Some Cakewalk and AD2 MIDI questions

Toddskins
I'm going to use this thread for questions that arise over the next few weeks as I delve more deeply into AD2 and Cakewalk DAW, rather than constantly create new threads.  But I will keep the questions relevant to the title.
 
As I am reading the Keymap of AD2, XLN labels Note #60 as C3 rather than C4.  Not that it's a big deal because I know how to move around in MIDI, but it's counter to some of my other equipment and basic understanding over the ages using MIDI.
 
Can somebody expound on this issue with relevance to our DAW, and perhaps other manufacturers?  Why did XLN choose to make it C3?  What note number did Cakewalk's Session Drummer consider Middle C? Anything else you might wish to say, I'm all ears.
 
 

abacab
 
The first thing I would do is grab the AD2 Drum Map file & track templates from here.  https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013364/Setting-up-a-Drum-Map-for-Addictive-Drums-2-in-SONAR
 
It will make setting up and using AD2 in Cakewalk much easier.  The piano roll view will show the kit piece names rather than the note names if you use the supplied AD2 Drum Map.

1. load a GM drum map (it is bundled with CbB) instead of the AD2 drum map provided in the KB article above or
2. right-click the keyboard in the Note pane of the PRV and set note names to "General MIDI Drums" from the Note Names drop down.

Toddskins

abacab
 
The first thing I would do is grab the AD2 Drum Map file & track templates from here.  https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013364/Setting-up-a-Drum-Map-for-Addictive-Drums-2-in-SONAR
 
It will make setting up and using AD2 in Cakewalk much easier.  The piano roll view will show the kit piece names rather than the note names if you use the supplied AD2 Drum Map.

Hey Abacab,
 
I'm not really sure what your suggestion does, but should I go ahead and do it even if I intend to convert to GM like Cactus Music suggested?  

EDIT:  Okay, I see that this allows me to see which drums are being played.  That does sound helpful.  Is there more to it than that?

EDIT 2:  I read more thoroughly the notes on that link.  Sounds cool.  This is to be used "contrary to converting to AD2 to GM mode", correct, or nay?

Steev
I've been sequencing and playing MIDI drums since the mid 80's, and so the GM mapping is so familiar to me it's burned into who I am. It's also been used on 99% of the music projects I've created.
 That being said I have both AD 1 & 2 default to the GM map upon start up.
 
 However if I'm working on projects using AD MIDIPACKS  I will use the standard AD drum mapping simply because it's of course optimized for voicing correct drum kit pieces and that that delivers a much more accurate humanistic sounding performance using samples.
 There is no law stating you need to stick with one drum map, and there are many advantages of using both GM and AD Standard mapping for a much larger and richer performance and sound pallet.
And while the standard Fairfax will work reasonably well with GM map, you will lose a couple of not really essential kit pieces, but still really nice kit pieces.
 But if you use  Latin Percussion or Jazz Brushes kits you will most likely lose half your kit pieces and miss hits and beats using a GM map.
 Not exploring and getting familiarized with AD 2's standard drum map and why they did it that way, you will never be able to fully understand and appreciate how incredibly powerful and realistic AD both AD 1 & 2 really are.
 Psst, they are two very different VSTi drum sets with very different drum kits, ADPacks, features sounds, work flows, and applications.
 They can compliment each other very, VERY well for music project with 2 drum parts and perc sections.
 I have customized drum kits in SD 1 mixing up Sonar and Gretch drum sets, but never really bothered with customizing kits with SD 2 because it doesn't even support the SD 1 Sonar and Gretch drum sets I morphed together.
 But that's OK because SD 2 does other things and BOTH do what they do extremely well. Particularly well with the standard AD drum maps.
 
 AD drum maps are also more effective when using AD 2's super powerful "Transform" tools, which I'm actually starting to prefer using over piano roll editing because I can achieve the same results in a fraction of the time I would moving beats around, quantizing, and editing velocities and such.
 Just by using AD MIDIPACK patterns chosen by time signatures and kit pieces that are similar in structure to what I would otherwise have to play or step sequence.. I've learned how simple it is to simply dial in what I want more accurately and exacting then I could communicate what I would want with a real drummer.

Toddskins
 
If I create the bulk of a drum track using AD2 and their MIDIPaks, can I insert a GM clip from some other MIDI song file I own into the AD2 drum track somewhere?

Thus, can I mix and match the 2 methods, so to speak?

Since the GM file would not be mapped the same way as the AD2 format, is there a way of bringing part of a GM drum track (say 2 or 3 measures long) and pasting it into the the AD2 track such that the GM clip will play properly the way it did in the exclusive GM format?