I have Superior Drummer 2, standard Avatar samples, and would like to get better sounds, esp for snare, kick, and toms. 
I can get an expansion kit, like the Rock Warehouse, but not really sure what that would sound like till it's in my song...  and that's $107 for just that exp kit. In comparison, the whole Steven Slate 4.0 is $99 right now...    apparently 100 kits...  very good reviews.
 
But..., not too sure I want to spend the time to get into a new drum program either...  Does the Slate 4.0 come with an equivalent interface / GUI sorta like SD2 has?  (and I can just insert it as a soft synth like SD2, can paste in / run midi tracks, etc ?)
 
At this point I'm less of a tinkerer... really want something that sounds great and is dead simple to use, with a minimum of fuss.
Any suggestions or recommendations ? 

http://audiodeluxe.com/products/steven-slate-drums-platinum-blackbird-cla-expansion-pack-bundle
 
Create an account on Audiodeluxe and you can get SSD4 Platinum and 2 Exp Paks (CHris Lorde Alge and Blackbird)
for $165.00
You cant beat that! Remember that SSD4 is a Drum Sample engine. You cant create beats with it. You can play all you midi through it and create drum maps so you can play your SD2 patterns on it. I think it come with default maps for SD2
Hope this helps you!

I have SSD 4 (the light version) and never use it.
The interface is very poor in my opinion, especially compared to Superior Drummer 2.
 
For me there is only one drum VST I would seriously recommend and that's FXpansions BFD3.
If you want something simpler and easier to use and that sounds like none of the others then I would suggest BFD Eco which is superb value for money and very simple to use.
 
You could of course get EZdrummer since you already own SD2 but if you want something that sounds different then this might not be your best option. BFD Eco will probably be on sale over the Xmas and new year period, last year it could be got for and absurd $19 (It retails for £69 or $105)
 
It's always hard to envisage how a kit is going to sound in your song until you actually hear it in your song and that for me, is why I like to be able to have the freedom to shape the raw sounds in the way that suits me because I can spend more time going through preset after preset and just getting frustrated than I do in creating my own sounds and presets.
 
By the way, that's NOT, 100 different kits in SSD 4, it's just 100 presets. May only be the one kit?
I could make 100 presets with one single kit quite easily.
 
Given that BFD3 has 7 different kits and is 59GB in the new BFDLAC format and 167GB in .WAV format, I hate to think how big the SSD4 would be if it were 100 separate kits. It would either be about 500GB or they would be very lacking in detail and sound pretty bad.
 
Steve

twaddle
For me there is only one drum VST I would seriously recommend and that's FXpansions BFD3.

 
+1  -  Right on  -  Amen!!!
 
Couldn't agree more.  There truly is no other drum software in it's class.  And it's not difficult to learn or use.  Pretty intuitive and straight forward.  TONS of sound sculpting options and some pretty incredible grooves.

Hoenerbr
http://audiodeluxe.com/products/steven-slate-drums-platinum-blackbird-cla-expansion-pack-bundle
 
Create an account on Audiodeluxe and you can get SSD4 Platinum and 2 Exp Paks (CHris Lorde Alge and Blackbird)
for $165.00
You cant beat that! Remember that SSD4 is a Drum Sample engine. You cant create beats with it. You can play all you midi through it and create drum maps so you can play your SD2 patterns on it. I think it come with default maps for SD2
Hope this helps you!

Drum Sample engine?    Sorry, newb to this, what does that mean to me?  How would I go about using it if there is no way to drag and drop beats into my songs ?  Can you get a bit detailed here, please, for the newb?

The "engine" term is used to describe the program that takes samples and spit them back out in a useable way to your DAW or whatever else you are outputting it to.
 
Kind of like (well kind of IS) a synth/virtual instrument. It takes the raw samples (wave files or whatever file format the audio is in) then plays them back based on information coming from the DAW (MIDI clips), external hardware (like a MIDI keyboard or drum kit) or whatever else it allows itself to be triggered by.
 
So if each kit piece has twelve samples of various volume linked to "velocity" (the agressiveness of an incoming MIDI note) and the "kit" has 8 peices the "engine" reads the incoming MIDI input (from a MIDI clip, external controller or other sources) then fetches the correct sound for each note received, sorts them by velocity (how loud/aggressive the sample should be) and note number (what kit piece should be played) and plays it back as audio (into a DAW or wherever else you send it).
 
Something like that.

And do you not have Addictive Drums? It comes free with the higher tier versions of Sonar. It's not as awesome as BFD3 (though I still don't own BFD3 but it does certainly look to be the best of the best) but will probably suit your needs just fine. With the right kit choices you can get some soooper nice sounds from it. Lots of presets for instant happiness but I prefer to get into the kit/sound tweaking tools which are probably the best thing about it.
 
Still SERIOUSLY want BFD3 though. That stuff looks brilliant. 300 boners I do not have though.
 
Cheers.
 

Chevy
 
At this point I'm less of a tinkerer... really want something that sounds great and is dead simple to use, with a minimum of fuss.

Some engineers and producers I worked with say they like SSD4 for its simplicity of use, kinda set-and-forget. I'm a little skeptical about 100 kits, though. Couldn't find official info on how many samples, velocity layers and round robins are used for SSD4 libraries. So there might be just two or three actual kits and 100 programs with different settings.

I have SSD4 and the Chris Lord Alge expansion. I've also got Superior Drummer and BFD Eco. For out of the box sounds for rock, it's hard to beat SSD4 especially the CLA. I think the kicks and snares with SSD4 are better than Superior, at least to me. As far as all the presets in SSD4, they do sound fairly similar , but there are some variations.
 
The GUI isn't hard to learn and there are a few grooves that come with it but not many. I usually record my own with a set of Edrums and edit that anyway.

I have had Steven Slate drums for a long time. I like them a lot. The plat 4 version is nice-how many kits? I don't know-but plenty of sounds to that's for sure. I use it mostly with midi drumtracks I have created (since 1986 or so) and to make new ones. I also have Ez Drummer 1&2. It is nice to D&D alos.
 
I think it's nice to have both options.