Steven Slate Platinum or Toontrack Superior Drummer - Which should I buy?

Which do I choose?
 
In order of importance:
 
Sound
Flexibility (ie - easy to route drums to different MIDI channels)
Cost/number of expansion packs
Groove availibilty
 
In April I can buy Superior for $199 or Slate for $239.
 
Comments, please.
 
Dave-

I would wait on SSD 4 until it comes around on sale again. Maybe pick an old version of the EX version secondhand, which would bring the upgrade cost down. You would have to do the maths on that nearer the time. In short, don't pay that price at the moment.

A bit of the same with SD. Buy when there are sales.

SSD 4 is the finished 'mixed' drum sound moreorless. That's why you buy it. SD takes more of a tweak. I don't have SSD 4 so no idea what the new tweaks and features are like.

Jind


Drums are one of the hardest for me to recommend as personally it's the one type of instrument where variety really is the ****e of life (at least for me).  I have both Slate Drums and Superior Drums (as well as several other libraries including some from Ocean Way and Sonic Reality Drum Masters series), but I do tend to rely heavily upon Superior for most stuff.  I had EZ Drummer for quite some time and earlier this year took the plunge and did the upgrade to Superior so I was very comfortable with the way Toontrack products work.  I'll be honest, but once again preface this with it's just my usage and not a recommendation, but I don't use my Slate stuff as often as I thought I would, but it may very well be my current heavier use of Superior since upgrading.

I have no idea why the word S P I C E gets caught in the profanity filter.  Is it a foul word in some language I'm unfamiliar with? 

I vote SUPERIOR!

**** **** ****

Yup the profanity filter is working fine Jind...

gmon72

Superior is certainly more polished, but you will get one kit, Avatar , with SD 2.x.  Additional kits range from 40 dollars ish for EZX expansions to 100 plus for SDX expansions.  With SSD 4 platinum you get 100 mixed kit presets in various styles.  If you are looking for variety in one spot, SSD is good.  The new deluxe kits are much more natural sounding than the 3.5 SSD version.  As this plug in is new, it still needs a bunch of work to be as complete as SSD or BFD etc.  As for midi, SD 2 has the edge, although new grooves are promised for SSD.  You could always get grooves from people like groove monkey, etc.  

SD 2 certainly is far more tweakable, has built in effects etc, if you don't want to rely on your host to do as much.  

I have both, plus other drum VSTis. I like mucking and playing with different sounds.  If you don't plan on buying more expansions, you may want to lean toward SSD.  If you want a more mature product that is far more tweakable, try SD 2.  If you want to be further confused, look at BFD 2. By the way I think SSD 2 is 149.99 this month at audiodeluxe.  

gmon72 has summorized it well.  I also have both Steven Slate Drums 4 (SSD4) and Superior Drummer 2 (SD2) and I have been on both sides of the court on this one.  SSD4 has a boat load of kits (100) and they sound amazingly good right out of the box, but there are no effects on board.  Further, there are several known bugs particularly with SSD4 with Sonar as its host and  they have yet to be ironed out.  To be fair, Slate support is aware of these bugs and their developers are working on them.  Still, several members here on our forum have reported trouble with SSD4 in Sonar.  
    On the other hand, Superior Drummer 2 (SD2) will cost you more in the long run; the add on kits are great and affordable but it does increase the total cost for creating a more versatile product.  As gmon72 has accurately described it, you get one good kit (Avatar), and decent on board effects (compressor, eq, gates...) that can be fine tuned inside of SD2 itself, but you will spend some extra money down the road adding extra kits, which BTW do sound great as well.  
    If you are needing a product proven to work very well with Sonar right now, then SD2 is a solid choice.  If you want a bigger arsenal of kits, but some bugs with Sonar that should eventually be worked out, and if you are willing to be very patient then SSD4 is appealing.  BTW, even with the issues it has in Sonar, SSD4 still is usable for many on this forum.  Until SSD4 gets its act together and the bugs fixed for its use with Sonar, I am using SD2 and loving every beat of it.

Thanks for all the feedback. Looks like SD2 @ audiodeluxe for $159. Cheapest I could find it online. Thx to gmon72.

Dave-

God I just watched the Promo Video  for SSD4, he claims (boasts) it's the most powerful drum software in the world, 
that alone would make me put my wallet back in my pocket. he comes across like a car salesman.
It does sound good but to say it's the most powerful drum software in the world just makes him look stupid.


Steve

Ahh, I had a vague feeling you had BFD2 which was kind of why I mentioned it (if that makes sense?)
I know what you mean, and whilst I agree in theory that the more you have the better, the down side (for me at least) 
is it just takes longer because I can spend a whole day going through presets in a seemingly endless loop trying to find something I want. As well as Session Drummer 3 I have Addictive drums, EZdrummer & and a load of battery kits but since 
I really started to learn BFD2 properly I haven't used anything else and all the old songs that had other drums have been swapped out with BFD2 and they sound so much better for it. 


Steve