Obviously, this comes with experience in programming drum parts, but Steven Slate Drums makes it really fun. I've used them for everything from metal, country, pop-punk, southern rock, etc, and they've played a crucial role in really solidifying the sound/genre I'm aiming for while recording.

The drums themselves are extremely versatile. The room sound is crucial for utilizing the natural reverb of the space the samples were recorded in. The room sound, however, is extremely important, and Steven Slate's room sound for every kit I've made has been excellent. However, I don't use that functionality because I don't feel that it's necessary for what I do. With Steven Slate, you get a room mic, plus overheads, and I believe you can do some routing to make certain parts of the kit bleed into other mics (overheads, for example). Here's a mixed example of a custom kit I made for my heavy groove-rock project: Steven Slate Drums did just that for me: great drum sounds for my style of music, and enough tweakability that I can make them work in the context of other genres as well. But, I firmly believe in using as little money as possible to accomplish my musical goals since I'm just a hobbyist.

I love that I can layer drum sounds, choose my own map conversions, and it was pretty easy on the wallet compared to Superior Drummer. So, I picked up SSD, and it's a night and day difference. Plus, without a pitch sheet, it's hard to program your own drum patterns with it, and I needed something beyond the grooves that came stock. I used to use EZ Drummer for everything, but the kits didn't give me the exact sound I was looking for. I use Steven Slate Drums, and I love them.

Superior drummer 3 vs ezdrummer 2