VSTs have been part of the music production process for ages. As technology improves, so do most VSTs, and it’s actually gotten to a point where hearing the difference between virtual drums and real drums is quite hard.
If you’re someone who does music production, this is a good thing, as you can get the best drum sounds without needing to go through the process of tracking studio-quality drums yourself.
This is where we’ll look at BFD Player by BFD. It’s a fantastic drum VST that we think everyone should be using. In this review, we’re going to explain exactly why we say that.
BFD is a company that specializes in creating drum kit software.
They’ve been bringing out products for the last two decades that help musicians, drummers, and producers get high-quality drum parts in their songs.
While many of their VSTs come at a cost, BFD player is actually free.
So, it’s an amazing tool for anyone to use, whether they’re a drummer or a music producer.
With BFD Player, you just download it as an add-on to use when you’re creating music in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).
You can then use it to add drum parts to whatever you’re creating. It includes MIDI grooves that you can sift through. These are awesome for people who don’t want to create their own drum parts, as you can just use ones that already exist.
You can use it to get single drum sample sounds. This is what you’ll do for more intricate music creation, as you’ll get a view of a drum kit with options to tweak very small details of sounds.
You can then use the BFD Player to mix drum sounds, further expanding the amount of control you have over your high-end drum kit sounds.
The Drum Kit View is what most people think of when thinking of a drum kit VST. This is where you’ll see a picture of a drum kit, and you have various options to change shells, heads, and cymbals.
It’s basically just a point-and-click system, so you can click on whichever part of the drum kit you want to work with. You can then start messing with samples and other features and sounds.
We found it very easy to use, so there wasn’t much tinkering to get exactly what we wanted. It also offered much more than we expected, considering this software is free.
The Mixing View is where you can go in and fine-tweak all of your sounds. You get individual sliders for each part of the drum kit, so you have full control over how every individual part sounds.
You can also use effects here. So, if you want to add a bit of reverb to your snare drum to add some spicy flavor, this is where you do it.
While each drum has a slider, you also get four knobs to alter sounds. These knobs control attack, sustain, delay, and compression.
A lot of people will most likely spend more time here than on the actual drum kits, as controlling the finer details of the sound typically has huge benefits.
The MIDI Grooves section is arguably our favorite part of the whole VST. This is where you can browse different preset grooves to use in your songs.
You get a wide range of grooves, and they’re separated by parts for verses, choruses, and bridges.
If you’re not someone who wants to create your own drum parts from scratch, this section makes it incredibly easy to just find parts that you think would sound good with your song.
We had a lot of fun scrolling through these, and we think all of these preset grooves sound really high-end and professional. We wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Vinnie Colaiuta originally tracked them in the studio.
Even though these grooves are pre-recorded, you can still greatly adjust how they sound using all of the mixing options. So, you have plenty of room here!
If you love the presets on BFD Player but want something more to work with, you have the option of buying more expansion packs. Each one costs around $30, they have a total of 10 packs to choose from and the two we looked at were Dark Mahogany and London 70s.
Dark Mahogany
This kit was tracked using a kit from Q Drums. If you haven’t heard of the brand, they make some of the most high-end custom drums out there.
Mahogany drums have a gritty, low-end tone from the shells. So, these drums sound amazing with a low tuning, giving you powerful and distinct sounds from the toms.
You get over 300 new MIDI grooves with this pack, so you have more options for preset parts to add to whatever songs you’re creating.
We also just hooked an electronic kit to this VST and had a really fun time jamming with the Dark Mahogany kit. This is another great way to use BFD Player if you’re not actually looking to create music.
London 70s
The London 70s expansion is more of a vintage drum set, using Paiste 2002 cymbals and a Ludwig Vistalite set to track all the parts.
The sound you get here is similar to all of the drum kits you heard in the 70s rock era. The sounds are big and powerful. However, you also get presets with the kit to choose from that have different tones and tuning.
Overall, we can’t recommend BFD Player enough. The fact that it’s free software still blows our minds. Even if you aren’t too big into music production, it’s worth downloading just to play around with, especially if you own an electronic drum kit.
If you are someone who loves creating music, this is the perfect tool to help you with drum parts. The stock drum kit sounds are great, but you can get even better ones by purchasing a few of the expansions.
Founder of TheDrumNinja
I’m crazy about drums, it’s been my passion since I was 12 years old. I played in numerous bands going through different styles like Rock, Progressive, Pop & Jazz-Rock. After being featured in major music publications (Drumeo, Guitar Guitar, AudioIssues, MusicThinkTank) I started this website to share my knowledge and create a resource for drummers of all levels.
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