Hi, Pragi. Thanks for the kind words. I always appreciate your posts as well. I've actually moved on to using BFD Eco for my drums mostly after I bought it on special for $50. It came with the Platinum Samples Rock Legends expansion pack which has been working great for what I do. I've done things a few different ways getting pretty good results. The Anti Machine Gun setting couple with the Humanize knob gets me pretty close when I am doing point and click inputting then I mess around with the notes manually in the PRV. I also have a Korg padKontrol which I've used to play the drums live using both SD3 and BFD Eco and it's really great for getting a nice live feel but because I used to play real drums with double kick it has it's limitation. I have an external pedal for the Korg that I can use as a single kick which is pretty cool but it's definitely not the same as a real kick pedal. Eventually if I ever get the money I'd love to start building a V-Drum kit.
But I don't think that's really what you are asking. What I would suggest in regards to using the Step Sequencer is input your beat using the AJ kit (because it has such good sound, responds better to velocities and with the effects in Sonar can be turned into pretty much any style you want). Once you get the first measure inputted and have turned it into a Groove Clip drag the clip out so it covers the range you want for that beat. Then split the extended groove clip into sections and open the new sections in the Step Sequencer so they are independent of the original clip. Then change the velocities, use the humanize function, etc so the new measure is slightly different than the original even if it is all the exact same hits/notes. Keep doing that for each measure then you'll have something more realistic than just repeating the same measure over and over again. Once you have 3 or 4 versions of the same measure you can start using them in the rest of the song mixing them up as you go along. You only need to fool the listener's ears just enough to make them not notice it is sequenced.
The humanize function in the Sonar Step Sequencer is "okay" and will get you close to a real sound but to really nail it it's best to go in and adjust the velocities on each of those segments just a little bit. It doesn't have to be all the notes. Mainly the snare, hi hat, ride and if you are doing fills the toms are what you want to look at.
This however is sometimes best done in PRV but obviously that's more complex so go back and forth and use all options available. If you have a pad style controller then using that to toss in fills over top of the main beats then going into the PRV and tightening it all up is another great way to achieve realism in my opinion.
There are just so many cool ways to mess with drums using MIDI I've been having a blast learning it all. Now I should point out but you already know that I am still very much a beginner but I've been having great success using what I have so far and I am very happy with what Sonar is providing in this regard. I'd also say take a good look at the LP-64 Percussion Strip to make it all sound nice once you are done. It was designed for this type of thing and when used properly sounds great.
Cheers, dude. Good to see you. ;-)