InMusic can shove BFD4. Thats how I feel about it as a user since BFD1 inception. Then BFD2 then BFD3
A huge waste of money and TIME. SD3, SSD5 and AD2 have me covered here.
This is my LAST post here. I couldnt be more pissed about this. Unusable software at best.
Goodwill is LONG GONE with these fools
I wont forget. ANYTHING in Inmusics product line is a no go here
I’m still cautiously optimistic that InMusic is seeing these complaints, seeing how Steinberg back-tracked on a similar auth system, and are going to modify the authorization system. It would be disappointing if that didn’t happen.
As to SD3, it has a nice looking interface, but I don’t find the usability is any better than BFD3’s interface. Both could be improved upon. SD3 has good sounding content (so does BFD3) and really great presets but BFD3 still just sounds more realistic to me. The BFD3 cymbal swell modeling sounds way more realistic (“better”) than the SD3 smoothing. The Tom Resonance modeling in BFD3 is really nice too. SD3 is a little easier to program with the round robins versus BFD3’s “lots of velocity layers and anti-machine gun” mode, but I honestly find both pieces of software complimentary in some ways.
I’m hoping BFD4 fixes the auth system, improves the interface, and puts it back on top of the virtual drums perch.
@funkybot I haven’t gotten into the critical listening comparison myself. I expected come to a similar conclusion if I had. It would certainly be more important to me if I was using the software for a final mix. I plan to record myself for final print in most cases. Again, that’s where the individual needs take over and I can’t speak for the user base at large. So many ways people can go with it.
There won’t be a better price on it. I don’t think they ever do a sale on SD3 as it’s their flagship and they know people will eventually cave (I did). Best thing to do is to get on the toontrack forum and see if anyone’s selling their license
Fixing the final problems with the auth system (still seeing far too many posts about people not being able to use their expensive purchase) needs to happen way before BFD4 comes out.
Stadank0:
Love your screen name. Been watching Cheech and Chong movies lately; loved it with Chong drumming in Up In Smoke. That being said I too am making the move to SD3 along with their Death & Darkness SDX. Loving the gui - the drums view, mixer, etc. A LOT easier on the eyes. The BFD 3 gui was a huge stepdown in usability and readability from BFD 2. Never got used to it. I’ve been with BFD since the original release and with all the recent woes it was time to let it go.
The standing joke on the audio world is that InMusic is where good software goes to die. Not just BFD but other stuff they’ve picked up from other developers. Nothing ever really gets fixed. Then there’s this F’d up authorization system that you never know when BFD will suddenly become unauthorized. Having to stay logged in to a license manager? Phooey on that. For the life of me I don’t understand why they won’t go iLok.
Yes SD3 and expansions aren’t cheap but they’re worth it especially as regards authorization. And updates? Easy as pie.
Yeah, as much as I loved BFD for years, they didn’t do the product any favors by selling to InMusic. I wasn’t even looking at SD3 until this authorization nightmare. Unless BFD4 is a major improvement, I can’t imagine going back. So it goes…
Probably makes no difference now but there is a timer on the latest version of the LM, it starts at 90 days and then counts down so you have plenty of time to figure out when you need to log in and so no reason to be caught unaware.
Steve
Yes, hopefully I’m allowed to say that without breaking my NDA.
Steve
Thanks, just double checking. I’ll say a prayer for you brother.
That’s still F’D up Steve. We’ve both been around this program for years and I’m surprised you’re putting up with this. I know I can’t. Shouldn’t be any time deal - authorize once and done. Forever. Why this happened I doubt we’ll ever get a real answer about it. This is the only program I know of that does this. Plenty of authorizations system - why this one? And again - why can’t Drew give us an honest answer why he doesn’t go iLok? You don’t even need the physical dongle anymore.
Cakewalk(CbB) does it, and it’s FREE 
Just sayin’
Not that I use it, I bailed out in 2015
I think Steve63 uses it, but we won’t hold that against him 
I do agree, I’m totally against all this having to rauthorise software that I paid for but I’m not going to ditch 15 years of investment in a product that I still consider the best on the market.
And although I’m very much against this new licensing system in principle, in reality it realy isn’t that big a deal to log in once every 3 months.
As long as it’s working properly and you know how much time you have before expiration, it’s really quite painless.
I’ve never used a dongle but I used to hear a lot of horror stories from people who had.
I’m always open to changing my mind as I’ve not heard any complaints about iLok for a long time.
I’m guessing general consensus would have been the reason Drew didn’t go with iLok though 
Steve
I have zero problems dumping something that I’ve used for a long time when it becomes untenable to work with. The time and money put into something don’t enter into a decision to dump something.
BFD used to be a decent program but I’ve found that Superior Drums has a better sound and a WAY easier and pleasanter gui to work with. The BFD gui is one of the ugliest ones out there. I loved the kit view of BFD 2 and having the mixer on a separate page. I don’t always need to see the mixer.
I still would like to hear Drew’s real reason for not going iLok. Have had zero issues with the dongle - either iLok or the soon to be defunct Steinberg key. And there are systems that don’t need you to stay logged in to a license manager or put your daw online (even supposedly if it is every 90 days).
For me it would require days and weeks of stripping out BFD3 from 150 or so projects and loading SD3 or whatever and remixing and remapping to achieve a result that may or may not sound as good as it had with BFD3.
As I much prefer the sound of BFD3, it is likely be time wasted.
Why has it become untenable, are you still having log in issues with the LM
If you prefer the sound of superior drummer then that’s fine and that in my opinion, should always be the deciding factor anyway.
I’m not in love with the GUI and it took a while to adjust but I have no need for skeuomorphic interfaces.
For me, the work flow was a big improvement over BFD2
I would like to see a little more colour and contrast and perhaps different skins but having a picture of a drum kit makes no difference whatsoever to the end result and it’s just gratuitous eye-candy as far as I’m concerned. know it’s very popular though so I’m expecting BFD4 to upgrade the kit view into something that looks more like a kit.
Steve
So the citizen check is still in place I see. As a poster mentioned above, i also dont care about my ‘investment’ at this stage.
Many years ago i was anti iLok, i had some terrible BSOD incidents so refused to use it. I bought Synthogy Ivory as one of the earlist good piano libraries available at the time. The copy protection was C/R and i was fine with that. For the 64-bit update they changed it to iLok with no consultation.
Naturally i wasn’t happy so asked for a refund. No dice. Asked if i could sell it on or even give it away. No dice. So i just threw the DVDs and box in the bin and never bought a product from them again and gave them bad reviews on Amazon etc. F*** companies that treat customers like this.
Nowadays i am so OK with iLok i actually bought a dongle something i thought I’d never do. I’d rather have that than the 90 day citizen check.
Goodbye BFD, i loved thee well.
There are quite a few authorization systems that do a phone-home check. They just don’t tell you about it. The new version of the BFD License Manager is as transparent as it can be; we tell you when the next call will be made, we’ve increased the number of days before it happens, and we’ve fixed all the bugs and tightened up the machine checks that were causing a number of users authorizations to falsely expire, requiring them to authorize again.
iLok is a no-go for BFD.
May be but your current LM is still F’d up and won’t let people use the product
Its odd that the ONLY LM I use, dongles and iLok included, BFD is the ONLY one that won’t let me open the app.
Monterey, Intel iMac, no go here. Superior, EZ, SSD, AD2 all work just fine here
I wish you would work on the Reaper skin as it is way more useful at this point that BFD3 .
It looks great BTW!!
Ha!! When I find time, I’ll go back to that skin.
Regarding the LM - if it isn’t opening, that is highly unusual. We can diagnose that, but next week there will be a 3.4.4.24 build that goes public - barring any last minute world destroying crashes or bugs.
-Drew