Just recently got EZD and am wondering how the expansions are and if there are any to totally avoid getting.

The latin kit is awesome! It is the only one I bought, though. Can't speak for the other ones...

i bought jazz, nashville and vintage. I like the jazz kit (although it can be a little brittle sounding to my ears), I rarely use the nashville (except for the hand drums): it's just too pro sounding or something. not my cup of tea. I do use the vintage drums all the time. really warm sounding and I can make them work with many types of music. I also love the cocktail kit that comes with EZD. guess that I would be happy with just vintage.

has anyone tried the Twisted kit? looks cool, but I'm wondering if I should just keep making my own trash/junk kits.

I'm thinking about getting Jazz. What do you mean by brittle? The Nashville kit sounds really good. I would go for the Latin kit, if I didn't already have a ridiculous amount of Latin percussion samples.

I recommend Nashville all the way. It sounds very good to my ears.

My favourites are the Americana EZX and the Vintage Rock EZX. There are things that I love about both, but also things that I don't like, so I finally decided to combine them using two EZDrummer instances.

Doing so, I built my standard kit using the bass drum and toms from the Americana's Ludwig kit, the Americana Ludwig snare and Americana UFIP Class hihat, combined with the Vintage Rock's cymbals (17" and 18" Paiste crashes and 20" Zildjian K ride).

The Vintage Rock's toms and bass drum are fine, but not what I prefer sound-wise in most cases. Nice to have, though. Its snares are ok, too, but I prefer the Americana's. I don't like the Vintage Rock's hihats at all, which I find rather washy and lacking a lot of presence for my taste. The cymbals are a different story, though, the Paiste crashes to be precise: From the three EZXs that I have (the two mentioned above and The Classic) I like these the best. The 18" is the only cymbal from my EZXs that sounds convincing when used as a crash-ride. These Paistes sound as if they actually do switch to some ride articulations when played on low velocities. I like them a lot.

The Americana offers more articulations per kit piece and possibly velocity layers than previous EZXs. In this regard, the Vintage Rock appears quite dated, to be honest, which is why I prefer the Americana's snare over the Vintage Rock's, for example. All its drums have a very natural, open sound to them, that fits into a lot of musical styles easily. The UFIP hihat is great, bright and tight, I love it! It perfectly complements the Paiste cymbals from the Vintage Rock EZX. I don't like The Americana's cymbals that much, especially the UFIP ride, which sounds very dark, too dark for my taste. The Zildjian sizzle ride ist good, but I wouldn't use a sizzle ride as my main ride cymbal, so I use the Vintage Rock's Zildjian K for that. Despite it's lack of articulations (it only has "Ride", "Bell" and "Edge" compared to the Americana's "Ride Tip", "Ride Shank", "Bell Tip", "Bell Shank", "Edge" and "Mute" articulations) it sounds very lively.

I can't write a lot about The Classic EZX. I hardly use it anymore. It offers a broad selection of drums and cymbals and even two microphone setups, but, well... I like the other two better.

So, a lot of text, I hope it helps!

So, I take it you can't mix and match drum kits in one instance of EZD?

You are correct. But it's easy to add a 2nd instance with the same midi and mute the drum parts you use per track to save CPU.

I have the following EZX's: Vintage, Classic, Claustrophobic, Twisted, Drum Kit From Hell & Nashville.

My three favorites are Vintage, Claustrophobic & Nashville.
Love the drum sounds & midi on all three.

The Vintage kit's bass drums & snares are perfect for pop/rock. Very deep thudding bass drum! The snares are a little deeper than the "in vogue" higher pitched snares and I find they fit perfectly in most mixes. Great midi!

The Claustrophobic kit is excellent for more mellower songs and has tons of presets. Higher pitched snares and tighter bass drum. Very versatile kit.

Nashville's bass drums are a little punchier. You can really hear the beater.
The cymbals, hi-hats & toms are superb and the midi is excellent for the genre.

Twisted is kind of weird unless you are just into clanging and banging.
This kit gets on my nerves quickly. I have buyers remorse on this one.

The midi with Drum Kit From Hell is spectacular for a heavy style of music,
but the drum kits are frankly embarrassing. Super thin sounding. I can't see myself ever using this kit, but I use the midi on a regular basis.

Just bought the Classic Kit. I like the snares and bass drums, but the cymbals & hi-hats are substandard and the midi is very disappointing.

In summary, I guess it really comes down to the type of music you write.
I feel you can't go wrong with investing in Toontrack.
I also have Steven Slate & Battery and I choose Toontrack for 95% of my songs.
If you want to hear some of these kits in action, I would be happy to provide links.

Good Luck,
Jerry

it just sounds a little thin and trebly to my ears and I have to work harder to get it to fit in a mix. it sounds great when other people use it, so it could just be that my music isn't the right context (for instance I have a friend who uses it on classic rock sounding stuff and it sounds awesome). if you want to send me a MIDI file, I'll run it through the jazz set and you can judge for yourself. just PM me.

I typically prefer dead sounding drums (the whole tea towel thing)., so it is probably just a matter of personal preference/material.

I've noticed this as well. Of course, I'm a fan of adding my own touch to just about everything I use.

I'm wondering if there is a way to adjust the ADSR of the individual sounds?

Not within EZDrummer.