Right now I have to insert a soft synth (my drum synth), open the piano roll, insert a crash or something at the beginning, go back to the track and pull the clip end handle across to extend it. Then go back to the piano roll and add whatever I want from there, single drums or patterns. And the patterns don't show up as individuals in piano roll, so editing is tricky.
 
Is it always this convoluted? Maybe you can tell, I'm fairly new to all of this.
 
BTW, I am using 8.5, and right now just SD2, because that's what it came with. No SD3 for some reason.
 
Thanks for any light you can shine into this dark and dingy corner.

Are you having to pull the clip boundary out in order to ensure that new notes go into the existing clip rather than creating new clips? This was actually one of my first posts to the forum way back when, and it has come up a few times since. I never really figured out what caused this to happen sometimes, but in doing some experimenting just now, I found that any note entered more than 9/8 later (i.e. one measure plus an eigth in 4/4 time) than the previous one will generate a new clip. This is in both X3 and 8.5.3.
 
If that's not the issue, please clarify why you're dragging the clip boundary out. Also, I'm not understanding exactly what you mean by "patterns don't show up as individuals". You can enable "Show Clip Outlines" so you can see where clips start and end in the PRV. Is that it?

Honestly, it's just easier to use a keyboard to tap out a basic pattern by playing along with the song, then you can edit it later. This gives you the full sized clip as well as a useful map of the major drum patterns in the song.
 
If you don't have a keyboard, I would highly recommend that you consider a small midi controller with pads on it.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

rickyneg
Right now I have to insert a soft synth (my drum synth), open the piano roll, insert a crash or something at the beginning, go back to the track and pull the clip end handle across to extend it. Then go back to the piano roll and add whatever I want from there, single drums or patterns. And the patterns don't show up as individuals in piano roll, so editing is tricky.
 
 

I, as well, have great difficulties understanding how you are using SD2. Also, I don't understand what you mean by "individuals" nor what what you are finding problematic.
That extending thing I don't understand at all. If you draw a hit in first bar, then move directly to bar 5 and add another hit there, you get one clip covering bars 1-5. You don't make a clip and then fill it, clips are created automatically whenever you add MIDI events or drag a MIDI loop onto the MIDI drum track.
 
You can edit the hits/events inside the clip how much you want. They don't need to be separate clips, if that is what bothers you. 

Is it always this convoluted? Yes. I spend more time programming drum tracks than anything else, even vocals. It's what I start with in every new project, and the last thing I'm still tweaking at the end of the project. 
 
Investigate the step sequencer. It's easy to use, fun to experiment with, and quick to knock out a basic click track. All my songs start with the step sequencer. It'll create a groove clip that can be stretched to the length of your song and then bounced, creating a single standard MIDI clip that you can start editing via the PRV.
 
As for the problem of ending up with multiple clips as you enter data via the PRV, don't worry about it. If you are annoyed by it, just select all the clips, right-click and select "bounce to clip(s)". That will combine them all into a single MIDI clip.

Thank you all for your replies. I find it difficult to put what I mean into words that make sense to someone else. I expected to use a drum VST like EZDrummer the same way I use my Yamaha keyboard. Insert a VST track, choose EZDrummer (or SD2), hit some keys on my Yamaha or choose a MIDI drum clip and plug it in the track, and away I go. But it doesn't work that way, and I'm still trying to find out how it works. I can't get EZDrummer to play along with any of my existing projects (get the MIDI drumtrack to follow the Sonar tempo). And I don't understand what some of you tell me to do, and I can't find out for myself because the manuals are either non-existant or crappy. Or maybe it's just me. Sorry, my frustration is showing.
 
Anyway, thanks, I`ll try some of your suggestions and do some more research.

What you might be missing is the basic step of pointing the output of the midi track to the drum synth or what ever synth you have inserted in the synth rack. 
 
The help files for 8.5 have a search function. Type in using soft synths. 
Apparently there are utubes videos too. And Scott Garrigus books are real easy to understand. They are out in e book format too.