I recently purchased the new Home Studio to use on a special Laptop set up I'll be mostly using sans Audio Interface. Ya, I'm the guy who won't let anybody try and use Sonar with out one. But as you all know the new versions, and Home Studio was first, run smooth a silk under WASAPI. 
I'm really enjoying working with Home Studio which I'm at this point 100% editing midi files to make backing tracks. Everything I need works great and I've yet to find a missing feature that hold things up,,, but,, those terrible drums!!! 
 
We all know how we could never go back to TTS-1 GM kits now. Home Studio gives you that and even worse --SI drums... Sorry. big waste of Storage. 
 
One of the best things about this forum is when we talk about this someone has a solution. 
Thanks to "abacab" for this link found in this thread . http://forum.cakewalk.com/sonar-home-studio-got-the-3500-SPECIAL-QUICK-QUESTION-m3527969.aspx
 
Strike 2 drummer
https://www.jrrshop.com/air-music-tech-strike
 
I had never heard of the company or this product but for $49 ($43 at check out) how could I resist? 
The download was 19 GB and took a few days for me to get the 3 files. 
Wow, these guys give you your money's worth of content. And every kit I've loaded up so far sounds great.Real different stuff and I hate to say it, but this is working better than AD2 for me. WAY better. 
This software is as  deep and complicated as Sonar! But I ( ya right) read the manual and it's not that hard to get up and running once you figure a few important things out, LIke GM only works on CH 2.  
 
And get this... you can use your own samples.. This is huge for me and I continued to use Session Drummer on some songs because of this. AD2 forces us to keep spending money just to get a few more sounds. 
 
I have yet to find a feature that AD or Session Drummer has that this doesn't have. One bummer is the licence is only one user one machine, but I'm going to see what happens if I try a second machine. 
 
Anyhow, check it out, The regular price is $149 but it's on sale right now and JR shop discounts it even a few dollars more. 
Sonar should ditch AD and get these guys on board.... Add this to Home Studio and you have a 1st class ride for less than $100 ( Home studio was on sale for $34.99) 
 
 

Cactus Music
I had never heard of the company or this product

 
I hand not heard either, until hearing about the $1 deal on AIR Xpand!2, which led to a discounted upgrade to the AIR instrument collection.  The Strike 2 drummer was included
 
Interesting history for AIR Music Tech products, they were the exclusive Pro Tools instrument bundle until they split off from Avid.  Now they release their instruments in VST format.  Good quality sounds, good samples, and professional sound designers.  Maybe not as good as some of the boutique premium sample libraries, but good enough for a core instrument collection!
 

Cactus Music
One bummer is the licence is only one user one machine, but I'm going to see what happens if I try a second machine. 

 
You should get 2 product activations, so that you are covered for a desktop and a laptop install.

Hey guys..... I too decided to go with Sonar Home Studio a few weeks ago! Was also impressed with how well it is spec'd for mortal home studio work ;) I also commented on Air Musics Strike 2 in another post.... have that also. It's great imo. Air puts out some pretty amazing stuff (I have a few).....with that said, the installation, activation/registering can be a bit frustrating for some at times, as can be the support sadly. Overall, I think they are well meaning folks that have great products....I am still waiting for the 2 years back suggestion Ideas of either user accts to access, download, transfer, or register all Air products........or a Command Center type app that would be a control center to handle it all..... as for support, I hope they figure it out sooner than later. I have always been helped, but I don't let up and try very hard to be respectful.....others, not so much....
just being honest, not trying to make ya weary...... if they totally sucked I'd only have my first Air product and not have ever bought more....but I'm happy I did (after I got them working in years past).
Cheers and Enjoy Sonar Home Studio and Strike 2 together!

Thanks Greg for your insight. Yes the whole download experiance was strange for me. JR shop sends me about 4 emails, then Air sends me another 3. unreadable small print link to download , 2 3 web pages later I get there, more small print and I only downloaded 1 of the 3 needed and couldn't figure this out. 
It took 3 days to finally get all 3 files but once I had them the install was easy. I had to manually select the shared VST folder which seems odd, most just default. But Sonar found it and I was up and running quickly,,,, once I read the Manual!! You have to read the manual as this drummer is very different and mostly made to make and play patterns live on the fly and then "record" them to your song,,, very cool interface. I've never used pre made loops but this might be what I needed to suck me into the vortex...

Just like abacab has mentioned , I went with the " $1 deal on AIR Xpand!2, which led to a discounted upgrade to the AIR instrument collection.  The Strike 2 drummer was included "
I was very happy I did because the laptop I had put that Air package on had a full install of SPlat minus the Addictive Drums ... ( my second Addictive Drums license wound up on my iMac)
I must say Strike 2 has certainly picked up the slack of not having anything more than Session Drummer 3 in SPlat ...
Strike 2 seems pretty deep , has a lot of useful features and sounds ...
I'm somewhat of a slow learner when it comes to drum software so I'm still learning the in's and outs of how Strike 2 works.
From what I have seen and heard so far w Strike 2 .
It's certainly a Keeper
I may even prefer Strike 2 over the Additive drums package that came w SPLat
 
all the best,
 
Kenny

The timing is right for me as I have been updating all my backing tracks and that included inserting AD to replace Session Drummer tracks. This involves either setting AD to GM mode or moving all but the Kick and snare tracks around,, a huge PITA for 100+ songs....
AD does not play GM tracks very well at all. But so far Strike is playing them brilliantly. I'm having fun just loading different kits as the song plays and it's hard to deside,, With AD I only had 2 or 3 choices, now I have ?? 50?? Even Session drummer I had trouble finding good sounds so I made my own.
 
 

kennywtelejazz
From what I have seen and heard so far w Strike 2 .
It's certainly a Keeper
I may even prefer Strike 2 over the Additive drums package that came w SPLat

Yup Kenny, I totally agree!  I admit that I have not used drum software extensively enough to know all of the features and pro/cons, but I am really enjoying the Strike! 
 
It's a blast to just jam with, very inspiring!  Load up some bass loops to groove along with and then trigger some of the variations and fills in the Strike patterns in latched mode. Great for experimentation 
 
I was just curious to see how I felt now that I have Session Drummer, Addictive Drums 2, and Strike 2.  So I created a new project and inserted all three of them, then auditioned them one at a time.
 
I am thinking that Strike will be my go-to drummer now ... even though it is a walled garden and lacks expansions, it comes with a whopping 19GB factory library, that does not suck!

Cactus Music
Thanks Greg for your insight. Yes the whole download experiance was strange for me. JR shop sends me about 4 emails, then Air sends me another 3. unreadable small print link to download , 2 3 web pages later I get there, more small print and I only downloaded 1 of the 3 needed and couldn't figure this out. 
It took 3 days to finally get all 3 files but once I had them the install was easy. I had to manually select the shared VST folder which seems odd, most just default. But Sonar found it and I was up and running quickly,,,, once I read the Manual!! You have to read the manual as this drummer is very different and mostly made to make and play patterns live on the fly and then "record" them to your song,,, very cool interface. I've never used pre made loops but this might be what I needed to suck me into the vortex...

Cool, thanks Cactus Music. The software of theirs really is good, and even better when you get on sale or free with hardware ;) I think I have 4 titles currently, Strike 2, Xpand2, Ignite, and one of the keyboard ones........
Xpand and Ignite had the biggest issues installing and activating, but that 1-2 years ago also....... Your install sounds like many others, except you didn't spend a week or two via support forum trying to get help....
Lol, I haven't been in the manual yet as I've only tinkered with Strike2, but I was able to use drum tracks for a quick idea a few times.....looking fwd to learning more about it as was mentioned above...

Cactus Music
 
I had never heard of the company or this product but for $49 ($43 at check out) how could I resist?
 

Hey Johnny, glad you are happy with it!
 
So now I'll let you in on another little secret, now that you are a fellow AIR head, just like Kenny & me
 
We found out due to the AIR Xpand!2 $1 sale, once we had any one licensed AIR product, we became eligible for a cheap upgrade pricing to the entire AIR instrument collection. 
 
So pack that Sonar Home Studio laptop and your DAW with some more great instruments for $74.95.  You get two activations for use on 2 computers ...
http://www.pluginboutique...ck-3-COMPLETE-UPGRADE-
 
http://www.airmusictech.com/product/air-instrument-expansion-pack-3-complete

The AIR AIEP3 Complete Instrument Pack Includes:

• Hybrid 3.0 – High-Definition Analog & Wavetable Synth
• Loom – Modular Additive Synthesizer
• Vacuum Pro – Polyphonic Analog Tube Synthesizer
• Structure – Multi-Timbral Sampler Instrument
• Strike – Ultimate Virtual Drummer Instrument
• Velvet – Vintage Electric Piano Instrument
• Transfuser – Melodic & Rhythmic Groove-Creation Instrument
• THE RISER – Synth-based Transition Designer
• DB-33 – Tonewheel Organ Simulator
• MINI GRAND – Acoustic Grand Piano
• Fresh AIR Expansion – Presets for Vacuum Pro
• Flux Transitions Expansion – Presets for theRiser
• AIR Creative FX Collection PLUS – 28 Classic Audio FX
• XPAND!2 – MULTITIMBRAL ALL–IN–ONE WORKSTATION
• D. Ramirez Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Marco Lys Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Mark Knight Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Rene Amesz Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Tocadisco Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Analog Trap Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3

Don't give up on SI Drums too soon. I have a vast library of drum kits for AD2 and BFD and yet the "Loose Kit" from SI Drums remains to be one of my favourites.  Like other guys here I find AirXpand synth amazing !