I know how to route the various mic/channels in SD2 to tracks in Cakewalk, but I'm working on creating a project template w/ SD2 as my drums and I'm hoping to see how you guys like to route the individual drums, and which you keep in mono and which are in stereo.

Basically I want to be able to open a clean new Cakewalk session from a template and be able to start writing a song from the ground up while having SD2 Avatar kit properly routed to tracks in Cakewalk from the start so I can essentially mix the drums as I go right from the beginning if I want even if I'm still at the song writing stage. And when I am ready to mix the drums are already properly routed and ready to go.

The Avatar kit has 3 mics/channels for the kick alone and I think the same for the snare, but I don't want to have 3 tracks each in Cakewalk for the kick and snare.. unless of course that's the best way to go about it? I'm thinking I'd rather adjust the 3 mics/channels for the kick inside of SD2's mixer and route all 3 of those channels to a single "master" track in Cakewalk, same for snare. But is that a good way to do it? I've been watching YouTube vids and I guess technically I could have around 48 tracks of just drums in Cakewalk if I wanted to route every single channel for the Avatar kit, but I'd like a simpler setup.

I'm thinking to route all 3 kick mics to a single mono track in Cakewalk, same for snare and hihat, and toms and overheads in stereo, idk how are you guys doing this?
Trying to keep things on the simpler but effective side for now, but also wanting to do things the best and most efficient and professional way as possible. I'm still carving out a workflow so I'm not set in my ways yet and am down to do things differently if that means better. Thanks for any input.

I used Sd2 for so long that it was hard to say goodbye when I moved up to Sd3!
I have always set up busses for each part of the kits. I still use the same setup now in Sd3 but with the included plugins, things are even easier to accomplish now.
I have all kick channels routed to a kick bus. All snare channels to a snare bus. All toms to a Tom bus. Hi hat is a separate bus but sometimes I route it and the overheads to a cymbal bus. Any room mics are routed to a room mic bus. All of the busses are then routed to a Master bus. So it is very easy to get a rough mix happening quickly and easier to control 5 or 6 bus sliders as opposed to 32 channels.
This is in most cases where I am using only the 2 track stereo outputs going out to Sonar or CbB. Depending on what the client wants I can always break Sd2 or 3 back into separate stems if needed. If I am in charge of mixing, I use the bus method described above. It works for me because I have never been one for spreading a bunch of FX all over drum tracks. With some creative bleed control in Sd2 you can get a bone dry kick and cymbals with the snare and toms sitting in a good sized room.
Now, of course, with the self contained FX in Sd3 you can do pretty much anything you want FX wise.
I hope this helps you. It works for me. I hope you will give it a try. Btw, I haven't even mentioned using the sends to get even cleaner and faster mixes just in Sd2.

My standard SD template is almost exactly like Sidroe's. Five busses within SD (kick, snare, toms, overheads and room mics). However, I prefer to route each of those to separate audio tracks that are subsequently combined into a bus or aux track. That lets me freeze the drums earlier in the process without giving up the option of further tweaks.

Thumbs up to bitflipper. I have done that many times if I still felt there would be more tweaking. Since moving to Sd3, the need to do this has been less. And, NO, I am not in cahoots with Toontrack to advertise for them. I just am floored with the many options that are available with Sd3.

Not using SD2, but usually blend the 3 kick mics to taste to a mono track, 2 snare mics to a mono track, hi hats mono track, toms stereo track, OH stereo to a stereo track, Room mic to a stereo track OH mono mic to a mono track, for separate treatment on all. Then I BUS all the drums to a drum bus. Then I create a separate Drum Compression Bus (with SSL bus compressor) which I use aux sends from the individual drums to feed this bus, generally feeding all at zero except the OH stero and OH mono which I tend to send around minus 10 db depending on the song. If I change my mind on the kick or snare mic blends I just rebounce as necessary.

bitflipper
My standard SD template is almost exactly like Sidroe's. Five busses within SD (kick, snare, toms, overheads and room mics). However, I prefer to route each of those to separate audio tracks that are subsequently combined into a bus or aux track. That lets me freeze the drums earlier in the process without giving up the option of further tweaks.

Thanks for the feedback man. I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean and/or how routing the drum channels to tracks in Cakewalk lets you freeze the drums earlier in the process. How so and what makes the difference? Thanks for chiming in.

Sidroe
I used Sd2 for so long that it was hard to say goodbye when I moved up to Sd3!
I have always set up busses for each part of the kits. I still use the same setup now in Sd3 but with the included plugins, things are even easier to accomplish now.
I have all kick channels routed to a kick bus. All snare channels to a snare bus. All toms to a Tom bus. Hi hat is a separate bus but sometimes I route it and the overheads to a cymbal bus. Any room mics are routed to a room mic bus. All of the busses are then routed to a Master bus. So it is very easy to get a rough mix happening quickly and easier to control 5 or 6 bus sliders as opposed to 32 channels.
This is in most cases where I am using only the 2 track stereo outputs going out to Sonar or CbB. Depending on what the client wants I can always break Sd2 or 3 back into separate stems if needed. If I am in charge of mixing, I use the bus method described above. It works for me because I have never been one for spreading a bunch of FX all over drum tracks. With some creative bleed control in Sd2 you can get a bone dry kick and cymbals with the snare and toms sitting in a good sized room.
Now, of course, with the self contained FX in Sd3 you can do pretty much anything you want FX wise.
I hope this helps you. It works for me. I hope you will give it a try. Btw, I haven't even mentioned using the sends to get even cleaner and faster mixes just in Sd2.

So to be clear the buses you're routing things to are buses within SD2, not Cakewalk, and you are mixing all of the drums within SD2's mixer all the way to final mix and using the just the stereo out that the soft synth sends to cakewalk? So you're not routing any of the drum channels to tracks in Cakewalk? So you don't use much effects on drums, but if you do use some then the ones in SD2 are good enough for you? I suppose if you did use a lot of effects then you'd be routing those channels to daw tracks to use your best plugins etc rather than what comes w/ SD2? Well lastly how are you using sends to get cleaner/faster mixes in SD2? Sorry for all the questions and thanks man.

There are tons of tutorials on how to make busses and assigning tracks. In most cases, the only treatments I tend to use on drums is compression and eq. I tended to use the room mics in Sd2 for ambience as opposed reverb or delays or anything fancy or radical. I would rather hear the real room that was designed and built at sometimes the cost of millions of dollars than a cheaper imitation reverb box. The compression I use is not set for pumping EMD drums. I usually get my mix level out of the Master Buss in Sd2 as loud as possible and slap an eq and compressor on the Master. The eq is there for sweetening more than sound design. The compression is set to just barely catch the stray transient you may get from time to time.
I was fortunate to afford a lot of the SDX and EDX drum kits. I used Avatar quite a bit. It and Hit Factory supplied me with good solid drums in medium to small rooms. I relied on Allaire for the big ballad room sound.
I say cleaner and faster because if you spend an hour setting up several kits that are already configured and saved, you can have a library of kits at the click of a button.
Cleaner because it is easier to deal with 5 or 6 bus channels than it is to deal with sliding back and forth across the screen to figure out which tom it is that's pushing the Master in to the red.
While the FX in Sonar are very nice and have saved my butt more than once, I would not say they are better than what is in Sd2. Either a plugin is a reliable, good sounding tool or it isn't. What matters is learning how to use those tools inside and out.
This post got really long and makes me sound like I am preaching the gospel of audio. Geez!!!
Bottom line: tutorials on line can show you about routes and sends better than I can explain. Watch and learn!
Yes! In most cases, i will use routing to busses and using sends to accomplish everything I need inside Sd2 or 3 and have only the Master Buss stereo outs to Sonar. I have not had to build a kit mix from scratch in years. I have such a huge library of my custom kits to choose from. That and the many templates in Cakewalk have me up and running in minutes!!!
That, to me, is more important than spending more time and brain power trying to juggle tracks, channels, busses between Sd2 and the DAW also!!
Right or wrong, this works for me. It may not for you.
One more tip, Toontrack use to sell Producer Packs. These were presets that world class producers developed for SD and EZ. A lot can be learned by studying those setups.
Time to go. I hope I answered your question. You already know the basics of routing. Just keep heading in that direction. I will watch this thread and check in from time to time to help if I can. GOOD LUCK, my friend!!!!!

One more thing! Don't just look for videos about your drum software. Tons can be learned by watching tutorials about recording real drums. The tricks you see in those real drum videos can also be applied to shaping your drum software sound.
That's it!!! I'll shut up now!!! Lol

That's awesome thanks Sidroe those are great notes for me. I've been exposed to mixing for years but never fully focused on it, I know some things, uncertain on others, but I'm a quick learn and am basically cramming to get learned in a couple months what might usually take 6. Thanks for the responses.