Some of you may already know these points, but as a reformed drummer
I thought I might contribute. *
May I add that most drummers have a stronger and weaker hand. The dominant hand hits harder, which changes the tone of the drum a bit, and the weaker hand on single stroke roles and some of the other rudiments may lag just a tiny bit.
Also in live performances, the drummer may hit both the head and the rim on the backbeat if he wants to drive the song - especially in harder rock songs. You can use the Hi Timbale for the rim sound and move it a tic or two ahead of the snare to bring out the crack.
If using a brush set, listen to plenty of drummers using brushes - and listen to the sounds they get. Once you get that in your head, judicious use of pitch bend on the snare will go a long way in emulating that. Of course you need a separate synth for snare only so the rest of the drums don't get pitch shifted.
If you have many synth modules, you can put the bass drum on a channel with no reverb to make it sound punchier.
* (Reformed drummer: I don't have a drum kit anymore, just a couple of MIDI drum controllers)
Insights and incites by Notes
