BFD Player Review: The Best Free Drum VST?

5GB library is immaculate and detailed. Cymbals especially the hi-hats have some of the most realistic articulations I have heard. Snare runs bright on several presets and one core kit limits variety, but free this good is rare.

The core library is built around one carefully sampled kit, a 14x6.5" Ludwig Black Beauty paired with a DW Maple kick and toms and a set of Zildjian K cymbals. Fourteen mixer presets shape that single kit into different sonic identities, and the four macro knobs above each preset let you dial in character without touching a real EQ or compressor.

So far my favorite presets include Purity, Dry Pop, and Original Mix. Some of the others run too bright for my taste, especially the snare, which has very little weight to it. Nothing a sample swap with Trigger 2 cannot fix, but since the core library is free I would have liked a couple of different snare drums included.

The cymbals sound incredible across every preset. The hi-hats in particular have some of the best and most realistic articulations I have heard, paid library or otherwise. Clicking any piece on the kit view auditions the sample and shows information about it, and the kit presets load fast, about a second and a half each, so cycling through to find the right tone is quick.

Four macro knobs plus info icons make non-mixing users productive in minutes; fast 1.5s preset loads help. DAW output routing is flexible but takes pen-and-paper effort, and there is no per-channel EQ or compression inside the plugin.

The four macro knobs at the top of the mixer tab are the heart of the easy-mode experience. Each preset rewires those knobs to do something different: the 80s Lover kit has a GATE RELEASE knob for gated reverb, in case you want to sound like Phil Collins, and most kits give you a mono-to-wide knob plus a tone shaper for the high end. Each knob has an information icon that describes what you are actually changing. If you know nothing about audio or mixing, BFD Player makes it easy to get a good sound.

Below the macros, each instrument gets a fader, a panner, and a routing dropdown. The room mics and overheads have a width-style panner instead of a regular left-right slider, which I appreciate for shaping the stereo image. The one thing missing is per-channel EQ or compression on the presets, so if you want to push beyond what the macros allow, you need to take the channels out of the plugin and into your DAW.

That routing is powerful but takes effort. Get a pen and paper out: each channel's dropdown defaults to Main, and you change it to specific DAW outputs to add inserts and sends inside your workstation. If I want to sidechain the bass to the kick, I send the kick to its own bus and mix it separately from the rest of the kit. For almost every mix I do with virtual drums I split every channel out of the sampler and mix in the DAW, and the Original Mix preset is the one I reach for because it is the rawest starting point.

340 MIDI grooves filterable by genre, BPM and time signature, including odd-meter prog. E-kit mappings for almost every kit on the market plus most major drum software. Capped by one core kit, six presets per paid expansion, and no compatibility with BFD 3 libraries.

The Groove Library tab is the other half of BFD Player's appeal, especially for guitar players and songwriters who write without a drummer. Three hundred and forty drag-and-drop MIDI grooves, filterable by genre, BPM and time signature, including some 13/8 patterns for the prog crowd. Each groove shows the leading hand, duration, and a favorite star. The audition workflow has two real annoyances: there is no persistent play bar across the three tabs, so you have to come back to the groove library to pause; and switching presets while a groove is playing stops playback instead of letting it continue.

The e-drum coverage is what makes BFD Player the most generous free plugin in the category. Mappings for almost every e-kit on the market are built in, including the major Roland TD-3 through TD-30 line, the full Alesis lineup, Yamaha DTX, Simmons, and the Akai MPD24. The TD-17, TD-27, TD-50 and TD-50X are conspicuously missing, but I am confident the TD-30 mapping works for those. EFNOTE, ATV and the newer Simmons kits would be a great future addition. Plus mappings from most major drum software, including Addictive Drums, EZdrummer 3, GetGood Drums, and Superior Drummer 2, so switching is painless.

The two paid expansions stretch the sonic range. London 70s is a Ludwig Vistalite with Paiste cymbals that remind me of the 2002 Black Label series, ringy and smacky and right for classic and hard rock. Of the six presets, "When The Zeppo Breaks" is my favorite. Dark Mahogany is a Q Drums Mahogany kit with Zildjian K cymbals, aimed at pop punk and modern rock; "Exactly Halfway" is the standout. Both expansions reuse the four macro knobs and add some preset-specific controls, with information icons clarifying what each knob does.

One real ding on versatility: each paid expansion has only six presets, compared to fourteen in the free core, so the value-per-expansion feels lighter than it should. And BFD 3 owners cannot use their existing expansion libraries with BFD Player. I hope BFD makes those compatible eventually, or at least offers a discount or free pack to existing customers.

It is free, with a 5GB pro-grade library, 14 presets, 340 grooves, and e-kit mappings everywhere. BFD is offering a ton of value. Not 5.0 only because the paid expansions feel light at six presets each and BFD 3 owners get nothing.

BFD Player is ideal for electronic drum set players first and producers second. For e-drummers you do not need any knowledge of audio or mixing to get a result that makes playing, practicing, and recording yourself fun. Load a preset, tweak the macro knobs, and start playing. That is the whole pitch and BFD nails it.

Producers may want more control, and I think they would even pay for a "pro" version with refined EQ, compression and reverb on the channels and dropdown-selectable macros. As it stands, BFD is offering a ton of value with the Player. The 5GB sample library is immaculate and exceptionally detailed, and it is free. There is no excuse not to try it.

Verdict

Outside of a few slight tweaks, BFD Player is a fantastic drum sampler, easily one of the best free options out there, and especially compelling if you play electronic drums. The library is detailed, the cymbals are exceptional, and the macro-knob approach to mixing means you can sound good without an engineering degree.

The two paid expansions are nice extras for $29.99, but six presets each feels light next to the fourteen in the free core, and BFD 3 owners get nothing from their existing expansion purchases. If you have an electronic kit and you have not already installed it, do that now.