InMusic Aquires BFD

[ensconced]

6 hours ago, Marc Cormier said:

Still prefer BFD samples to SD3.  Shame if this means the end of further development but we'll see.  I was initially encouraged by the recent beta release but unless it was to support some larger coding initiative it basically told me that there is little new in terms of redesign coming.

 

Indeed, I'll take BFD3 any day.  (Sold my SD2/SD3)

According to a couple of the FXpansion dudes, SKoT_FX and Drew_FX  it's not the end

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The BFD team is excited to be inMusic, and yes, we will use the word “synergies” without sarcasm or irony. 😁. Lots to do!

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Already lots in the pipeline guys. I'm excited for the future of BFD. :tu:
We can't say too much, but already ... well... already plenty of reasons for chin stroking wonder!

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kiezum

This is not good for the future of BFD.

 

Drew_FX - 100% disagree. Without going into too many details, the bad thing for the future of BFD would have been for the team and the tech to remain in the position it was in. This is a new lease of life. None of us would've put our lives and families on the line if we thought this couldn't turn out to be an amazing opportunity for everyone involved.

And that means the users too. I truly believe that.

as usual,  time will tell.

[simon]

hi @ensconced

where are those quotes from ?

[SmokeyJ628]

10 hours ago, simon said:

hi @ensconced

where are those quotes from ?

They're from the KVR Audio thread about it.

[Drew Vernon]

Hey gang,

Drew here. Just want to echo my thoughts from the KvR thread really. I see this as a good move for BFD. We will finally be empowered to pursue all of the ideas we have wanted to for the longest time, and to deliver future products which we believe in and can stand behind.

BFD isn't dead, and we're not going anywhere. Watch this space, as they say.

[Bapu]

14 minutes ago, Drew Vernon said:

Watch this space, as they say.

With baited breath I say.

[simon]

12 minutes ago, Drew Vernon said:

Hey gang,

Drew here. Just want to echo my thoughts from the KvR thread really. I see this as a good move for BFD. We will finally be empowered to pursue all of the ideas we have wanted to for the longest time, and to deliver future products which we believe in and can stand behind.

BFD isn't dead, and we're not going anywhere. Watch this space, as they say.

Hi Drew, and welcome

BFD has been effectively dead for years ?  I say this as somebody who has been with you since the very beginning and have most of the expansions. 

Take a look at your own forums - 99% spam and unanswered problems.  Support is essentially zero at this point - tickets are basically ignored.  

BFD3 came out in 2013 IIRC ....meanwhile toontrack has moved on in leaps and bounds.......you've stayed still and not just with your time with ROLI.

When will we see this 'change' you are suggesting is about to happen ?

 

 

[Drew Vernon]

1 minute ago, simon said:

Hi Drew, and welcome

BFD has been effectively dead for years ?  I say this as somebody who has been with you since the very beginning and have most of the expansions. 

Take a look at your own forums - 99% spam and unanswered problems.  Support is essentially zero at this point - tickets are basically ignored.  

BFD3 came out in 2013 IIRC ....meanwhile toontrack has moved on in leaps and bounds.......you've stayed still and not just with your time with ROLI.

When will we see this 'change' you are suggesting is about to happen ?

 

 

All good questions and I don't dispute any of it, apart from support maybe. I know the guys work hard trying to support BFD, but they've got tons and tons of ROLI-related support and their workloads are insane.

In terms of the team, the two of us who have been recording packs since 2013ish (BFD Oblivion, Horsepower, VRT, etc) got put onto audio-engineering within ROLI. We managed to get a few packs out in that time - BFD Jazz Noir, Wooden Snares, for example. But it's a simple fact that when you're working on multiple products and projects, you don't get to focus on a single thing. Which has been a shame for us as a team.

So - as I say, watch this space. We fully intend to get our heads in gear and come up with some exciting new stuff.

I can't speak to timelines right now unfortunately.

[simon]

3 minutes ago, Drew Vernon said:

 

So - as I say, watch this space. We fully intend to get our heads in gear and come up with some exciting new stuff.

I can't speak to timelines right now unfortunately.

thanks for the reply - are you planning on fixing up some of the remaining issues with BFD3.  

We saw the beta that came out a week or so ago but the release schedule essentially ground to a halt.

[Greg]

I think it would go a long way to try to release updates at least monthly, even if they are small to show that things have changed for the better.  I also think it would be great to share some type of pipeline.    Anything to keep hope alive and keep some type of attention on the product.  Staying somewhat active on forums, social media, youtube, etc. with substantive content is  pretty important.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Greg

[Marc Cormier]

I agree on all counts about letting us know what's going on but also imagine you're limited in what you can say here, Drew.  As I tell my team: "better to underpromise and overdeliver."  I'm impatient, too.  I've had SD3, Slate, AD2, all the Studio Drummers, etc. and I either sold them or don't use them.  If BFD3 remained (relatively) stable, I'd be a happy to carry on using it exclusively....but I could really do without the temptation to jump ship when there's innovation and future-proofing happening with other platforms...and a spam filter full of their promotions saying so.

In summary:

• I'm thrilled to hear you've landed on your feet.
• Without the quality of the drums/samples, I'd have moved to SD3 permanently-ish.
• I will start a BFD3 upgrade quarter jar as soon as my pay cut goes away.

Congrats on the news, Drew. 

[smallstonefan]

I could tell things weren't being managed well by the last survey. The survey was 100% marketing - what do you read, where do you go, etc. For a product so long in the tooth there was absolutely nothing about product - what do you need, what would cause you to switch to another platform, etc.  I put such feedback in the survey and never heard back.

I venture to say I have most of the expansions and love the product, but I just picked up SD3 last week. The big draw for me? Tap to find and the ability to more easily browse and compile midi clips to make a song. Bring a better interface for doing this to BFD and I'm all in. In the mean-time, I find myself hoping that someone creates a kit converter to bring all of my BFD kits over to SD3.

Edited April 22, 2020 by James Foxall

[Drew Vernon]

4 hours ago, simon said:

thanks for the reply - are you planning on fixing up some of the remaining issues with BFD3.  

We saw the beta that came out a week or so ago but the release schedule essentially ground to a halt.

Yes we are planning on continuing to support BFD3. If there are outstanding issues that you know about please let me know, either here or in a PM. I'll endeavour to investigate. I have one Sonar crashing issue I have on my list to investigate right now, so throw me more.

4 hours ago, Greg said:

I think it would go a long way to try to release updates at least monthly, even if they are small to show that things have changed for the better.  I also think it would be great to share some type of pipeline.    Anything to keep hope alive and keep some type of attention on the product.  Staying somewhat active on forums, social media, youtube, etc. with substantive content is  pretty important.

 

 

I can't commit on behalf of the team to a monthly update, but I can for sure say that I admire the idea. I'm a big Reaper user (please don't ban me!) and I admire their release structure very much. We don't know yet what we are dealing with right now in terms of bug-fix release and what the schedule will be. It isn't up to me (not solely anyway).

Also RE: active on forums, social media, etc. Yes, I agree there. I pulled back for a number of years because of workload and personal reasons, but I am at heart a forum nerd!

2 hours ago, James Foxall said:

I could tell things weren't being managed well by the last survey. The survey was 100% marketing - what do you read, where do you go, etc. For a product so long in the tooth there was absolutely nothing about product - what do you need, what would cause you to switch to another platform, etc.  I put such feedback in the survey and never heard back.

I venture to say I have most of the expansions and love the product, but I just picked up SD3 last week. The big draw for me? Tap to find and the ability to more easily browse and compile midi clips to make a song. Bring a better interface for doing this to BFD and I'm all in. In the mean-time, I find myself hoping that someone creates a kit converter to bring all of my BFD kits over to SD3.

Out of interest James, which survey was that? If it was the one I did, I was just trying to gauge from our users what they wanted to see and how they thought of themselves. We got some great feedback from that which we've begun to enact.

 

I really wish I could go into depth about all the stuff we wanna build, but I simply can't. We'll all have to wait!

[simon]

Drew, thanks for replying.  On a personal level, the very best of luck.  BFD in essence was (is!) a great product.

 

 

[Tony Carpenter]

There we go, welcome Drew good news. I had a place for BFD, but SD 3 definitely did a HUGE leap. Look forward to see what you bring :).

[smallstonefan]

Hi Drew,

The survey was about a month or so ago and it if I recall correctly it was asking about what magazines I read, what forums I visit, maybe some question on tools I use. It had nothing that I can remember about my needs of the software. Sorry I can't offer you more here.

As an aside, I run a 44 person software company so I get the challenges better than most. You simply being her and interacting with customers is a HUGE win for you guys - well done!

[ensconced]

17 hours ago, simon said:

hi @ensconced

where are those quotes from ?

6 hours ago, SmokeyJ628 said:

They're from the KVR Audio thread about it.

Yes,

I see one of the main men have made it here.

Long live BFD!!!

[Drew Vernon]

50 minutes ago, James Foxall said:

Hi Drew,

The survey was about a month or so ago and it if I recall correctly it was asking about what magazines I read, what forums I visit, maybe some question on tools I use. It had nothing that I can remember about my needs of the software. Sorry I can't offer you more here.

As an aside, I run a 44 person software company so I get the challenges better than most. You simply being her and interacting with customers is a HUGE win for you guys - well done!

Ah okay nice one. I wasn't involved in that survey, but I myself did a big one in 2017 where I asked everyone about their needs. I got a lot of great feedback from that - you're not the only one to mention tap-to-find!

 

Songwriting and composition is way high on my list of areas of concern. I spend my days/evenings/life struggling to get ideas out of my head, and every musician I know is the same - the slightest technical annoyance just throws you out of the zone. I wanna fix that as best we can.

[simon]

On 4/22/2020 at 9:52 PM, Drew Vernon said:

 

I can't commit on behalf of the team to a monthly update, but I can for sure say that I admire the idea. 

 

just bumping this as it's been 3 months....admittedly a very peculiar 3 months 😷

maybe there is still enthusiasm behind the scenes but no updates or news of any kind....the fxpansion forum is still full of spam...the public betas have dried up.....

end of the line or the calm before the storm ?

[Bapu]

Kind of using BFD, and all drum libs for that matter, less and less (well actually nil these days) so this news is, albeit old, is not very exciting to me.

About the only one I use to scratchpad is Toontrack (EZDrummer or Superior 3) because the Song Arranger is tre cool. Then I turn it over to a live drummer.

 

 

[Grem]

I really thought BFD Eco was a great product. Used it more than EZD1. Then EZD2 and AD2 came out and never really used ECO anymore.

 

Hope everything is going well for Drew and his team. A new BFD would be welcomed.