Dan, when I take my BIAB tracks into SONAR for mixing, I keep the MIDI percussion track that is generated, along with the RealDrum track. I then go into the piano roll editor and eliminate any MIDI notes under, say, F over middle C. This removes any lower-pitched drum from the kit, such as tom toms etc., and leaves only some of the 'color' fun stuff like triangle, bongo etc. On some songs, I add in a few cymbal hits and tom-tom fills in the MIDI track as needed, particularly at the ending or at the start of choruses. It's a quick and dirty way to get a percussionist and augment the RealDrum track.

I agree, a separate track would be nice. However, don't forget, you can already force a MIDI drum track and copy it to the Melody or Soloist track, then go back to the drum track, remove the checkbox forcing a MIDI drum, and generate a Real Drum track. You would have both.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.