How do I split different drum parts into multiple tracks?

I am trying to make a drum beat and I want to split different drum parts into multiple tracks.

For example, I want my snare, kick, and hi-hats in separate tracks so that I can put reverb, compressor and different sorts of effects on different parts.

Are there easier ways than loading a VSTi into all of those multiple tracks?
It seems very unnecessary to load 4 of the same VSTi.

I've also tried to create multiple midi tracks and set those midi tracks' outputs into a VSTi.
It seemed to be working just fine for a while until I figured that the plugins for the soft synth and the midi tracks are different.
(Sonar didn't let me put reverb or compressor into midi tracks. Instead, it showed all sorts of midi plugins such as arpeggiator, quantize and such.)

Does anyone know how to get this done? I just want to put a compression on my snare. Not to the whole drum set!

Wahey! Something I may be able to help with, providing you're using BFD? Are you using BFD? 

Ah, never used Battery to be honest. However, if I explain the way I program BFD, it may be transferable. If not, sorry I don't have a clue 


Within Battery, in the mixer screen, set each drum to a different output (BFD output 1 is always  master, so I set snare to output 2, kick to output 3, hi hat to output 4 etc.)


Within Sonar I then create 1 MIDI track, input from controller, output to soft synth. I'll then create the number of audio tracks that are required (one for each drum).


Output is set to my MIDI interface, input is selected to each drum. So first audio will be BFD 2 (which is snare), next audio to BFD 3 (which is kick) etc.

Well, that's the BFD anyway. All about the mixer within the soft synth

Once you get it all setup, you might want to select all the tracks associated with Battery and the Drum Bus (you are using a Drum Bus right) and save it as a track template. That way you can reuse the track template rather than setup Battery each time.

Setting up multi outs in Battery is a piece of cake, however I seem to remember having trouble with using mono outputs so I just used the stereo ones instead. If you need more outputs than are in the Battery output drop-down menu, then go into the Battery options (wrench icon) and tell it to give you more. 

OMG! Thank you guys so much for the advice! I will definitely try these when I get home tonight! Thank you, thank you! :)

Cannot speak for anyone but myself; I always use multiple audio tracks and usually a single MIDI track for Drums

Yep as far as I'm concerned one MIDI track and multiple audio tracks is the only sensible way to go. I've heard people swear by separate MIDI tracks for each drum, but to me that's just a horrible messy idea. When all of your drum MIDI is on one track you can see the whole beat and how each part relates to each other, plus when it comes down to dividing your drum part into repeatable patterns to reproduce along the length of the song, it's going to be a lot easier if you're dealing with single clips instead of separate clips for every drum. 

Dude Ivey

scook


Cannot speak for anyone but myself; I always use multiple audio tracks and usually a single MIDI track for Drums

Same here.

Likewise

I have a different vantage point. I prefer separate tracks for Midi for each piece of the kit. Super easy to make edits this way. Still can easily copy and paste sections around.  The Group feature also allows setting each track into record mode and/or input monitor mode. I would never switch to one Midi track for drums. I recognize each of us have discovered ways to make things work well with our workflow. Lots of you apparently like single track Midi for drums. I'm a huge fan of multiple Midi tracks for drums.