The GUI honestly bugs me less and less now. Now that I’m mixing BFD3 pretty much exclusively in Pro Tools, after I route everything and tweak the kits, the plugin window stays closed for the most part. All of the little bugs that still continue to pop up is a way bigger deal to me, as that’s what stops production, not how pretty the interface looks. The sound has always been there. What is most important after that is consistent stability.
Now for someone who uses the groove editor and mixer, I can totally see how the GUI and clunkiness could be an issue and a pet peeve.
I think a good indicator of potentially how good BFD4 is going to be, is the BFD Player when it officially comes out. Even with it’s limited capabilities, if it turns out to be more stable and less finicky than BFD3, then that will be a good sign that the main issue is just BFD3 and how old it is. Trying to add modern compatibility/updates with such old code and engine must be really difficult and no wonder why when they address one thing, it creates a slew of other problems.
Once they finally get an Apple Silicon build covering AAX/VST3 and it’s usable, they just need to leave BFD3 alone and focus all their resources on BFD4, so they can release it as soon as possible. That’s the only way BFD is going to have a chance at gaining credibility again in the market. And please make it a reasonable upgrade price for those of us who have been loyal and stuck it out these past few years. I’ve done my part trying to spread the word on the good things about BFD3 during past sales and clear up any misconceptions. I’ve had to correct people a few times in other forums. That’s been tough to do with the valid criticisms of inMusic, the LM and bugs though.