BFD Player

BFD Player is a freeware acoustic drum VST plugin with 5GB of high-quality acoustic drum sounds. That’s unusually generous for a free plugin. The free plugin is based on BFD3, the flagship drum instrument from BFD Audio. BFD Player includes a smaller sample collection than the paid version, but it does not skimp on velocity layers or channels. Having used it in several rock mixes, my absolute favorite feature here is the virtual mixer.

It’s super intuitive and makes it easy to adjust the drum kit to your mix. BFD Player also works well with electronic drum kits for real-time triggering, and its 340 built-in MIDI patterns are organized by song section (intro, verse, chorus, fill), which speeds up the arrangement process. The 3D kit view lets you click on drums to customize and preview sounds. One thing worth mentioning: the BFD brand carries some baggage from BFD3’s stability issues, and several BPB readers have reported confusion with MIDI setup.

The InMusic licensing system can also add startup delays. 2 update (February 2024) added more kits and groove presets.