ACT is driving me crazy!

    Ok, I decide to give ACT another try. Bought a Korg Nanocontroller 2. Using the Korg editor I program the nano to send out cc12-19 on the sliders. This is an exact match for the draw bars in VB3 which I am demoing.
    i load up an ACT control and try to map to the sliders in the generic ACT controller. No dice, it appears that I have to use the rotaries. Ok, seems to work with midi learn. Slider 1 controls  left most drawbar and the rest follow from left to right. Save the project. Reopen and now the sliders work from right to left! And I cannot map any button pushes either. This is very frustrating. Another half a day wasted. I believe that all the relevant check boxes are checked etc.
i try this out using Studio One V 2.6, works like a charm in 10 minutes.
i almost always record many VstI's one at a time as a performance and want to use my FC1010 and the Nanocontroller in real time.
any ideas that I can try?
thanks
 
 

scottfa
... follow from left to right. Save the project. Reopen and now the sliders work from right to left! And I cannot map any button pushes either. This is very frustrating.

This is a known and reported bug (myself and several others did report that into the problem tracker nirvana months ago).
 
With evey monthly update I look for fixes related to ACT, but there has not been a single one this year. So I dare to say ACT is dead and abandoned.
 
However, several of the bugs we see are simple save/restore problems: it works the first time mapped, but when project is closed it gets written wrongly to the config file, so that upon restart all is messed up. I realized that when "debugging" the config file trying to understand why old mappings coming from X1/X2 days work but those since the VST3 days don't ...
 
So if you really want to fix that yourself, you could. "All you need" is understand the xml file and create a proper mapping directly in the file and do not remap via Sonar anymore ... of course, this can no longer be called active controller technology (ACT) but it gets your control surface working ...
 
<<I actually started doing this myself about half way through i.e. load all settings from xml into a DB, but never got around to finish it i.e. reassign and write correct syntax because I was still hoping for the ACT fix with the monthly updates ... I might do it eventually but that you means investing about 2 days to got through all plugs and create the mapping externally >>

scottfa
i am trying to spend less time on tools, I don't want to edit files etc! 

I do not understand why you use Sonar (or any other DAW), it is all about using "tools" to edit (audio/MIDI) files
And in area of live playing there are better DAWs than Sonar, Sonar best sides are in other areas.
 
ACT is forking fine, once setup correctly. You try to use 2 devices, Behringer and Korg, producers of which have never bothered to look in Sonar direction. Are you expecting everything should magically work out of the box?  And about 10 minutes for Studio One... I can setup both in Sonar within 10 minutes. Till that is VST3, I can even do the mapping with ACT Learn. But sure, graphical editor (ACT Editor) is more convenient. XML editing is normally faster (at least for people which use text editors most of the time).
 
So, if you just need working system, there is a way. Less than "a half a day" long. If you want it better, please explain how (except VST3 bug). May be CW (or someone else) implement it.
 

With evey monthly update I look for fixes related to ACT, but there has not been a single one this year. So I dare to say ACT is dead and abandoned.

May be next year

I'm not a huge fan of ACT, but I've made my peace with it by deciding what I wanted out of it and...uh...ACTing accordingly :) (FYI I always have found the Korg Nano controllers problematic to set up with SONAR, other controllers are easier for some reason.)
 
What I mean by that is I'm not really interested in mapping every control to a parameter and setting that up permanently. I've tried that approach with various controllers and various programs, and it always seemed like more trouble than it was worth. What I really needed was the ability to do quick assignments for adding expressiveness while playing a part, so I came up with an easier way to use ACT that works well for me. 
 
BTW Azslow3's controller plug-in is outstanding and comprehensive. In my ideal world, Cakewalk would take it, simplify it somewhat, and wrap a super-simple UI around it. Problem solved.

Mr Anderton:
thanks for the info. It was actually an old Sound on Sound article that I used to get this to work initially. I don't know about the Korgs being problematic. The nanocontroller2 is pretty dead simple with their editor software. It is really just putting out CC messages.
i have thought about the Azlow3 application, but frankly I am weighing putting the time into that or investing the time really learning another DAW. I currently own two other DAWs and can at least record in both so I won't start from ground zero.
i want Sonar to be my DAW, but I just going to pragmatic about it. I want to spend my time playing instruments via VSTIs. After twenty years as an Applications Engineer and then 15 years teaching Mathematics, I want to look at less technical ways of expression.
i will look at your article. Thanks for all the info over the years!
 

Mr Anderton, your link seems to be the one I used to get the Korg to talk. It worked great but after save and recall it was goofy. I need to stop and figure out my next step.
Thanks to all for the help!