The ease of use and the available additional banks make it a must-have for home-studio owners who want to achieve good results without too many headaches. So you’ll find some classic banks like Metal Machine, Jazz, Nashville, or The Blues, and also more original banks like Claustrophobic (for RnB and hip-hop) or the Twisted Kit (from the former Tom Waits’ drummer during the “Rain Dogs” era). Even though the original drum kit can’t really hide its age, Toontrack had the clever idea to regularly offer additional drum kits covering a wide range of music genres. Its goal is to provide ready-to-use sounds and grooves at a modest price (€79). Toontrack EZDrummerĮZDrummer is the affordable version of Superior Drummer. Together with BFD, the heavy-weight in its category. With version 2, “Superior Drummer, ” you can buy some additional sound banks like Roots SDX (sticks, brushes, mallets and rods), Metal Foundry, New York Studios, Music City USA, or Custom & Vintage. Toontrack relies on big names (Morgan Ågren who played with Frank Zappa and Tomas Haake from Meshuggah), uses an internal bounce system to save computer RAM and offers a versatile percussion kit. Afterwards, the virtual ' Drumkit From Hell Superior' was created to counter BFD’s huge success. Toontrack Superior DrummerīFD’s main competitor! At first there was the “ Drumkit From Hell” sound bank available on CD. However, with 1,500 grooves, 40 presets, 15 processing features and its affordable price (€79), it’s a very attractive choice if you’re looking for your first virtual drums, even if competition is hard in this price range where we have Toontrack’s EZDrummer and Native Instrument’s Studio Drummer and Abbey Road among others. The product includes only a selection of samples from the sound library of the big brother, and the number of velocity layers might prove a bit limited for certain applications.

Like its name says, this is a BFD light version in terms of price, memory requirements and features.

With Superior Drummer, BFD is one of the leaders in its category, offering endless possibilities but with a steep learning curve for beginners.

The manufacturer has already launched a lot of additional sound banks, among which are some original libraries like an 8-bit Kit (a sound-design trip), Japanese Taiko Percussion and Zildjian Digital Vault (34 cymbals!). BFD is now available in version 2, offering even more drums and velocity layers, more processing capabilities, a virtual mixer, etc. When it made its debut back in 2004, the first BFD version got a lot of attention because it offered a huge sound bank with many velocity layers and the possibility to create your own drum mix using different sources: close mics, overheads, room and PZM mics.

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