If you’re a BFD2 user, you’ll probably be interested in the fabled 2.1 update. While not officially released, fxpansion has opened up a public beta, if you’re into those types of things. And it’s tempting, what with the very impressive new improvements that this beta has revealed.¹

The caveat is everything forward is only compatible with v.2.1. I understand theoretically why this is, and normally I wouldn’t let it deter me, but I rely on BFD2 pretty heavily. I don’t want to hose myself if it ends up being a long and crashy time before it’s stable, and have to figure out how to roll back projects that use it. fxpansion themselves are advising to “proceed with caution.”

So, what’s it buy you? A new reverb effect (from Breverb), an internal Vintage Warmer (Lite), improved browsing and kit management, improvements to the Groove editor including a new roll tool. There are some other things in there as well.

Since I was able to get BFD2, I pretty much mix “in the box”. The amount of control and customization you can achieve without even closing the GUI is impressive. I’m really looking forward to these improvements; I’m not sure I can contain myself.

Good grief, I’m such a geek.

^{1I guess since it’s on their public forum it’s alright to talk about here. Also, these may well be public knowledge but it’s the first time I’ve seen them.}

Music software stalwarts fxpansion have been rolling out a new downloadable line of expansion packs for their BFD2 platform.

Though the newly (re)released 8BitKit is sure to gather a lot of deserved attention, what I’d like to single out here JEX expansion pack as a particularly nice add-on.

Don’t get me wrong, I would heartily recommend the 8BitKit to anyone. You’ll remember it was one of fxpansion’s early BFD (iteration uno) boxed products. But they let it fall out of print for about a year, and for a little while people such as myself who bought the box thought for a little while they had a collectors item. Now they’ve tidied it up for BFD2 – which really is the business, if I haven’t mentioned it – and if you have the bandwidth it’s a bargain at $125. It’s also a free update for us previous owners; again proving that fxpansion are a really stellar company.

But even if you just use the stock kits in BFD2, or maybe have one or two expansion packs, the JEX drums are really, really nice sounding. The kick has some real weight to it. “The Kicks were micced with a Yamaha sub kick mic that looks like a 10″ tom – this is the secret behind the devastating bass,” quote SKoT_FX. No cymbals or hats, and only one “bonus” snare (from the Jazz & Funk pack), but the toms and kick are well worth the $30 it will set you back.