percussion sounds

I am a newbie to sonar, I am interested in composing and arranging latin, african and caribbean music I want to use a lot of hand percussion steel drums, vibes marimba, etc Can someone point me in the right direction as to which soft synth or midi equipment will give me the best sounds, I see a lot of info on guitars, keyboards and drumsets, but if your outside that box there doesn't seem to be a lot of info. Thanks

You should get Battery from Native Instruments. Great drums and percussion for all music genres.

Aloha,

I have always felt very frustrated by the sounds it seems that are available .........
midi control is capable of taking care of the rhythms
but the sounds that most midi drum sets show up with are limited to say the least. 

I trained with a master Haitian Voodoo drummer and I know there are at least
12 different sounds I can draw out of any quinto, conga or tumba.... 
 
most midi sets give you conga hi conga low conga slap conga mute LOL---- which you can use pretty well believe it or not.  I just want more.  For that I will have to do some sound editing (sculpting)?

I recently found my interest in making music re-invigorated as a result of this forum so I am going to try to devote lots of time to doing some editing of the programs (sounds) I have available on my Alesis synths -- I think there are some here in the  Sonar synths but I have no idea (yet) how to even set them up let alone program them.  I have Unisyn for editing my QSR AND QS6 so ....... I am going to try to develop a whole set of articulations (sound variations) for bata, congas, bongos -- I dunno about the brazilian stuff,  maybe after I get these 3 going for hands and hammers and mallets and stix

I have used steel drums and vibes and marimbas sparingly but they do exist in various synths besides Alesis and they are fairly straight forward anyway, in so far as playing them.  Minor messing with the programing to get sounds.

I am always tempted to go the easy route and use the loops but that seems so--I dunno--not what I want to do? 
Using someone else's sounds as anything other than a starting point doesn't appeal to me.
I know there is a bunch of stuff you can do to the loops to make them more yours.  And they may be a good place to start depending on your level of musical acumen.  But I know I'd feel more satisfied if I can make my own sounds and rhythms.

I am new here also, so I don't know the capabilities of the available soft synths in these terms. 
Alesis sounds are extraordinary - exceptional.
Why Alesis has allowed these units to go to legacy products is beyond my comprehension.  
New owners and a lack of ???something.