Thanks. Okay. I'm going to have to study the routing scheme in AD2. Obviously something has changed and that stuff is kind of important. Oh goodie.
 
And just to be certain... in Sonar you have set your channel inputs to the direct outs coming from AD2? Otherwise they default to the Master (I think... but this new routing scheme may have changed that).
 
I'm not at my DAW and my brain is really fried today so honestly I'm having a hard time visualizing the signal path.

Since I had to log back in to reply, I checked just inserting AD2 on the normal template as well.
 
By inserting AD2 as a VSTi (even with all outputs shown) the default sends of each piece inside AD2 goes to master only. So unless you enable the send on pieces to either "Separate Out" or "Separate Out + Master" you will not see the levels of the individual pieces... AD2's Master buss compressor (on the kit shown above) has a fast attack with a threshold of -18dB and ratio of 5.3:1. Pretty aggressive, so the "Master" output of AD2 never clips. No biggie, so working just inside AD2 life is grand.
 
Some folks either want to process individual pieces within SONAR itself, or sample them for layering elsewhere. With these pieces running this hot it requires more work to achieve either of these. Mixing them within AD2 itself is no big deal (and may be why they set them this way), but they cannot simply be "routed elsewhere" without realizing how hot these are.
 
I have not gotten too deep into this yet, but AD2 also supports layering better than AD1, and it is easy to fire AD2 with any MIDI input. However, I do not see a method to get sounds into AD2, so I can only layer what I have bought from them (big limitation). With my current setup I can layer any sounds I choose/have access to.
 
The point with the OP was more wondering why the individual pieces are so hot, but unless someone used that template (or inserted AD2 and turned the individual pieces on) they would "never know."
 
Edit: The Audio Recorder in AD2 seems to tap into the Master out so is seeing more effect chain than an individual piece. Although this benefits layering tremendously, it is still a little "clunkier" than I am used to now.

I set up a temple a couple of weeks back and I haven't been using the AD2 mixer or master out at all. None of the individual outs are running hot for me. I have Mono; kick, Snare, hats, tom, flexi and Stereo; Overhead and room running to individual console channels each. and none of them are running hot.
 
I'm trying to re-create what I did. but can't quite get I right.
 
 

I always prefer to have access to the individual kitpieces within the DAW. I'm starting to warm up tot he idea of using drum sampler's internal processing (and obviously XLN have provided some quality effects in this package) but seriously... it should be known that most producers are going to want to tweak things on a track per track basis as needed within their DAW or do any of the plethora of tasks one would use individual outs for. Even just for level adjustments. Who wants to have to mix in TWO seperate consoles.
 
As I said earlier the simple fix to these hot outputs, and this is pretty standard anyway, is to multi select all the audio outs and reduce their Gain levels before they slam into the ProChannel strip. However with signals THIS hot and varied the Gain reduction may be so drastic that it leaves little room to turn things down after that if need be. If we are forced to turn the Gain down past 12 o'clock that would be excessive.
 
Anyway... I get the idea that these are "mix ready" presets and they expect people to just drop them in and forget it but obviously many people do not work that way and every track is different with different needs. The presets (well some of them) do sound awesome based on my initial tests but there are things I will definitely need to change. Some if it within AD but much would be using Sonar tools. It will take some time to really dig into all this and I'm sure there is a logic behind it all but it seems like a huge distraction/learning curve for no good reason.
 
Maybe they should have added an extra direct out option of "Output to DAW at -12dB".
 
Meh.
 
Edit: And sorry if that all sounds whack, whiny and confused. I really am all discomboobulated today and probably not fully understanding what's going on here. Perhaps XLN have provided decent options but that interface is really quite offputting at first glance and I dread having to meander around it more than I need to.

Insert Soft Synth > VST2> AD2
(Insert Soft Synth options = Midi Source TICK, All Synth Audio Outputs : Mono TICK)
Deleted Tracks I did not need, Master and Buss tracks
Renamed them, because they have ridiculously long names
Opened AD2 Gui and set all the outs I am using to yellow
In console view picked up the mono Overheads and Room inputs and changed to Stereo
 
Picked a kit a random and played. Only thing running hot was a cowbell, checked EDIT page and saw the Output on Master was a little high and set to zero. It was then fine.
 
I don't have the Metal kit to check, but I have 15 snares and they were all fine with the brush snare being noticeably lower.
 

Insert Soft Synth > VST2> AD2
(Insert Soft Synth options = Midi Source TICK, All Synth Audio Outputs : Mono TICK)
Deleted Tracks I did not need, Master and Buss tracks
Renamed them, because they have ridiculously long names
Opened AD2 Gui and set all the outs I am using to yellow
In console view picked up the mono Overheads and Room inputs and changed to Stereo
 
Picked a kit a random and played. Only thing running hot was a cowbell, checked EDIT page and saw the Output on Master was a little high and set to zero. It was then fine.
 
I don't have the Metal kit to check, but I have 15 snares and they were all fine with the brush snare being noticeably lower.
 

Fairfax and Metal Kits are loud for obvious reasons and the Indie kit has some pretty noisy ones as well.
 
I think the point is things are being output differently based on presets and they did not account for headroom on the direct outs to the DAW... like to such an extent there is MASSIVE overage requiring massive attenuation.

Yeah, I have the gain knob on all my AD2 output tracks set a about -16dB.