Bat, I have been using SD2 for a good while now.  I work on the song thru the mix.  Drums are running through each channel in X3 or S1 all driven by midi.  Then I convert the individual tracks to wave files using SD2's export.  I am doing that just to make sure I have the wave files if I return to the song someday. 
 
After reading your thread, I my start working with them before I mix to see the difference. 
 
Rimshot
 

I meant to mention before bats....ARC is pretty killer isn't it? I know we have to be careful talking about it as people seem to want to fight all the time. LOL! I'm just glad you picked it up and it's working for you. Though it's not the be all end all solutions...man it sure does help immensely on my end and makes things that took days/weeks a few hours now with no second guessing or throwing CDR's out the window. LOL! You did great stuff without it...but if it allows you to do more at a faster pace, that means more music for you to share with us more often....so I say it's a win/win! Hahaha! :)
 
-Danny

RIMSHOT-
i do the same, i leave the midi info alone, and don't mix the drums at all basically, while i'm tracking and working on arrangments..
but before i start final mixes, i now do the bounce, then import the saved 24 bit wav files back into sonar, line them up, send them where they belong, and basically COMMIT to the arrangement and drum writing.
 
it DOES take a lot more hardrive space, but that's why we have external hard drives for backup, right?!???
heheh
 
i need to backup...
 
 
 
danny
the arc is working well for me.
the more i use it, the more i understand what's going on, and i can dial in my mixes better.
there's nothing magic about it....
but i can't trap my room enough, to give me flat bass response, and the arc helps me there a lot.
 
it's funny, but i can do a frequency analysis on my mixes with, and without...
and the difference in my mixes without, somewhat match the EQ curve of the arc
 
in other words, if you know what FLAT really sounds like, and you know you want boosted this or cut that, it's a lot easier when your translation is closer to flat, than your room will provide.
 
 

follow-up
 
new mix
 
Road to Tabriz- New Mix_1-30-14
https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/road-to-tabriz-new-mix_1-30-14
 
you can download the full bandwidth wav file if you want.
the wav file sounds so much better than the streaming..........

another approach, using a new drum kit, really mostly aesthetic changes,
but if anyone wants to compare to the original, here's the link:
https://soundcloud.com/ba.-brew/the-road-to-tabriz

Great stuff Bat.  The drums sound excellent on this.  I have never really thought about this approach with the drums before.  I have been working the way Danny described above, routing the drums right into Sonars tracks.  I like to have the control in Sonar rather than using the drum software's mixer.  My biggest issue in using the method that you are doing here by importing the separate wav.'s; would be that I am constantly changing up the fills and patterns until the end.  I may have to try this sometime; the 3 dimensional sound and bleed you are achieving is fantastic.
 
Danny originally showed me how to import drums into separate tracks in Sonar through an EZ Drummer video he did for me.  That was an eye opener.  Since then, I do that process with SSD4 and AD drums as well.  AD has been my least favorite on how it imports the tracks.  I seem to have less control of the cymbals with AD.  The whole Overheads, Buses, Mains thing they do is confusing to me.  EZ Drummer has always been my favorite in ease of building a quick song.  I may have to do the Superior Drum upgrade one of these days if it's midi patterns are organized similar to EZD.  

MakeShift
My biggest issue in using the method that you are doing here by importing the separate wav.'s; would be that I am constantly changing up the fills and patterns until the end.  

 
yes, i wouldn't do the 'bounce' to separate audio until i am ready to mix.
 
and
 
i do not mix, until i am thru tracking, and thru with arrangment changes, and writing the drum parts.
 
 
but at that point, my issue is currently ram, and i don't have all my plugins working and all the stuff that really taxes the program....
 
so i'm cool routing to individual tracks still at that point...
 
but having the SD mixer do all the work early on, still seems less taxing on my system, than routing the tracks to their individual channels and relying on the midi to keep up.
 
it is cleaner to commit the audio tracks and mix off those, IMO

I think any soft synth sounds better rendered to wave. 
my 2 cents.

well, these are not soft synths.
but i understand what you mean...
i do use those as well, just not very often

Hey Bat, 
 
I am remixing a blues song of mine and I bounced all the SD2 tracks and did not use "thru the mixer" and I turned all bleed off just for fun.  I brought it all back in and hardly had to do anything but add some highs to the top snare mic, rolloff some 120hz on the toms and cleanup the hihat a taste.  I sent them to a buss and compressed the bus.  It worked great and the kit now sounds more real and live than it being played through midi notes though SD2's mixer.  
Fun stuff.
 
Jimmy
 

Hey Bat, 
 
I am remixing a blues song of mine and I bounced all the SD2 tracks and did not use "thru the mixer" and I turned all bleed off just for fun.  I brought it all back in and hardly had to do anything but add some highs to the top snare mic, rolloff some 120hz on the toms and cleanup the hihat a taste.  I sent them to a buss and compressed the bus.  It worked great and the kit now sounds more real and live than it being played through midi notes though SD2's mixer.  
Fun stuff.
 
Jimmy