What software to use?

[eurocopter]

What software would you guy's recommend to use on your computer BFD, Toontrack or addictive?
What sized drum kit can you have on these?

[Beamtreetaker]

What software would you guy's recommend to use on your computer BFD, Toontrack or addictive?

All of them are very good. BFD & Toontrack products offer more detailed samples. What to choose depends on your personal taste, wish of complexity and, of course: $.

What sized drum kit can you have on these?

BFD 2.0 & Superior Drummer 2.0 More than you will most likely ever be able to use
Addictive & EZDrummer line : Limited to usual drumset size but you could run multiple instance if you desire

[kimouette]

I still have not test Megadrum with it, but Native Instrument's Battery 3 will probably become my best friend in less than 2 weeks (once my Megadrum is completed!!)

[jamalpiper]

Same question I had (and have been avoiding)

I have it down to superior and BFD, I ruled out addictive and EZ since they seem to be a bit 'limited' in how many drums they support. Although the addictive demo is great and would use it If i wasn't planning on having around 20 pads.

As for battery I also tried out their demo, its good but I feel as though its not so much meant for E-drumming like this as it is maybe for use as a drum machine. It sounded good, but the selection of samples (In the Demo at least) wasn't to my taste.

Sadly of course money is a big issue in this, I think EZ and addictive are in my price range right now, so maybe my drum kit will be done by the time I have the extra money for BFD or Superior.

[elrules]

Battery 3 is a great tool for drum track programmers. It has a few nice acoustic kits, but it is very very limited. Addictive does not support aftertouch chokes, so you need to use an external app (Bome midi translator, for example) to convert incoming aftertouch messages to notes for AD.

Superior 2 has a great sound quality, good mixer and effects. It lacks of multizone crashes (they are all mono). The kit is huge, but it lacks of different sounds. For example, for percussion it only has a pair of cowbells.

BFD 2 has more instruments (percussion) and has multizone crashes.

[gastric]

Pros and cons to them all. You need to determine your own personal requirements and go from there. More than likely BFD2 or Superior2 would be your best bets if you need support for 20 kit pieces. I personally never got BFD2 working well due to it's heavy PC requirements. Note that for smaller apps like Addictive Drums you can simply run multiple instances as a work around to effectively provide a larger kit. You just don't get it in one nice tidy interface since you're running multiple instances.

I have always preferred Additive Drums overall. It's simple to use, lots of effects, and TONS of sounds generated from rock to electronica. It was the only drum VSTi I ever got quick satisfaction out of. BFD2 and S2 are comparatively complicated and I spent way more time trying to tweak them than I did actually enjoying them. I'm not an experienced drummer, probably won't be doing recording, and I'm not a sound engineer. I just want to play some edrums for fun.

With all of that said I use S2 now. It just has the best overall rock sounds IMO and has good native edrum support.