Triggering different MIDI channels in Sonar with Kontakt

Hi, I am getting back into recording after a long break, I used Pro Tools for years but getting a recent version is a bit pricey for my small projects, Sonar seems to be a great alternative as does Studio One, my only problem is setting it up to work with Kontakt. 
 
With Studio One, I created a some instrument tracks, 1 instance of Kontakt and set a different channel and midi channel for each instrument inside Kontakt and set the tracks in Studio one one to those corresponding Kontakt instrument stereo tracks, everything worked first time.
 
The problem I have is when selecting different instrument tracks in Sonar, it doesn't change the instrument in Kontakt, Watched some videos but the closest I could get is this video. 
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, does Sonar need 2 tracks created for me to trigger different midi channels because a simple batch of midi or instrument tracks doesn't seem to work, it creates a separate instance of Kontakt for each track, I have an i7 but when a track starts getting bigger my older audio hardware starts to struggle.
 
What I seem to see is for me to trigger different instruments I need to create a new soft synth instance in Sonar, set the audio/instrument track? to the correct out from Kontakt and then on the midi track select the proper midi channel?
 
Probably really easy but as it's different from what I remember I'm a bit lost.
 
Thanks for any replies! 
 
And sorry for my ramble if it makes no sense.
 
 

Click on the midi track and in the track inspector (left side of screen) you should be able to set the destination and channel of that midi track.
 
https://www.cakewalk.com/..mentation?product=SONAR X3&language=3&help=Playback.20.html
 
 

Try this. 

 
 
 
 
 

Welcome back, Moldiver. Yes, you're on the right track...you do indeed need separate MIDI tracks for each MIDI channel you want to drive within Kontakt. That's because each MIDI track is normally assigned 1 MIDI channel. So if you want 16 instruments in a single instance of Kontakt, that'll require 16 MIDI tracks driving each of the 16 instruments, each of which is assigned a different MIDI channel within Kontakt.
 
An instrument track is really just a MIDI/audio pair, and it's strictly for convenience. There is no technical advantage to an instrument track over just using one MIDI track and one audio track, which is what most of us Kontakt users do.
 
Personally, I never use instrument tracks. When I insert a Kontakt instance, I select the "MIDI Source" and "First Synth Audio Output" options in the Insert Soft Synth dialog as a convenience. I then manually add additional MIDI tracks as needed (and possibly additional audio tracks as well, if I'm not doing all the mixing within Kontakt's own mixer).
 
For example, if I've got, say, strings consisting of 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and basses (5 separate instruments), I'll have at least 5 MIDI tracks (more if I want to place articulation keyswitches in their own tracks). The number of audio tracks will depend on whether I want to mix them all within Kontakt or not. In this example, I'd normally use just the first of Kontakt's audio outputs and one corresponding audio track in SONAR, because it's rare that I'll need to effect each string section independently so they can all be mixed within Kontakt.