I want to create a swing jazz drum track using Sonar X2 and Superior Drums. Rather than play the whole cymbal part manually, I would like to create three or four MIDI clips featuring the ride cymbal and then have Sonar play the cymbal part, randomly switching to a different (or occasionally the same) clip with each new measure. Is this possible? If so, how?

Is it worth putting your clips into the Matrix View and triggering them as required, in a sequence that you choose. Not sure if there is a random trigger feature, but you could choose when you wanted each clip to feature, and mix and match them to suit.

There are drum VSTs with different kinds of random/hit propability settings (like de la Manchas Erratic, IIRC),
but I don't think SONAR has anything of that kind natively, assuming Matrix View doesn't.

de la Manchas Erratic sounds like a pretty cool VST to have - bugga looks like the download is removed - I've tried 3 or 4 different sites that list it for download and get the 404

Thanks, folks. Yeah, so far my best solution is to assign the cymbal clips in the Matrix and then "play" my variations in real time along with the drum parts. I thought it would be nice if I could forget about the cymbals entirely and have the part "play" itself so I could just focus on the drums.

I think the "random" (source files) is the kicker here. I do not know of a way for that within SONAR but some VSTs allow for layered pads to fire randomly. I have taken to using Geist for this feature.

The Step Sequencer or Cal scripts can randomize the MIDI data but not the triggered audio.

mettelus
I think the "random" (source files) is the kicker here. I do not know of a way for that within SONAR but some VSTs allow for layered pads to fire randomly. I have taken to using Geist for this feature.

The Step Sequencer or Cal scripts can randomize the MIDI data but not the triggered audio.

I was wondering if there might be a Cal script that could do what I want. But I need more than just random MIDI data, I need to trigger random MIDI clips which most likely would be set up in the Matrix.

I am still curious about this topic, since almost everything is "there" except for the triggering (which is my big interest). I have not done much with MIDI, so know there are a lot of tricks out there that I do not even know about.
 
The Matrix view does very much allow for MIDI trigger assignments, and using the "random patterns" in a row will make them all mutually exclusive. So if I chose 4 patterns, and assigned 4 MIDI notes to trigger each, is there a way to "randomly generate" which of the 4 notes is being played as the trigger (and limit the notes being randomized)?
 
The only thing that comes to mind is having a silent MIDI track running with the arpeggitor enabled, but there may be a much simpler solution to random note generation (real time).

So if I chose 4 patterns, and assigned 4 MIDI notes to trigger each, is there a way to "randomly generate" which of the 4 notes is being played as the trigger (and limit the notes being randomized)?

 
How about the recently updated MFX Note Rotator from TenCrazy?
TenCrazy.com MFX Note Rotator v1.2 (64-bit)

Thanks b rock! It is amazing what happens when you ask people who know what they are doing!
 
I think that covers everything the OP was asking, but not completely sure.