Hello! Is there a way to have multiple drum tracks in one file? 
 
I'm a guitar player and I mainly use CW to record my tracks. I use SD3 and it only let's me have one drum track at a time. Or at least I think it does. 
 
I'd like to have multiple drum tracks so that I can Mute the ones I'm not using at the time and then just work with the one. I usually have 4/5 different guitar tracks that I can always refer back to. 
 
Is this possible? If so how do I do it? Thanks 

Session Drummer has 12 stereo channels, or 24 mono channels. You need create individual audio tracks and set their input to the appropriate SD output.

Assuming that you mean PARTS  - if you are sending the VST midi data,  just mute whatever part you want in PRV. (MUST USE A DRUM MAP FOR THIS TO WORK)
 
You can also assign the VST outputs to various tracks. I use BFD or Session drum 3 and I have each part assigned to a different audio track. What you are asking for is exactly how it should be done.

here's what you can do(if I understood you correctly)
each midi track triggers the drums you hear, so one midi track is triggering your drum parts.
what you want to do is start a whole new midi track, mute the old one and begin recording your new song.
after your done, you should now have 2 midi tracks, both with different song parts, exc.
*you need to make sure each midi tracks output is being sent to session drummer.
 
repeat as necessary to have as many takes as you'd like. 
now by muting one and listening to the other it is possible to audition multiple tracks and choose the one you like the best.
 

+1 to Charlie's above suggestion.
 
I have many times created multiple separate midi tracks for drums, so that I could evaluate different rhythmic choices for parts of songs I am working on.
 
I would suggest avoiding having a midi track for each kit piece, as editing will instantly become a nightmare.  I route each kit piece in Battery 3 to its own outputs, so that I can address levels and effects on each one, but trying to keep each midi event for each kit piece on a separate track would gray up your hair faster than a President's.
 
Bob Bone
 

I 'm confused. First you said:
 

robert_e_bone
+1 to Charlie's above suggestion.
 

 
Where he said:
 

chuckebaby
here's what you can do(if I understood you correctly)
each midi track triggers the drums you hear, so one midi track is triggering your drum parts.
what you want to do is start a whole new midi track, mute the old one and begin recording your new song.
after your done, you should now have 2 midi tracks, both with different song parts, exc.
*you need to make sure each midi tracks output is being sent to session drummer.
 
repeat as necessary to have as many takes as you'd like. 
now by muting one and listening to the other it is possible to audition multiple tracks and choose the one you like the best.
 

 
Then you said:
 
 

robert_e_bone
I would suggest avoiding having a midi track for each kit piece, as editing will instantly become a nightmare.  I route each kit piece in Battery 3 to its own outputs, so that I can address levels and effects on each one, but trying to keep each midi event for each kit piece on a separate track would gray up your hair faster than a President's.
 
Bob Bone
 ,

 
Can you clarify ? Just wondering why you appear to agree and then immediately disagree. Sorry if I am understanding something wrong.
 
But you are absolutely correct in pointing that it is awful trying to work out drum parts using multiple midi tracks. But to confuse things even more . . . It has never occurred to me to try it. . .  but it could (might) be possible that in PRV, if you selected all the different parts that are on different tracks - say KICK, SNARE, TOMS, HI-HATS etc, and IF you had MAPPED the parts on the tracks, perhaps they would all show up correctly and you could them mute the parts using the active track pane on the right of PRV. It would make no sense to do it that way because mapped single midi track drums will already have S(olo) and M(ute) radio buttons beside the note description, but it might be a possible though essentially a useless quirk. I don't think I will even spend the time trying to find out. 
 

Sure - I'll try to do a better job of explaining.  Sorry for any confusion.
 
I routinely create multiple midi tracks to capture drum events.  I do this because I often have multiple rhythmic ideas for sections of a song I may be working on.  Each midi track created for drums will have the entire kit's midi events present in one track, so for MY approach, if I have multiple midi tracks for drums, it means multiple complete kit recordings.  I then would mute all but one of the drum midi tracks, to play a particular 'take' of ONE entire kit.
 
What I MEANT to explain is that I NEVER put any single kit piece set of midi events onto its own midi track.  So, I would never have a midi track for just kick drum events.  Doing things that way would mean I would have to edit multiple midi tracks just to adjust a simple drum beat - as I would have to edit the kick events on one track, the snare hits on another, each cymbal on yet more tracks, and each tom's events on even more tracks.  Hence, an editing nightmare, and something I just never ever never ever would do.
 
What I DO use in my approach, is to load a kit into Battery 3, which is usually my go to drum module, and then I swap out any cells for replacements from other kits, so that I end up with a kit with exactly the kit pieces I seek for that song.  I then click on each kit piece, and then adjust the AUDIO output channel routing so that the kick drum remains assigned to the master audio outputs, the left and right snare cells are routed to audio output channels 3/4, crash 1 is assigned to audio output channels 5/6, etc. so that each kit piece goes to its own dedicated AUDIO output channels from Battery 3.
 
THEN, in Sonar, I set up a track folder for Drums, and insert one midi track and one audio track for each of the kit pieces.  I assign the midi output channel for the drums midi track to channel 10, so that all recorded drum events are going to be set to channel 10.  I then label each audio track appropriately (kick, snare, crash 1, etc.), and change the input to match the corresponding output channel I had set in Battery 3 for each kit piece.  I also insert a Drum bus and route all drums to the Drums bus, and I set the levels as needed, since I can now adjust every aspect of every kit piece, for levels, panning, and effects.
 
At the end of the above, I have a track folder I can collapse when I don't want to see individual drum audio tracks, and I have an audio track set for each and every piece of the kit that I built in Battery 3, where I can go back and tweak any and all of the kit pieces to my heart's content, and yet all midi events for all of the kit pieces still go to a single midi track.
 
When I want to create an alternate drum track for any particular section of the song, I simply insert a new midi track into my Drums track folder, name it, assign its output to Battery 3, mute the existing drums midi track, and create my alternate pattern using the new drums midi track.  I can do this as many times as I choose, just using toggling mute on/off to hear whichever version of drums I want to hear.
 
I hope that is a better explanation.  If not, let me know which parts you are still confused about, and I will drink some more coffee and try again.
 
Bob Bone
 

Oh, I do not currently use the PRV for drums, although I intend to - just haven't the time to get into it, so I cannot comment on any aspects of that, although a great many others can.
 
I tend to use the Step Sequencer for creating and editing drums, and that does NOT play nicely with drum maps, in fact the Sonar folks advised me that they specifically do NOT intend for folks to try to use drum maps when creating clips for drums within Step Sequencer.  I CAN tell you that weird bad things happen when one does try to edit clips created with drum maps within Step Sequencer.
 
I just have a laminated sheet I printed off with the note numbers for the various kit pieces I have set up, and I refer to it as needed when creating/editing drum events with Step Sequencer.  It's really not a big deal, and I have almost all of them memorized anyway, so I don't lose any time.
 
It IS my intention to take time to get good enough at using the PRV to switch over to it, as I DO firmly believe it to be much faster at doing drums than using my Step Sequencer approach.  I just have not carved out time to get my skill level with PRV where it needs to be.  So, it remains on the never-ending list of things to do.
 
Bob Bone
 
 

I like all that was said but my workflow goes as such:
 
I write out my drum track as basic first. Then I get all the other tracks recorded/written and go back and write out the fills and hits and such.
 
I then clone the track, archive the original and then split all the drums up so they are on their own track. I always clone in case I decide I want to make changes because it is a nightmare making changes with separate midi tracks.
 
I don't think I saw this but SD3 has numbers below the faders for each kit piece or bus. You would need to make each one a different number before you create audio track to route them to. I think Charlie made a video about this? For instance:
 
bass drum channel 1. Sent to an audio track with the audio tracks input set to SD3 input ??.
Snare drum channel 2. Sent to and audio track with the audio tracks input set to SD3 input ??.
 
HTH

@guitarpima
 
If I am correct, your statement "I then clone the track, archive the original and then split all the drums up so they are on their own track" is referring to splitting them all up as separate AUDIO tracks and not separate MIDI tracks.  Is that correct?
 
If so, then I think we are doing essentially the same thing, as far as the audio routing assignments go.
 
I just went back and reread your post - it sounds like you may be splitting into separate midi tracks after all, once you clone.  If so, can you explain why you would do that?
 
Bob Bone