I just upgraded from EZ Drummer and so far think it was well worth it, the sounds are very very good. If you don't have it yet you can hunt around for some sales, all their stuff goes on sale a couple times a year but never at the same time. I picked up EZ for $30 at Guitar Centers holiday sale in december and right now the crossgrade to SD is on sale for $100.
I own pretty much all of the good drum programs out there and end up using superior the most. It's not the best sounding to me oceanway drums is but superior does sound great and the features and usability win out for me. Plus Its the best with drum triggers. I did not like ex. But have gotten great use out of superior. I hope they continue making expansions. Great program
A lot of people are familiar with that program. The best advice I can give you, is to audition different drums and cymbals to see what you like best, and achieve your own sound. The biggest mistake that musicians make is not trusting their own ears.
I have Superior 2 and the Metal Foundry addon and it sounds really good.
It now has the groove tab where you can reuse EZDrummer and other midi files.
It is very flexible but I use provided presets (Metal Foundary) that I like and go from there.
I like the fact that I can use any kit/sounds with any patterns. If you have the expansion kits, you could for example play metal riffs with a Nashville sounding kit. The only subtle drawback is the EZX patterns will not trigger all of the sounds (bleeds and mics) associated with the SDX kits, but that's a barely noticeable thing to most people. SD2 is the best I've used.
If you have the crossgrade version the only requirement is that ez drummer is installed and registered first - then you can install and register the crossgrade. I think a full install is close to 20gb. If it's old media make sure to download and install all the upgrades as they do a good job with their patches/updates. I think it was groove monkeys that has a free sample midi pack for ezd/sd as well that you might want to check out.
I run SD 2.0 with one of the NY Studio expansion pack, as well as the older DFHS library, all triggered by a trapkat setup. No complaints really, though if I had a good room to mic my acoustic kit in (or good mics to begin with, lol), I'd never touch it again.
The ability to mix / match in 2.0 is a bit limited compared to the older version, but still it works very well, and has better tools in place for folks who are just doing programming.
I've got SD2.0 and I run it with my TD9kxs kit via midi. It was shockingly easy to set up(see plug out to midi in and play). I have the Metal Foundry but I've found the NY Studio Avatar sounds so fat that I don't ever find myself using it.
When using them without the external triggers it can be a bit tedious but you can make them sound super friggin good if you take the time and work in accents in the fills and beats. If you just do straight beats without any flair you more than likely will find them sounding pretty bare and lifeless.