I will answer my own question but so far Slate and GGD. look promising
I currently own- EZD2, SD3, GGD and Slate. The only one I use is SD3.
You need Kontakt for GGD and running it with the free/light version just gave me too many issues, mainly with the multi-outs not functioning properly. I loved the sounds in it, there are some KILLER snares in there (as well as a snare OFF option which I LOVE, being a huge Portnoy/Carey fan) but the issues were too much for me to deal with. I had a lot of mapping issues as well; even using the Standard mapping, I had to re-map 3/4’s the kits. I got it when it first came out and I’m assuming they’ve added more to it since then, but the lack of EQ on the toms just seemed daft to me. They said their thought was most people have a hard time with kick/snare sounds but like to EQ toms to taste so they left them raw.
EZD2 is GREAT for quick ideas and demo stuff, but you can’t access the raw drum sounds so whatever you want to do EQ-wise is EQ’ing something already EQ’d. That limitation is what made me buy SD3. There are tons of presets that come stock with it for different genres/kits, but the onboard mixer is REALLY damn good. At this point all I do with the drums (after making my own presets) is parallel compression stuff in Logic and I generally have a separate snare verb I automate between tight and “seriously, you want THAT much reverb?” because blast beats don’t sound good with a huge reverb that makes the Black Album snare sound tiny.
Slate just seemed so basic and not enticing to use; I bought it, opened it once or twice and not once since. It was probably the tits when it first came out but with everything else that’s come after, unless you REALLY dig the sounds in it, everything else is a step above, just from a UI standpoint.
