TD-20 recording

Hi guys I hope someone can help. I've search on here for answers, only to be more confused. 
OK what im doing

I have a roland td-20 set . I want to play and record the drums to music that I have recorded already. i do want to separate each drum track for mixing ..so I do not want to just have one drum track, that I cannot edit. 

I 'm using an Audiobox usb recoding system to plug the td 20 into . 

from there I am stuck.. what settings do i need to be setting in sonar x2 to do this properly..

Any help would be great!!!!

Bonni  :)

Bonni - I use the TD-12 and accomplish that. The key is to use the brain of your TD to set the Midi output channel for each pad and edge/rim for every spot on your kit. For example your snare is output 3, your kick is output channel 4, all of your toms are on output channel 5 etc.

You just need the one Midi cable to bring in the Midi signal to your PC. In Sonar set whatever VST or Sound module you are using to have multiple Midi tracks. If you're using Session Drummer 3 that's a snap. You can then have a Midi track for your snare, one for your kick, another for your toms etc. The Midi In for each corresponds to the Midi Out you assigned on your TD brain - such as 3 for the snare. Works great! Additional tip is to use the Grouping feature of Sonar to group your drum midi tracks. That way if you click one of them to enable record they all get enabled with one click. By the way after you've recorded this way you can easily render each Midi track to its own audio track which makes mixing super flexible.

bonni_bee - lots of ways to do things with Sonar and audio tools. One approach is as I described above, which is the approach I use. I could use the TD-12 for example as an external sound module. So, I would record the Midi tracks, and then use as the Midi input whichever sound module or internal VST (like Session Drummer 3) I point to. In my situation, I use the TD-12 only for my input controller, I obtain quite a few of my drum sounds from an external sound module (the Alesis DM Pro), and I use Session Drummer 3. I can blend say the snare sound from the Alesis DM Pro with the snare sound of one of the kits of Session Drummer 3 and get a really excellent snare sound that has just the right snap. But that's one approach. The reason by the way that I do that is that my drummer takes away his TD-12 when he goes home after a session. I have the Alesis DM Pro as my own sound module, as well as the VSTs like Session Drummer 3 so I'm able to playback and mix independently of having a kit parked here. All that said, if you only record the output as an audio file to your Sonar tracks it will be much less convenient to try to separate drum sounds. There is a drum mapping technique, where you bring across only a single channel input, but I believe that is also dependent on working with Midi tracks. However, since you have a TD-20 you've already got the immaculate capability of doing the channel breakouts right from your TD-20 sound module (the brain).

bonnie-bee - chefmike's approach is very similar to mine. I just don't bother with the Drum Map technique (which is very viable as he explains). Instead, I have a file template (and track templates) where I can just open an instance of Session Drummer 3 and it's all mapped ready to go. But otherwise, chefmike's description is par for the course of what I do as well.

I've been using the TD-20 for five years or so.  I use real acoustic cymbals for crashes and hi-hat, and mic them with overheads.  I do use audio cables to record the samples from the TD-20 drums (kick, snare, toms) into a radial DI box, then into an api 3124 then into my converters and Sonar.  So I have 6 or 7 channels going into Sonar at once.  It works great, and I like the drum sounds but, of course, I can't change them once they're recoded.  (Maybe Drumagog can do that.)

I never did figure out how to use the midi ouput from the TD-20 into Sonar and session drummer or whatever plug.  Making a drum map and assigning those different drums (triggers) to different midi drums is too much for my old brain.  It didn't work the first time I tried, so I quit.  I need a step-by-step tutorial on making a drum map.

Nice set up Saxxon, I'm jealous.

My set up consist's of a Roland SPD-20 with Hi-Hat and Bass drum pedals as well as a crappy Simmons SD7PK that was given to me.

I was surprised that when I plugged the MIDI into Sonar and played that it actually mapped itself and ALL the module's sounds.

And I'm going with what Lawajava said. If it works then don't fix it. And yes Drumagog or Steven Slate Trigger can replace any sound. Youtube some of the videos and you'll see. I like it because it's like having a room full of drums and cymbals to choose from.

The starter (lite) version of Trigger is only $99 if you want to play and I'm still waiting for Drumagog to jump into the 64bit world already.
Mike

I've got a td-20k (with the expansion board)

I still just use it to record MIDI though and use the sounds from superior drummer.
The sounds you get from todays software based drums are so much better than what you get out of the the td-20... even after the expansion.

If you like the sound of the td-20 module though and want to record this, the simplest way is to just connect the separate outs of the td-20 to separate inputs on your audio interface and then record the drums live, as you would with an acoustic kit. This (of cource) require that you have this many inputs on your audio interface.

If you don't have several ins on your audio interface, you need to record two outs from the TD-20 at a time (cuz you must have at least 2 ins on the audio interface..) :) .. Then you first need to record the drums as MIDI to be able to play back the performance several times (and then recording different outs from the td-20 each time).

To do this you need to connect both MIDI-in and -out from the td-20 to the computer. By just connecting, for example, the td-20-MIDI-out to audio-interface-MIDI-in you can record the drums to Sonar. But when playing back the recorded track you won't hear anything from the td-20-module, since the MIDI-information isn't sent back from Sonar to the td-20.

Soo...do I also have to set up something in the TD20 itself?

I just started using a Yamaha Kit and struggling with how to get a better live feel from drums. 
Issues: 
Latency: 
I noticed a little latency from both tts-1 and sessions drummer even with efxs bins bypassed. So I monitored using the brain sounds instead. @ ways both worked-I ran Sonars output into  the brains audio input an monitored with the brains headphone jack OR. I have since changed to monitoring the brain and Sonar via my audio interface. 
  
Sounds that do not play back with articulations: 
I had a heck of a time getting VST sounds that respond to things like ride cymbal bell and open hi hat pedal action. The brain does it better. So.. 

I use both. My current method: 
Song will have scratch vocal, some instruments or even a finished drum track. 
Arm a MIDI track and record playing live. 
Insert a VST like Session drummer and assign to the new track. 
Edit MIDI and then separate out Kick, Snare to 2 new MIDI tracks. 
This leave me an edited ( perfected) MIDI track of the rest of the kit. 
Play back the midi track and record the audio output of the brain to a stereo track. 
The Kick and snare are played via VSTs and the rest of the kit is now a stereo audio track. 
You still have the original MIDI track too.   
These can now be further processed with reverb. 
I find no need to have more then the stereo track from the brain as It was already balanced using MIDI editing and the brain adds stereo imaging. 
You could have separate tracks but would have to do as mentioned above and record each part in a separate pass. Why bother, Use MIDI editing to get your mix.  

I never gave it much thought before but USB is certainly better than standard MIDI cables as you only need the one.