Originally Posted by
sephi
If you have one set of 808 samples, one set of 909 samples, and one set of acoustic drum samples, you can make pretty much anything you want through layering, distortion, compression, reverb... I have Drumazon, Kick, Battery, and probably some other drum VSTs I'm forgetting, but I always end up just using samples and shaping the sound I want with Transient Master, various distortion and saturation units, etc. Most of the samples in genre sample packs are just 808 and 909 samples that have been put through several phases of saturation, compression, expansion, EQ, etc. Using a "drum synth", whether outboard or VST, is mostly going to use the same stuff (envelope, distortion, EQ, reverb, etc.), just built into the hardware or drum-synth VST instead of coming from your DAW or a third party VST.
Nicky Romero's "Kick" (v2) VST is good for jumping straight to "I want more of a click, and a fat distorted tail" decisions, without having to use a 909 or 808 emulation interface. It's pretty cheap too.