When we were doing our orchestral shootout last summer, I made one using nothing but Dimension Pro. Man, was that confusing, keeping track of which was which with sixteen instances of the same synth on screen!

That's a really good point.  I wish Sonar had a way to copy a synth's patch name into a field in Track View.  Even if it's can't be the patch selector, there should be a way to "peek".  We know it can peek at effects, for purposes of automation.  Why can't it peek at patch names?

When I mix, I really like to be able to see velocity envelopes for each MIDI track.  Kontakt lets me do this as long as each instrument is on a separate MIDI channel.  Ditto for Dimension Pro and most multi-channel soft synths.

The problem is drums.  If I use a single instance of a drum kit (e.g., an Abbey Road 60s kit), then I cannot have separate volume envelopes for kick, snare, hat, toms, tambourine, cymbals, etc.  For some songs this doesn't matter much, but other times I really want to be able to turn up or down some of the drum subsets (e.g., toms) without affecting the others. 

For a drum subset to have its own volume envelope, it needs its own track and its own MIDI channel, correct?  And than means Kontakt (or Dimension Pro) needs to have a separate drum kit instance for each drum subset/track.

So then the decision is whether to include all the drum kit copies within a single instance of Kontakt, or give each one its own instance.

The latter option might use more memory/cpu, but I'm guessing it's negligible compared to the cost of duplicating all those drum kit instances.

Some other pros and cons:

all kits in a single Kontakt instance:
- PRO: easier to PURGE all unused samples (to save memory and load time)
- PRO: lets you save all kits as a single "multi" (for reuse in a future song)

each kit in its own Kontakt instance:
- PRO: lets you apply Sonar FX to individual drum types
- PRO: if you double click the MIDI icon, you immediately see the correct kit

Also, the second method requires more tracks (one audio for each Kontakt instance), which increased the clutter, unless you either:

a) hide the audio tracks once you are done assigning effects to them.

or

b) use simple instrument tracks rather than the midi/audio pairs

Are simple instrument tracks recommended in this scenario?

if I can just ask one question....

Why does sonar allow me to automate only one of the tracks associated with kontakt?  

I've been fiddling with Kontakt and Omnisphere and when you right click to create envelopes kontakt's options only appear on a single output (or a single midi track if chosen).

Am I right in assuming that Sonar can only produce one track that allows the use of envelopes dedicated to that VST. (thus other tracks in multitimbral setups don't have this control).  

where are you right clicking?  if you want automation on output #2, then you need to be trying to write automation on THAT output, not on the first one.

Am I right in assuming that Sonar can only produce one track that allows the use of envelopes dedicated to that VST. (thus other tracks in multitimbral setups don't have this control).

Nope, you can automate each instrument in a multitimbral collection independently.

That does, however, assume that each instrument has its own MIDI track and its own MIDI channel assignment, which is how you'd normally set it up. The exception would be when you want to layer two or more voices and have them all driven by the same MIDI track, in which case they would all share the same automation. If you wanted to drive multiple voices from one MIDI track but automate them independently, you'd create separate MIDI tracks but link them.

Thanks gents..

I am quite syre I have setup it coorrectly... see pics..

the scond audio out of kontakt does not provide the ability to automate the vst channel 2.

The kontakt options only appear on the first kontakt out... notice the kontakt submenu...
If I do the same to the next kontakt out I only get ...  the automated mute/pan/volume and tracke EQ options..

That looks OK to me. The only option is to send automation to your one and only instance of Kontakt, as it should be. Tracks 1-4 are all routed to the same instance of Kontakt, and any automation you place on any of them will all be routed to the same place: that one Kontakt instance. The sampler itself will split them up internally based on which MIDI channel they came in on.

Bear in mind that automation on the audio track is limited to your basic audio automation parameters, namely volume/mute and pan, and is a separate issue from MIDI automation.

What I'd like most of all is to figure out how to get my midi and audio tracks organized in a way that's easy to use. 

Back when I used the Triton, things were easy.  All the effects were handled in the Triton, so there was only one audio track: the line-out from the Triton.  My 16 MIDI tracks were all in a row, each with its own MIDI channel and volume and/or pan envelope.  I used 8 tracks for drums (one for kick, one for snare, etc.) and the other 8 for bass, piano, etc.  I selected patches from within Sonar.  Projects were neatly organized, and workflow was efficient; the only problem was I got tired of the Triton's sounds.

Now that I've switched to soft synths, I find my projects a lot harder to manage.  Some of my Kontakt-using MIDI tracks have their own audio track.  Others share an audio track.  I try to keep volume and pan envelopes on the MIDI tracks, but sometimes that doesn't work, so I have to put envelopes on the audio tracks.  If I want to use an effect that is not inside of Kontakt, then I need to fiddle with audio routing, which sometimes requires multiple restarts of Kontakt.  If most of my MIDI tracks share an audio track, I put the MIDI tracks in a track folder, and the audio tracks in their folder.  If, however, I find that many of my MIDI tracks have a corresponding audio track, I group them in MIDI/audio pairs, so it's easier to see envelopes on the audio tracks.  The net result is inconsistency, inefficiency, and frustration.

That's why I am tempted to just use Simple Instrument Tracks for Kontakt, which each track getting its own Kontakt instance.  That way, I don't have to worry about grouping instruments or maintaining separate MIDI and AUDIO envelopes.

However, I don't know whether that would work well.  Does anyone else do it?  How do you determine when an envelope effects MIDI or audio?

And if Simple Instrument Tracks are not a good long-term option, what other organizing strategies do you have?