Hi guys I hope someone can help. I've search on here for answers, only to be more confused. 
OK what im doing

I have a roland td-20 set . I want to play and record the drums to music that I have recorded already. i do want to separate each drum track for mixing ..so I do not want to just have one drum track, that I cannot edit. 

I 'm using an Audiobox usb recoding system to plug the td 20 into . 

from there I am stuck.. what settings do i need to be setting in sonar x2 to do this properly..

Any help would be great!!!!

Bonni  :)

It depends on what you want recorded.

If you want to record the actual audio outputs of your TD20, then you have a problem in that the Audiobox only has 2 inputs, so you can't record each drum track separately.

So it looks like you're going to have to use the Midi out of the TD20 into the Midi in of the Audiobox and then into Sonar.

What you do with the Midi then is down to you - you can either use it to trigger a Sonar module such as Session drummer, or a 3rd party plug, something like BFD or similar.

You should be able to route it back to the TD20 brain, but how you riun separate audio tracks to mix could be a problem.

I'm no Midi expert - maybe someone else can chime in

Bonni - I use the TD-12 and accomplish that. The key is to use the brain of your TD to set the Midi output channel for each pad and edge/rim for every spot on your kit. For example your snare is output 3, your kick is output channel 4, all of your toms are on output channel 5 etc.

You just need the one Midi cable to bring in the Midi signal to your PC. In Sonar set whatever VST or Sound module you are using to have multiple Midi tracks. If you're using Session Drummer 3 that's a snap. You can then have a Midi track for your snare, one for your kick, another for your toms etc. The Midi In for each corresponds to the Midi Out you assigned on your TD brain - such as 3 for the snare. Works great! Additional tip is to use the Grouping feature of Sonar to group your drum midi tracks. That way if you click one of them to enable record they all get enabled with one click. By the way after you've recorded this way you can easily render each Midi track to its own audio track which makes mixing super flexible.

lawajava


Bonni - I use the TD-12 and accomplish that. The key is to use the brain of your TD to set the Midi output channel for each pad and edge/rim for every spot on your kit. For example your snare is output 3, your kick is output channel 4, all of your toms are on output channel 5 etc.

You just need the one Midi cable to bring in the Midi signal to your PC. In Sonar set whatever VST or Sound module you are using to have multiple Midi tracks. If you're using Session Drummer 3 that's a snap. You can then have a Midi track for your snare, one for your kick, another for your toms etc. The Midi In for each corresponds to the Midi Out you assigned on your TD brain - such as 3 for the snare. Works great! Additional tip is to use the Grouping feature of Sonar to group your drum midi tracks. That way if you click one of them to enable record they all get enabled with one click. By the way after you've recorded this way you can easily render each Midi track to its own audio track which makes mixing super flexible.

Wow ok... I apologize for not being too verse in this..  but do i need to use Session Drummer or anything? can i not use the sounds from the td20 ?


also im going Midi out from the td20 to the in of the audio box??   but i do not need to also have one from the out of the audio box to the in of the td20 ??


too many wires :)

bonni_bee - lots of ways to do things with Sonar and audio tools. One approach is as I described above, which is the approach I use. I could use the TD-12 for example as an external sound module. So, I would record the Midi tracks, and then use as the Midi input whichever sound module or internal VST (like Session Drummer 3) I point to. In my situation, I use the TD-12 only for my input controller, I obtain quite a few of my drum sounds from an external sound module (the Alesis DM Pro), and I use Session Drummer 3. I can blend say the snare sound from the Alesis DM Pro with the snare sound of one of the kits of Session Drummer 3 and get a really excellent snare sound that has just the right snap. But that's one approach. The reason by the way that I do that is that my drummer takes away his TD-12 when he goes home after a session. I have the Alesis DM Pro as my own sound module, as well as the VSTs like Session Drummer 3 so I'm able to playback and mix independently of having a kit parked here. All that said, if you only record the output as an audio file to your Sonar tracks it will be much less convenient to try to separate drum sounds. There is a drum mapping technique, where you bring across only a single channel input, but I believe that is also dependent on working with Midi tracks. However, since you have a TD-20 you've already got the immaculate capability of doing the channel breakouts right from your TD-20 sound module (the brain).

I record the MIDI from my drum brain to a MIDI Channel.
You'll have to make a Drum Map for at least each drum you'll want on it's own track.
My Drum Map has 12 pieces mapped.
Then when you open the Piano Roll View you'll see your kit and names and each one has a mute and solo button.
I have a DRUMS's Track Folder with all 12 drum tracks in it.
Now here's the worst part...
Take a drum and solo it (or mute the others), play the midi back through the drum brain and record the proper part to the proper (already armed of course) track.
Rinse and repeat for each drum. 

I don't worry about the drum sounds because I use Drumagog (or another Drum Replacer) to build my kit.


Mike

EDIT: Just to clarify, you don't need to make 12 drum maps or on map with ALL your drum brain sounds. Just one map with the drum sounds you'll use. (ie: Kick 1, Kick 2, Snare, Tom 1, Tom 2, Tom 3, Tom 4, Hi-Hat, Ride, Crash 1, Crash 2)    

bonnie-bee - chefmike's approach is very similar to mine. I just don't bother with the Drum Map technique (which is very viable as he explains). Instead, I have a file template (and track templates) where I can just open an instance of Session Drummer 3 and it's all mapped ready to go. But otherwise, chefmike's description is par for the course of what I do as well.

im still very new to all the midi type recording...thank you all for the help,
Im gonna try out some of this and probably have more questions...:)

I see a long night a head

thank you guys!! 

I've been using the TD-20 for five years or so.  I use real acoustic cymbals for crashes and hi-hat, and mic them with overheads.  I do use audio cables to record the samples from the TD-20 drums (kick, snare, toms) into a radial DI box, then into an api 3124 then into my converters and Sonar.  So I have 6 or 7 channels going into Sonar at once.  It works great, and I like the drum sounds but, of course, I can't change them once they're recoded.  (Maybe Drumagog can do that.)

I never did figure out how to use the midi ouput from the TD-20 into Sonar and session drummer or whatever plug.  Making a drum map and assigning those different drums (triggers) to different midi drums is too much for my old brain.  It didn't work the first time I tried, so I quit.  I need a step-by-step tutorial on making a drum map.

Saxon if you've come up with a way that works for you I'd stick with it. Sounds like you have a real system on this. But as far as Midi goes it's as simple as attaching one Midi out cable to a TD-20 and attaching the other end to a Midi In of a Midi interface to your PC and you're able to record all pads, rims, edges of your kit with independent tracks / sounds as you like. A one time setup on the TD brain (to set output channels) and then setting up one or more Midi channels to receive / record your performance in Sonar.  You don't even need the audio outs from the TD unless you're keen on the brain's selected kit sound. I look at the TD like any keyboard / controller - for me it's just a way to capture the hits, timing and velocities. Session Drummer 3 and other stuff has plenty of great kit sounds to render the audio.