piano roll shows the names of the drums (snare, kick etc.) don't know how to find a midi map. f1 didn't work. SD3 indicates a number like "41" however the audiosnap is wanting an alpha numeric "B#" or similar. The kick is B3, cant seem to find the midi notes.

That mapping is in the SD3 help. Bring the SD3 GUI in focus and click F1. Under "Using the Mixer" click on "Using the drum pads" then scroll down a bit, the map is there.

F1 does not do anything!!!! I had the GUI in focus and pressed F1....nothing!

Are you sure the help is not hidden somewhere on your screen? You can also bring up the help by going where the SD3 help is located on your hard drive and open the chm file. The default location for 64bit SD3 is c:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins\Session Drummer 3\Documentation

It's in there, dude. We wouldn't lie to, ya. Make sure you actually have the SD3 GUI in focus (just click anywhere on the SD3 window) and the click F1. Also check your windows task bar like scook said. It may be the help topic didn't pop up to the front. Also be aware that it is a PDF file so you need to have a PDF reader installed like Adobe Reader to view it. Otherwise it will just be a notepad doc with a bunch of wacky numbers and stuff in it.

beepster, your SD3 help is a pdf? The file on my system at "c:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins\Session Drummer 3\Documentation" is called SessionDrummer.chm. That is the one the F1 key brings up. Directly clicking on the file should bring it up in the help viewer.

Well pretty much all of my manuals seem to be PDFs or something similar because I had to install Adobe to actually see them (I built my own rig so I didn't have anything except Win7 Pro). I've never seen or heard of the .chm extension before this. It's likely the same as what I have but generally if I try to open a doc or manual and it shows up all wonked I just open it with Adobe and all is well.

Yea, the manuals that come with SONAR are pdfs. A lot of the plugins have their own help files. They are Compiled HTML files, i.e. standard windows help files that use the Windows help viewer. In your slack time, you might want to poke around the Cakewalk directory tree, just to see what is there.

Heh... yeah, I've poked at it a bit. I've pretty much found everything I need for now. Eventually I'd like to figure out all this .dll mayhem you guys seem to always be screwing around with... but for now things are good and I have more than enough on my plate. Really wish I could take a look at the X2 manual though.

You could read the TH2 manual, it is available from Overloud.