Triggering EZDrummer from an external drum machine... no MIDI recorded.

sorry but the post was so long i got a little lost...not that its a bad thing..lol..go in to sonar..hit P on the keyboard to bring up your preferences..go to make sure you menu is in advanced mode..go to clock..now click on midi..its to the right of audio..make sure youll all conected with cables first..and im assuming ez is all routed and sound coming out.now press play in the control module..sonar will trigger your drum machine..as long as your drum machine is set up to be the master you should have no probs..i do it all the time ...important..after your track is done..press cancel to escape. if this doesnt work get back to me with small details..dont for get to set the synth menu ..check midi out. dont open an instrument track either..just click..insert soft synth,then click ezdrummer.youll be prompt to the synth menu.read up on that..just make sure midi out is checked

Welcome to the forum.
First, don't use an instrument track.
Start with a standard MIDI track. Set it's input to your MIDI device (Lambda, either MIDI Omni or the specific channel the Boss transmits on [my Alesis SR-16 defaults to ch. 10]). Select an output channel and patch.
Go to Insert at the top, choose SoftSynths and EZD. Deselect the box that reads 'Create MIDI Source Track'.
Once EZD is inserted, change the output of the MIDI track from Lambda to EZD. Hit a few pads on the Boss, and if you hear it, that's good.
Arm the MIDI track, click the Record button in the transport. If the Boss is correctly set up to play, the MIDI data should be recorded.

Hey David, I think I understand what you're trying to do, but since I don't have a drum machine I can't replicate the scenario here.

I'll let those guys help you with the main issue. My question is, Since you have moved to a digital DAW work environment, why not take advantage of the many varied and assorted drum tools that are available?

I too used a programmable drum machine back in the days of tape. I thought it was really cool, and it was. When I discovered how easy it was to work with the drum synths, my mind was totally blown away at the sound quality and the ease of creating and editing a midi synth drum track.

As a work around until you figure it out in MC..... since you have the DR-880 working in the other DAW...why not use it to outload the tracks in it as MIDI and import them into MC5 then learn the Session Drummer and the other cool drum synths on the market?

my 2 centavos....

I must admit that when using the SR-16, I already had the MIDI tracks in MC/SONAR, so there were no patterns in the SR-16.
You'll probably have to record those patterns by clicking Play on the Boss, then record in MC.
Make sure you have the tempo in MC set to the same tempo as the Boss.
Alternatively, does the Boss have some sort of MIDI dump option? Or can you save the MIDI file to a disk or SD card?

Hopefully, I'll answer a few questions here that have been asked.

@Beagle - I did have two instances of EZDrummer open. Thanks for catching that. It still didn't solve the issue but at least that's one less issue to deal with.    

I'll admit to being an old guitar player out of his element when it comes to MIDI. I'm just familiar enough with it to get myself into trouble. But it's time I learned at least enough to implement it in my recording. A brief boring bio - I got into home recording years ago with a four-track cassette like I'm sure many of you did. I first attempted computer-based recording in the late-90's/early 2000's and wasn't that impressed. The industry was new. It was a world of adapters to get sound into your computer (pre-interface era), slow CPU's, limited RAM... just downright quirky. Around 2003 I purchased a BOSS digital multitrack and enjoyed it tremendously. I later upgraded to a 16 track ZOOM and just wore the thing out - literally. So I decided to try the computer route again. I purchased Cubase (which is what I had and HATED years before) and struggled with it. It seems there's ALWAYS a computer/software compatability issue to resolve before I can record with it. I bought MC5 for the Amplitude X-Gear and Sound Center plug-ins, intending to use them in Cubase. Instead, I was impressed enough with it actually working right out of the box and it's user-friendly GUI that I've ditched the Cubase. So, all that to say I'm learning and really appreciate the help. I hope as the next few weeks wear on the users of this forum won't come to hate the old fart asking all the questions.

At this point, I've all but given up on getting MC5 to control the drum machine the way I want it to. However, I was able to record the track manually with the drum machine triggering EZDrummer and laying it down as a MIDI track. So it's there.

Now to answer Guitarhacker's question. I have a bunch of my songs programmed into my drum machine already. Like I said in my original post, I'm quite adept at programming drums from scratch so the quality of the already-completed tracks is high enough that I would rather use them than creating something in EZDrummer and MC5... for now. However, going forward I plan on ditching the use of the drum machine altogether. Before I began buying expansion packs for EZ I wasn't impressed enough with the basic kit and included grooves but the expansions are unbelievable - very useful stuff to build from. What's really cool is that I discovered I can record a track from my drum machine in MIDI and then replace rolls and fills with the samples in EZ, so I may yet spice up the old tracks with some new flair.

Thanks again everyone for the help. You've given me a workable solution.

Have you tried MIDI Quantize? Whatever quantization you choose will place the notes in the proper space regardless of how late or early you hit the key (in most cases).

nope, no MIDI sync for MC6 as I suspected.  you have to upgrade for that feature.