I use drum mics, 1 between snare and hi hat. One 2-3 feet off the kick. 2 overheads set really hi and two distant room mics. I tend to let the room do most of the work, as I hate close mic drum sounds. They sound so tiny to me. I keep it pretty simple and just blend the mix til it sounds good.
We mostly use the hardware synths... in the studio we had a live neanderthal for a few tracks, though
Admittedly I´m not really a MIdi /synths person, so other than Reason and teh MPC I can´t really say whick of those do drums or are "tweked to hell" to emulate drums or not... I think the Proteus does other stuff....