crilleman, you have a collection that was made for sample augmentation, that has been discontinued for a year and a half. Get 3.0, its completey new from what you have.
As for sample interaction, the way we did our overhead micing and room micing makes the drums really come alive. Its not metal but here is something I just programmed, rather sloppily with 3.0:
www.stevenslatedrums.com/demo2/process.mp3
I spent some time to make sure the room mics were eq'd to be nice and shimmery, and I compressed the kick and snare just a bit to make them sit right.
Metal mixes are a bit harder since their is more density in the guitars. I would recommend a bit less mix compression Shred, and maybe trying to add more point to the snare.. also the snare could use a bit more "air", maybe a tad more room to let it breathe.
Our NRG room, new in 3.0, really adds a sense of dimension and realism that no previous versions have had. I'm pretty psyched to hear people's thoughts on programmed drums once more 3.0 demos come out.
BTW there is a shit ton of solo drum demos at our site, check em out.
Also, leakage doesn't make drums sound more natural. In fact quite the contrary most of the time, the phase issues and off axis mic response of leakage can actually make them sound worse. What makes drums sound real is capturing them and their ambient environments in an ultra precise way. This is why our Led Zep kit with its room mics at full blast sounds like Bonham going off, because we spent a lot of time capturing the room (or in this case stone castle!) environment:
www.stevenslatedrums.com/scott/04 Led Zep.mp3
I always use actives so those were done with that + a really distorted DI due to the lack of pads on my Saffire Pro at the time.
