Curious how you guys use AD2. Do you split all kit pieces into their own tracks in SONAR or do you just send a stereo track and do all your drum processing inside of AD2 and WHY do you prefer to do it that way?

I am having a real hard time getting all my gain staging levels right for some reason when I split everything into their own SONAR tracks. Maybe I am missing something? Maybe I shouldn't be splitting them all out like that and just process the pieces fully within AD2 and send just the stereo mix?

Although splitting the drums up in Sonar might give you more granular control I have found that by using the control in AD2 is better for cohesion. For some reason I had a much harder time getting my drum mix right when I separated them in Sonar as well. Now I exclusively use 1 track and mix directly in AD2. 

I've been splitting them in Sonar... I've also really been struggling to mix drums. I would love to hear other opinions on this too.

Last time I used AD2 I started with 1 stereo track and had all the MIDI for the parts in Sonar.
Once I had the drums finalized I cloned my AD2 single instrument track several times then split the MIDI between 4 AD2 instances - Kick, Snare, cymbals & HH, and everything else.
A little minor seasoning of Eq & compression (in Sonar) - viola!
For this project it worked out very well.

Fec know. :-)

I'm using Addictive Drums quite a bit now.  After considerable experimentation, I really do like the preset sounds more than my efforts to break things apart.  As stated above, there's some great cohesion in the master outs when everything hangs together.
 
Here are several things I am doing that may or may not be of interest. 
 
1. I'm recording onto one combined Midi track all of the kit pieces (or the performance). I'm finding that AD2 captures e-drum inputs from the hi hat and all of the kit pieces really flawlessly. The overall sound really conveys a well-recorded full live kit.  And the presets sound great, along with being intuitive, allowing for slick easy-to-grab tones and moods for the drums.
 
2. When I have what I want, then I can open a new instance of AD2 and paste just the ride in.  I can't get the ride to sound the way I want by adjusting it in one instance. But I can by copying it in to a second instance (when it's by itself) and adjusting the tones / volume etc. to something that suits my ear for appropriate ride level and sound.  (I didn't quite explain what I truly do, which is when I'm recording I record the performance to two AD2 instances, and the second track of Midi I have muted out all sounds but the ride.  That way when recording I can actually hear the frickin' ride).  Either explanation above gives the picture.
 
3. I actually use the same technique to pull the toms, snare, kick into either another instance of AD2 or into Session Drummer 2 or some other kit when I want to flavor up the main tones.  When I do that I am able to isolate those tracks to specific Sonar tracks and can use compression, reverb etc.  So, when doing this from AD2 I'm sending only the specific kit pieces to Sonar tracks, not the Master bus.  Or, if I'm using another drum synth, I can also choose to lower the AD2 tones for those main kit pieces on the main track (if it sounds better) to allow the other tracks to take the forefront.
 
In sum, I don't enjoy using the effect adjustments within AD2. I far prefer to make tonal adjustments with the array of tools available from Sonar or third party effects.  I do really admire the presets (that take advantage of the effects built in to AD2).  For my taste so far, I like to grab a preset and push out the sound to the mix through the Master outs and leave well alone within AD2.  When I want to doctor up the sound, I copy the Midi kit pieces out of the main AD2 track to other tracks and route those to dedicated Sonar tracks where I can doctor them up in Sonar in the FX bin.
 
Also in sum, I find that capturing a live performance in AD2 is really fun and convenient.  That said, if I were not using live performance drums, I would recommend another drum synth like EZ Drummer for putting together a set of loops rather than the loops within AD2 (which aren't bad, but aren't as convenient or obvious as EZ Drummer).
 
I have several of the other options, like BFD3, but recently have taken an extra special liking to the presets and kit sounds of AD2.

I really like the mix provided by AD2 and only on two occasions have I routed to seperate tracks just for experimenting, but it would be useful if you wanted to duck a bass line under a kick drum. Other ways I guess to work around this, maybe mute the kick and have a separate track with a substitute kick or maybe another instance of AD2 with everything (muted) except for the kick 

StuH
I really like the mix provided by AD2 and only on two occasions have I routed to seperate tracks just for experimenting, but it would be useful if you wanted to duck a bass line under a kick drum. Other ways I guess to work around this, maybe mute the kick and have a separate track with a substitute kick or maybe another instance of AD2 with everything (muted) except for the kick 

That's kind of like what I was describing in my longer note above.  By muting out something, or lowering it, and then having a separate track I'm finding I can do those kinds of things (and still maintain the other goodness of AD2).

>"I really like the mix provided by AD2"
Definitely.  
For the most part I don't care for the way the individual tracks/mics sound, but I feel the same about a number of other drum libraries. 
 
 

I usually (i.e. always) use two tracks: one for drums and the other for hihat and other cymbals, and often take different kits for each of these tracks. In fact quite often I'll end up with a real mongrol of a set, and hardly ever the same selection of drums or cymbals on two different tunes (I don't do songs);  it just depends what I think goes best with the track.  So I'll have a bass drum from (for example) indie, a snare from studio pop, crash from united studio ... etc. Increasingly I'm going towards just using the neat sounds, little processing other than a touch of eq on any one piece, and vary rarely any of their reverb. I may adjust the delay/release for damping the toms if I don't want the ring. 
 
I wouldn't mind using a track for each piece, but it just makes it unwieldy to use, in my untutored opinion. 
 
I'm still intrigued about AD's reverse stereo.  Their stereo is from the drummer's perspective (assuming he's right-handed) and I nearly always have to reverse everything (ctrl-drag the mouse on the pan control).
 
jdf