Teds_Studio...when using a drum VST such as Addictive Drums or Superior / Easy Drummer...do you use the separate outs of the kit pieces to Sonar or do you do the drum mix within the VST mixer?...
...I normally use individual outs...but was curious if most others do also.

I think using the individual outs is pretty much a Must Do.  It's the only way to get a nice, fat, dryer kick, for instance.  I use EZDrummer, and find it easy to get the mix I want in its GUI, but besides wanting my kick dry, I don't want to be stuck with particular settings of the Overheads and Room.-- NOTE:  I said "stuck" with levels because I always bounce my MIDI tracks to audio before mixing, and I'd rather not re-do.  If I need more cymbals, I can do that easily after a bounce since the Overheads are on a separate track.
 
Another note - After developing the drums MIDI track, I cut the bass and paste it into its own MIDI track.  Otherwise, the kick will be bleeding through the Overheads and Room, even if its fader is all the way down in the EZ GUI.
 
Randy B.

With AD, SD & Slate's SSD I route to separate channels & add 3rd party fx.

With BFD3 I only need to route & process 3 channels ( Master, Amb, & Mix) & use it's own mixer & fx's to get the desired or equivalent sound of the others.

I use a combination of the drum sampler's internal mixer and individual audio tracks. My standard template combines instruments into five busses within Superior Drummer's internal mixer that are then routed to five separate audio tracks:
 
Kick in, out and sub -> KICK bus in sampler's mixer -> Kick audio track (mono)
Snare top, bottom and comp -> SNARE bus -> Snare audio track (mono)
HH, OH -> CYMBALS bus -> audio track (stereo)
All toms -> TOMS bus -> audio track (stereo)
Ambience near, mid, far, bullet -> AMB bus -> "Room" audio track (stereo)
 
Effects are also a combination of the sampler's internal effects and track effects. EQ is done within SD2, and I often use the built-in transient shaper on kick, snare or toms. Compression and limiting are normally done in the track, since that's what's most likely to be tweaked after the drums have been frozen.
 
Part of my rationale for doing it this way has to do with my underpowered computer. SD2 is a big CPU and RAM eater, so the drums are typically the first thing to be frozen. Routing to separate audio tracks and using external effects lets me retain mixing options that would otherwise be frozen if I did it all within the sampler.
 
 

For me it depends on the vst. For AD I use a template with individual outs. When using Geist I mostly mix in vst. The effects are excellent and routing within is flexible.

Great idea and info guys.  I too have my templates set up for individual outs for drums.  It's interesting how people have different ideas and logic for how they approach their workflow...!  That's what makes this so much fun....there really is no wrong or right way for most of the things we do.  It all depends on what works for each of us...!
 
Thanks again for all the responses.