Hi
 
Historically I have always mixed by drums in the DAW - MIDI track from Addictive Drums into Cubase, convert to Audio then EQ, compress, effects etc.
 
Now I've moved over to Sonar X2 and BFD2, I've read a lot about people mixing in BFD2 then BUS lanes into Sonar.
 
Just looking to see what other users do and what pros/cons you find with each method?

I do both!  I use 3 "mixes" in BFD2 (overhead, room, PZM(?)) and individual tracks (kick, snare, hat, toms, cymbals, ride + sometimes others).

Definitely no need to convert to audio - just run live audio.

I do all my mixing inside Sonar.

The plugins inside BFD aren't too bad, but I don't think they can compete with the Pro Channel modules

Like KPerry, there's no need to convert to audio - keep it all as Midi unless you computer starts complaining. With 16Gb of RAM, this shouldn't be an issue for you

  I prefer to split out tracks in Sonar also. Separate tracks for kick,snare toms, cymbals, overheads, room.
  I like to see the entire mix at a glance. It's also nice to be able to quickly adjust the amount of room ambiance on the drums once the whole mix is up. 
  I'll sometimes use both the processing inside of BFD and my Sonar/third party plugins. Why have a ridiculous amount of control when you can have a ludicrous amount of control 
   I never bounce to audio until I'm exporting the entire track. 
  
  

I mix in BFD with the supplied plugs.  I just treat it as a sub mixer like I would in an old fashioned "hardware" studio.

For now, I really prefer using the BFD mixer, keeps it simple . . . but in the future (as time permits) I may experiment with using a Sonar Drum Bus mix set-up, saved as a track template, just to see if I can get a better drum mix using ProChannel + Sonar plugins.

I don't know why one can't do both.

I'm playing around with BFD Eco right at this moment. I was gonna post a thread reminding everyone to use the Anti Machine Gun mode in the BFD interface but I'll just post it here.

The thing is BFD has a ton of awesome presets if you aren't used to mixing raw drums which is essentially what you are getting with a BFD track. The FX and stuff are specific to drums so it's pretty useful. However as has been mentioned the effects in Sonar Producer are higher quality so if you know how to mix a kit already that's likely going to garner better results. As John said though there is nothing stopping you from using both. Like using a preset in BFD, tweaking it to taste and then tweaking it further using the tools in Sonar.

So much cool stuff for us to play with. YAY! 

I prefer submixing BFD2 tracks (mono kick, mono snare, stero toms, stereo cymbal, etc) then assigning each sub to an audio input tracks in Sonar. All driven by one midi BDF2 instrument track in Sonar... Best of both worlds. 
 
Oh... One other thing I learned the hard way, never export using Quick bounce. Let the song play out while exporting. I've experience sync problems and note drops n BFD tracks... Don't know if this happens with anyone else. 

Thanks for the responses and ideas. Am thinking I may mix within BFD, then bussing out groups and tweaking as and when neccesary in Sonar. All fun and games!!

In terms of MIDI/Audio comments, this was how I previously worked in Cubase. In Sonar I tend to have 1 MIDI track with all drum parts loaded, I then have an audio track for each drums routed from the MIDI. Assume that's the best way to work?

Cheers