I have been trying to use my Alesis DM Lite electronic drum kit with Sonar X1, however the hi-hat pedal trigger does not work with Session Drummer. The DM Lite transmits MIDI note #46 (Bb) for open hi-hat and note #46 with CC#4 for closed hi-hat, but Sonar doesn't seem to have a way of interpreting this controller message. Is there anything I can do?
Hope you can help.
Thanks,
Mike.

If you cannot change what notes are sent on the instrument side, create a drum map in SONAR to alter the incoming notes to suit your needs.

scook
If you cannot change what notes are sent on the instrument side, create a drum map in SONAR to alter the incoming notes to suit your needs.

I can't see an option in Sonar's drum map manager to interpret CC#4 controller changes.

No drum maps can't remap controller messages to notes, which is basically what you would need to do. The simplest solution is going to be to get the Alesis controller to send note# 42 for Closed Hat. I would think it can be programmed to do that.

brundlefly
No drum maps can't remap controller messages to notes, which is basically what you would need to do. The simplest solution is going to be to get the Alesis controller to send note# 42 for Closed Hat. I would think it can be programmed to do that.

The DM Lite is pretty basic in terms of settings, so there is no option to do this from the controller end. I downloaded a demo for Addictive Drums and that interepreted the hi-hat MIDI data just fine, using an Alesis drum map, so why can't Sonar do the same?

What I found is things like Hi Hat and such work fine if you match them with the correct sfx sound files. In Session drummer I loaded the Yamaha Birch kit and it responds to my Yamaha DX drums controller info.  
But most of the samples are not like this. 
Sometimes I'll even record the audio output of the brain, after I edit the midi track,  as it seems to have the best "natural" drum sound of all. You just have to like the sounds the brain has. But I end up mixing from multiple sources. 
My go to drum set up has been TTS-1 for Kick 
Session drummer 3 and the Yamaha Birch kit for the rest. 
Then I use all sorts of different snares including the DX brain. 

Cactus Music
What I found is things like Hi Hat and such work fine if you match them with the correct sfx sound files. In Session drummer I loaded the Yamaha Birch kit and it responds to my Yamaha DX drums controller info.  
But most of the samples are not like this. 
Sometimes I'll even record the audio output of the brain, after I edit the midi track,  as it seems to have the best "natural" drum sound of all. You just have to like the sounds the brain has. But I end up mixing from multiple sources. 
My go to drum set up has been TTS-1 for Kick 
Session drummer 3 and the Yamaha Birch kit for the rest. 
Then I use all sorts of different snares including the DX brain. 

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean sfz sound files in SD3?

Yea, I misread the OP. CC is not going to work for articulating the HiHat. Going to need to send notes to play open or closed.

So basically I have to buy Addictive Drums (or upgrade to X3 and get AD with it) to get it to work?
Surely as most electronic drum kits use CC#4 for Hi-Hat, you would expect one of the leading DAWs to accommodate them?!

SONAR 8.x is not longer a leading DAW. X3 is the leading DAW.  
 
But, seriously, the DAW accommodates controllers; it's the synth that isn't programmed to respond. My take is that Session Drummer was intended to be a basic in-the-box drum synth for use with Step Sequencer, PRV sequencing, keyboard controllers and ubiquitous GM-style drum pattern libraries.  In general, I think it's reasonable to assume that anyone shelling out for a virtual kit controller will also be using a higher-end, 3rd-party drum synth (or using the controller's own sound module).
 
Coming from the other side, I'm a little surprised that the DM10 doesn't have a GM-compatible mode that would let it play nice with all the GM-style soft synths and sound modules out there.