Good choice Kaylen. IT does have more options that ezDrummer, so it will take a little more work to get it to sound the way you want. But it's worth it. At one time I never thought I would use anything other than ezDrummer. I always thought, "why would I?This is so easy!"  The more I used ezd the more I realized it's limitations.
 
That's not to say it's bad, hell I have 4-5 of the expansion packs for it! So I still use it. Just not exclusively anymore.

I am a fan of BFD2. I think it is outstanding. I do have BFD Eco as well but I got it awhile ago. Now as much as Beepster likes BFD eco he will go totally nuts when he gets BFD2. We probably wont ever hear the end of it.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Superior Drummer 2, EZD's much bigger brother. Theres a vast library of kits, presets, midi files available.

mudgel
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Superior Drummer 2, EZD's much bigger brother. Theres a vast library of kits, presets, midi files available.

I mostly use Superior Drummer but I recommended the BFD route because the OP was intrested in "World Drums", an area FX Expansion covers better than Toontrack. With Toontrack you are limited to the (IMHO) lack luster Latin EZX and possibly few thing the the Twisted EZX.
No doubt about it both BFD and Superior are excelent products, I don't think you can go wrong with either, but i felt the OP specific requirments would be better filled by FX Expansions products.
 
 

Good choice Kaylen
If it's the disks they're selling on amazon you'll need to register with FXpansion, go to your account and download the latest updates, V.1.5.1.6 is the most up to date but it won't do any harm to run the other updates first.
If you have another drive it's always the best option to install the data to that drive instead of your C drive.
If you're in need of help FXpansion support are very good but the forum is very quiet and you'll probably find help quicker on here. I guess the quietness is a sign of a lot of happy users without issue.
 
 
Steve

Sorry, double post

mudgelTheres a vast library of kits, presets, midi files available.

I'm not suggesting that more is always better but there are 21 expansion kits available from the FXpansion site, most of which (but not all) can be used in BFD Eco and almost as many again (if not more) from 3rd party vendors such as platinum samples and others.
 
I only counted 12 sdx kits on the toontrack site although I know a lot of them are bundles and not just one kit but I've heard a number of complaints over the years about the lack of expansion kits from 3rd party vendors for superior drummer so in terms of vast libraries I'd say BFD2 has the vaster.
 
Steve
 
Oh yeah, and those fxpansion kits are ALL half price right now

Just curious why people aren't using Session Drummer 3?

I think people are using session drummer 3 but the more serious they become about their drums then the more likely they are to start looking at what else is out there.
 
Here's my take, session drummer 3 is Ok but with the exception of EZdrummer (which is better but not by much IMHO)
it is very (and I mean very) limited compared to almost everything else out there.
The sound set is ok and is improved hugely by adding some of the Platinum Samples expansion kits but you have very limited control and tweak-ability.
If control isn't your thing and you ust want to use drums that sound like the drums you hear on your favourite records and you don't want to spend time creating a drum sound that is truly of you own making, there are still far better options out there.
Steve Slate and Addictive Drums to name but two.
 
Of course it means spending more money, and session drummer though not truly being free (it is included in the cost of sonar X2)
is apart of the whole package. The reason these drum threads occur so often and the reason people seem to care so much about drums is IMO because we ALL use drums in our music no matter what style or genre. WE don't ALL use synhs or real guitars and bass. we don't ALL want great orchestral libraries but we do ALL want great and realistic sounding drums.
Although opinions seem to differ greatly on what in considered to be, "realistic"
 
Stve
 

I actually bought Sonar partially based on some of the SD3 vids. I was broke and needed to be able to make passable drum tracks and SD3 does indeed deliver on that. I knew though that because of the nature of my music that I would need something much more powerful and tweakable. If I wasn't such a spazz SD3 with a couple expansion packs would work fine... but I am indeed a spazz and wanted purer sounding samples I could mix myself with a lot more tweakability. I used to actually play drums and I wanted something that I could bend to my will and whims like I could with a real kit. BFD delivers on that. I can program in crazy rolls, fills, swells and have them not sound choked or unnatural. If I was just tossing together basic beats and light fills SD3 would be fine and actually easier to use but I'm reaching for Peart, Lombardo, Moon type stuff which just isn't gonna happen with it. In fact I'm kind of pushing the limits of what BFD can do I think.
 
Really unless you are going for crazy hyper realistic drums then SD3 should cover the needs of most folks. If you listen to some of chuckebaby's stuff you can hear just how good SD3 can sound.