Oh, nice choice on the Alesis kit! I’ve had a similar setup for a while now, and it’s definitely versatile once you get the hang of all its features. To really elevate your sound quality, one of the first things you might want to stare into is tweaking the sensitivity settings. It makes a huge difference in how responsive each pad is to your playing style, which is crucial when bouncing between genres like jazz and rock.
For jazz, where dynamics play a huge role, setting a higher sensitivity can help capture those subtle nuances in your playing. For rock, you might prefer a lower sensitivity to really hammer out those powerful backbeats without triggering unintended sounds or ghost notes.
As for third-party drum libraries, I’ve had great success with EZdrummer. They offer incredibly realistic samples that can bring your electronic drumming experience several notches closer to an acoustic set's feel. Plus, they have expansions specifically tailored for different genres which should cover your interest from jazz to rock.
Experimenting with these settings and tools will definitely take some time but stick with it—soon enough you'll notice significant improvements in both performance and sound quality! Keep exploring different configurations; sometimes even slight adjustments can lead to discovering your ideal setup. Happy drumming!