Howdy folks. Am i in the right area to ask about S Drummer 3?  i use Sonar X2 Studio and it comes with S Drummer2 as standard.  Is SD3 better and if so can it be bought on its own.  I see the new Sonar X3 has it built in.  Im very happy with Sonar 2  and wasn't really plannin on upgrading the whole thing for the sake of drums. 
To be honest, id stick with S Drummer 2 if i could figure something out.  Id like to try put the kick, snare and toms etc on separate tracks. This would allow me to pan them separatley or add say reverb to the snare without affecting the rest of the kit.  
thanks y'all

They are essentially the same. SD2 has 10 pads and SD3 has 12. The two additional pads break out the 2 percussion pads in SD2 into 4 in SD3. At this time SD3 is not available for sale, it is only bundled with X3. I would think the Melodyne integration and Nomad Blue Tube bundle would be bigger incentives to upgrade from X2 Studio to X3 Studio.
 
I am not familiar with SONAR Studio, it may already have multi-out templates defined for SD2. In the track view, right-click in the track strip area to bring up the menu. Look for Insert From Track Templates > Soft Synth Track Templates > Session Drummer 2. There may be predefined templates for Multi-Out Session Drummer setups.
 
If there are no templates or you just want to know how to do it yourself; here is how to create a multi-out SD2 instance:

• When inserting SD2 into a project make sure the MIDI Source and All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo options are selected in the Insert Soft Synth Options Dialog. I also like to check Synth Track Folder, to keep SD2 tracks in one folder, but it is not necessary.
• Load the SD2 program, kit or drum samples.
• Switch SD2 to the mixer view. At the bottom of each mixer strip is a track assignment dropdown. Assign each drum to a different track number. The track numbers correspond to the audio tracks created when the synth was inserted. Note: the actual track numbers may not be 1-10 but will be assigned starting with the topmost track created for the synth.

 
 

 Pretty close, Steve. SD2 actually only shows a mixer view. The numbers below the drum icons correspond to the output track. By default, they are all set to output 1. In SD2, click on the number, and use your mouse wheel to scroll through the outputs. Same idea, just a different approach between SD2 and SD3.
 
Agentcalm, if you could buy SD3 separately, it would probably be around $100.
As a registered Sonar user, you can upgrade to X3Studio for $99 until Oct 31.
I just did, and SD3 was a factor in that, among other plusses.
As Steve noted, you have essentially the same functions in both, but I like the sampled drums included with SD3 a little better. That said, I've been running SD2 & 3 side by side for some interesting textures.

Of course, you are correct. I was working from memory and blended the two Session Drummer interfaces. Sorry.  They do include different samples. I recall migrating some of my SD2 addons to SD3. I did that some time ago. Subsequently picked up the Toontrack products and have not used Session Drummer in some time. 
 
FWIW, pretty sure the upgrade prices are not going to change based on Andrew's reply in this thread http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2919884 $99 is the regular upgrade price for any SONAR user.

Thanks fellers. Knew i could rely on Southern hospitality on this one :) 
I'll try both the approaches to try set the channels.  I did notice alright that all the drum icons in SD are set to 1 but i didnt know about scrolling the mouse. So good tip n thanks for that.  It's kinda flaky and hard to control the number but worth a shot. Funny thing is.  There are 10 icons but i can only set outputs up to number 8.  The mouse scroll doesn't off 9 or 10.  Shouldnt be a huge problem because one of them is a cowbell which is not going to get overly used.  Something like a cowbell i can throw in seperatly for say a guitar solo.
One question on Sonar X3 Robert. I have reinstalled X2 several times now but its crashes a lot with an error  Sonar.exe not responding.  I have to use Task manager to try kill it.  I've installed latest drivers for my sound card (an M Audio usb device) and disabled the laptops onboard sound card.  But still very flaky. Have you found X3 more stable?
Thanks again guys.   Xave

SD2 has 8 stereo outputs. SD3 has 12. If more outs are needed, run multiple instances of SD2.

And you can load any sample in the tam and cowbell slots; they don't have to be what the icon shows.

That is true, they don't even have to be drum/percussion related samples either.

Excellent tips guys.  Do appreciate y'alls help. 

Everyone already covered pretty much all you need to know about  SD2 and 3.  Some other things to consider:
 
1) You can get by just fine without having a separate output for every sound in a kit.  A fairly common configuration is to assign kick,snare,toms separate outputs and create a channel for overhead mic or room mic. If you have some percussion that has special processing needs, you still have extra outputs.
 
2) Don't be afraid to use you other Sonar plugins in conjunction with SD2. Even if you did run out of outputs, aside from the already mentioned possibility of opening up another instance of SD2, you can also open other sample based plugins like dropzone or dimension le that have a lot of drum and percussion sounds and offer more control over the sound.