve
Steve it has taken me two days to get my kits authorised. I don’t often get the time between work and family commitments to sit down and program drums. For the last 4 times I’ve tried I get the “Could not validate licence from the server” error. The validation simply does not work. Maybe because I live in Australia. I don’t know. All I know is when I get the time and inspiration to work on a song, BFD never fails to let me down. I’m glad it only takes minutes for some others but have a look at the posts on the issue. Other people get stuck like me.
I think this is relevant to the future of BFD. I’ve said I’m moving to GetGood drums. How many other people are going to do so because of this licencing issue. If BFD can’t fix the issue (and after 3 years it doesn’t look like they can) then people will turn to competitors. And when people investigate purchasing a virtual drummer they are going to see comments like mine and go somewhere else. I have one other friend who uses BFD. He put me onto it years ago. All my other friends use Superior Drummer, Slate or GetGood. BFD is a niche product. No matter how good it sounds if you can’t use it when you want too, then people will hear about it.
And to clarify I have raised the issue with support and its not worth it. By the time they get around to your ticket the issue has resolved itself.
I know the server has been intermittently down lately, I tried on Thursday and it was down.
It works here every time, unless the servers are down.
Last I heard, inmusic use Amazon servers which are supposedly one of the best, but I don’t remember such frequent server issues with whatever servers fxpansion were using.
I think most of them left the building last year in protest to the licensing scheme.
I don’t like it one little bit but I’ve far too much invested in BFD3 to invest time and money learning SD3 or any other, inferior sounding kits.
The end result matters more than the process for me.
Sounds like you’re on a mission to turn people away.
As I said, I know lots of people have issues with the principle of the on line authorisation and how effective it is in combating piracy, but your issue is one I have never seen before so I don’t think I would advise people not to invest on the strength of your own ‘very unusual’ problem.
And has he had the same problems your having?
If so it might be the servers in Australia being problematic.
But what advice, if any, did they give?
Steve
My problem is not unusual. Lots of people have this issue. You’ve replied in some of the posts above but I’m not going to bang on about it anymore. I’m angry about it but its a waste of energy now. I have GetGood and I’m going to move on.
Good luck to you Steve.
SO there’s bugs that affect ‘a lot’ lol of people, is that all you could dig up? It’s hardly a lot, if I had as much time as you did to dig that up, I’d go on to getgoodwhatever, and EZ drums and whatever else is mentioned and start digging out complaints from their forums, I bet there’s tons of bugs. It’s unfortunate that you and ‘Lots’ of people are experiencing this issue, but LOTS aren’t. And LOTS have, and got it sorted.