There is a comparison near the bottom of this page that covers some of it. No picture of the drumset, no instrument bleed, less microphones, less samples, less articulations, etc… https://www.toontrack.com/product/superior-drummer-3/

My 2 cents would be drink a few less $8 starbucks coffees per month and stick with SDXs. Also, they are discounted on various sites like Thomann.de and Reverb (my fav place to buy them).

Bear-Faced Cow wrote:

There are plenty of differences between EZXs and SDXs. EZXs consist of mainly the key common articulations. They have only a few bleed channels. And if I’m not mistaken, they are 16 Bit Audio, Which will account for a reduced dynamic and velocity range.

That being said, I have a few go to EZX packs that I use because they sound amazing in a mix. They are great for when you need something quick in a mix as what they do contain make them pretty workable in many songs.

jord

I started writing this and then got called away, but the other 2 insightful answers pretty much cover it.

The difference in sound is subjective at the best of times. EZDrummer EZXs are 16bit as opposed to SDXs that are 24bit. So is there quality difference in sound? In a mix, with other instruments? Maybe, maybe not. If the session is a jazz trio where there’s a lot sonic space for all the instruments, you might notice it. In contemporary music, tracks/intruments are being tweaked to fit in a mix, sometimes within a very narrow band. Will you notice it? I dunno. Functionality, well you have more access to some of the components that make up presets. (EQ Compression, etc). They don’t have the nice EZDrummer graphics when opened within SD3, my customers don’t care about it, and although, as a graphic designer as well, I appreciate the care that goes into rendering the UI it’s the end product that matters. Jord nailed it with what he said. Sometimes the heavy lifting is done ahead of time by Toontrack and with minimal fuss you can get something that works great, 2 channels in, no fuss, no muss.

My own workflow, unless I am looking for something super specific (like the “In The Air Tonight” type drum machine: Hit Maker Machines SDX)…. I usually start composing with EZDrummer and then if I need bigger, deeper, higher, wider…. whatever…. can’t quite dial in the right sound, I’ll take the same track from EZDrummer, drag into SD3 and go from there.

Tom: what you are missing is headroom. You always want to have more than you think you need. You may not hear it but the difference is there.  You never want to get close to the limits of anything. Also keep in mind intersample peaks – slack off on the overhead (oversampling) and you’ll hear distortion. It’s like ram and money – you can never have too much of either. I’d rather be in the middle of things than try and live on the bleeding edge as you’ll get cut by it sooner or later.