For me, XLN midi packs and their song maker and midi transformer are really Unique tools that toontrack doesn’t have and I don’t think BFD3 does it either - at this point the clear independent 3rd party winners are SD3 (toontrack; EZD2) and XLN [SSD is a great VST but more on EZD2 level and they are bargain basement options, not bad, but great value to do the job easy and quick but def simple]..... so using that info I looked online specifically for XLN AD2 vs SD3 and I was surprised by the results. Most people voted for XLN in “blind tests” on other sites, almost the exact opposite of what these results yielded for only those two respective options; oddly enough the rest of the voting seems to be almost the same.
to me this was very interesting to see, very surprising polls, but then again, if soundkit tweakability and fine kit tuning is the reason then that also explains why an FAS forum would rather have that options rather than a stronger general MIDI/groove station .
That’s the biggest difference and issue to me all other and else aside, as I do think XLNs preset kits are the best out of the box sounding for my taste , their midi and song editing “transform” is much easier and very good compared to everything else (except Jamstix) but I know toontrack doesn’t do it, BFD sort of has a “jam” option where it will randomize groove patterns during playback in a certain set of grooves, but it’s cumbersome and not quite certain how to affect the variables,’ so out of the “Big 3” or Clearly the top 3 independent companies(toontrack, fxpansion, and XLN) the best programming and coding is for XLN and GUI .
its almost fascinating to me how this reflects my own empirical evidence of Supporting an observation which is basically you have SSD and EZD2; then you have XLN and then you have BFD3 and SD3 and finally you have much more specific , smaller devs like Jamstix, MDrummer vs avid air strike 2 (which sucks) and steinberg Groove agent 5 (which is as good as BFD3 to me)are trying to emulate the AI of Apple Logic drummer, which again reflects the superiority of steinberg to avid, which was another substantiating little tertiary result but ; finally steinerg tried to match Logic but GA5 isn’t close to Drummer, nothing is.
[and the definitive virtual drummer that’s proprietary and stand alone to Logic but not only is Logic Drummer Mac only they are in a different league all alone]
So really without Logic in the mix since it’s not really fair that Windows can’t compete with a proprietary OS X audio unit, it became clear depending on the camp, most metal and rock guitarists with less midi savvy and programming ability but like out of the box premade kits tend to prefer XLN, whereas guitarists who know their way around making and tweaking a drumKit like an actual (VST) and aren’t concerned about midi, whether it be groove packs or self made, prefer SD3s ability for sound customization
very interesting indeed: which is why i just purchased XLN AD2 w/ metal + United heavy + studio rock + black velvet ad paks with the midi paks and got the whole bundle combo for $93!!! That value and package would win in a wallet test against any of these, as I’ll literally never need another metal adpak or kit.
what actually was the biggest question that came out of this is will XLN make an Addictive 3 anytime soon; imho clearly not: their middle of the road price and bundle option make them the most economical and efficient company too, (fxpansion and toontrack are such messy software coders) so they don’t need to fix it if it ain’t broke - so they started doing new, cool things like addictive trigger or XO drums , so while I’m guessing an AD3 isn’t coming out soon, that’s Because Their programmers are working on a synthesis of XO, Trigger AND addictive to make a super SD3 killer AD3, but that’ll take another 5 years of R&D based on what I’ve seen and demoed with trigger and Xo.
anyway this was a very very helpful and enlightening thread and revealed a lot of things I thought but couldn’t prove and also taught me things I wasn’t aware of
a lot of extrapolations on evidence and variables and preferences that might’ve been unique to my own thoughts started to form but hey; it definitely opened my mind about possibilities and how to go about making my drums and what tools to use
thanks for all of your feedback and review
