Since the 80s programmed drums has had an ever increasing growth in quality. The sonic quality of the latest offerings goes beyond anything that anyone could fathom in the early days of drum machines. Today's music world is filled with programmed drums. They are used during writing stages and in major label recordings. One of the biggest names in the drum world is Toontrack's Superior Drummer 2. They have recently announced a huge upgrade to that version with version 3.

With new features like 11.1 surround sound and audio to midi conversion, it is an all in one solution to getting drum sounds. In the past most sample replacement programs would end up with similar sounding productions, but with Toontrack's latest release allowing for simple sample replacement within their superior drummer software, which has over 230GB of samples, it seems that there are limitless possibilities for sound design. 

Read more about it on Pro Tools Expert's website.

Consordini Musical Instruments has a great walk through on YouTube linked here.