gain in AD?

Hey guys. So, I understand gain staging with respect to audio, but I must be missing something with MIDI. I use a Roland TD-4 kit to trigger Addictive Drums. It works great, but the meters in the console view (as well as track view) seem to clip so easily. I have to turn the faders way down in the AD mixer to stop this, but then I have trouble getting the drums loud enough.

Does this make sense? I am probably missing something.

The red portion of the meter on a MIDI track indicates activity only. The rest of the meter shows velocity. http://www.cakewalk.com/D...amp;Req=Mixing.20.html

Ok might have changed in newer versions, Mine in 8.5 will go red when it hits the top of the meter just like audio. Just means I've hit 127 vel. 

Forgive my ignorance guys, but there are 2 things I am not understanding now;
- in console view, what purpose does the fader serve on a midi track?
- does the AD mixer come before or after the console in the signal chain?
 
Sorry if these are dumb questions but I have barebones midi knowledge.

Couple of things:
.
 
As of X3d (I believe), by popular request, MIDI  meter activity indicators are no longer red; they're green. So if the OP is seeing red indicators on a meter it's audio. But I see the OP's signature wasy X3b, so maybe an update is in order...?
 
Aut the OP also said that pulling faders down in AD stops the "clipping' in the track/console meters, which wouldn't happen if it's MIDI, so it does appear there's something a problem with audio gain staging.
 
But it's not "clipping" per se if it's audio from a soft synth because in-the-box signals won't ever be clipped. Only a live analog input (Edit: or physical output) can actually "clip".
 
Nevertheless, good practice even in DAWland dictates that you don't want any meters peaking above 0dBFS.  In this regard, it's important to differentiate between the red "zone" of the meter above -6dB, and actual 0dB "clip" level. Like SessionDrummer, AD does have a hot output by default. I just checked it with a canned beat and single output from AD's Master out, and it was peaking at -1.2dB. So it's in the red "zone", but not "clipping" the track output.
 
And finally, the volume controls in MIDI track send MIDI  volume CC7 messages. Most synths will respond to this either at the channel level or at the Master output level, but AD appears to be one that does not - at least not by default. There may be a setting to enable it.
 
 

For a lot of the AD presets, if you go out of AD to individual tracks, the drums will clip.  I usually use the faders in Sonar to bring the levels down, because the AD mixer levels are part of the preset.