MIDI "Non-Drummer" Drum Input Device for Sonar

I made this video 3 years ago but it still pertains today just as well as did then.
Get yourself a drum machine on the cheap like the Alesis SR 16 (about 50 bucks used)
The big thing is, Sonar has drum maps for most drum machines out there, making it simple to just GO ! 
where as something like the Nano pad is more of a controller based hardware so you would need to assign the pads and create drum maps.
The video below shows how to set it up and how the pads are triggered by your fingers.

 
However, with all this said, I still find using the Piano Roll View to edit drums the best possible way.
because you can do detailed work vs. playing the pads then having to go back anyway and fine tune edit it. 
With time comes experience. it used to take me days to program drums in the Piano Roll.
But now a day, I can whack out a song with velocity changes in under a 1/2 hour easy. speed comes with time.
 
I also made a video for editing Drums in the Piano Roll View.

These are not "Ground breaking", Great videos by any means but they do give you a better understanding of how to edit drums in Sonar.
 

A "non-conventional" suggestion to bear in mind is that with Drum Replacer/Melodyne and a microphone you have exactly what you want now. The MIDI input is moot (unless you want it, but 16 pad controllers do not lend themselves to ergonomics IMO, same as a keyboard). Let me explain...
 
You can tap on a surface (any surface), and only need a pitch difference to make Drum Replacer/Melodyne detect it. The microphone must be rigidly mounted, and not on the surface you are playing on so that you do not get the bump from the microphone shake (same as real drums). Be creative, but pitch difference is all you need (from tapping glass to wood, or even putting thimbles on select fingers...)
 
Once you have an audio track without "mic thumps"... in Drum Replacer, you can fine-tune in on one, and replace with the appropriate drum/sample (i.e., it converts the audio you choose to MIDI notes, then replaces them with the samples you choose). Similarly, Melodyne will convert audio->MIDI, so you can use that to drive a VST drum set.
 
With fingers, this can have some limitations on number of drums per track (kick/snare track, then a toms track, etc. and I *believe* Drum Replacer is still limited to 3 drums per instance anyway, but not sure), but really boils down to what is easiest for you and that definite pitch differences exist... I have seen street drummers beating on plastic buckets with real sticks, and a 5-gallon one being sat on "cajon style" so they could rock on it to change the pitch... ironically, some of those audio recordings could easily be converted to MIDI to drive a VST and converted to "conventional drums."
 
Bottom line... microphone, a pitch difference, and whatever setup you like ergonomically... then the tools we already have available.
 
[just don't beat on anything glass with real sticks... but pots and pans are okay as long as the wife doesn't catch you!]