Am i the only one here who thiks ACT is a big waist of brain cells?

  Is it just me or: ACT is totally unintuitive, complicated to setup, hard to understand, doesn't work or partly works, all the promo videos about ACT feature "Cakewalk/Ediro" controlers (...), No video explaning how to setup non roland gear. I hate ACT! Other platforms have universal "instant midi learn". You click the knob, you click midi learn and voilà. Stenberg goes even further, they sell a knob that changes the value of anything you mouse points to, instantly! I wish Cakewalk would drop ACT, it is the only tuely non pruductive aspect of Sonar. I bet we would do a poll in the forum and 99% of users would agree that ACT should be dropped.

  "Seems to work OK here. The midi learn feature works as well. I set up the Korg padKontrol and used it as a transport controller as well as for firing cells in the matrix. What surface are you trying to set up? Brian " Just take the sonitus wahwah for example. I want to controle it with a midi controler. In another daw I would right click on a slider, select midi learn, wiggle a knob on the midi controler. But with Sonar, right clicking doesn't work, so I click ACT. When I hover over the ACT button it says a very helpfull message: "Controler/Surface learn ACT mode" "Click once to enable ACT learn mode" "When done, click again to desable ACT learn mode" When done what???? So what I do do is click the ACT button, click the wahwah slider, wiggle the modulation wheel of the midi controler and click back the ACT button. Nothing.. So then I click the ACT button, wiggle the modulation wheel, then click the slider on the wah. Nothing... So then I click the slider, wiggle the modulation weel, click again the slider, nothing... ACT is a stupid complicated non user friendly, non fonctional way to force people to buy roland midi controlers. It makes me want to switch to Studio one or Ableton live, Cubase whatever, the ALL work!

You're doing it right, but try something else and not the modulation wheel. I don't think it will work, ever. I have an Axiom from M-Audio and it works perfectly as advertised.

And open the Control Surface plugin and make sure that your pots and faders and whatever is corresponding with the Generic ACT plugin if that's what you're using.

Make sure you go to CakeTV for some pretty good instructions on how to use ACT.

BTW, check out this thread: http://forum.cakewalk.com...&high=I+have+axiom

I had some issues with ACT and Thegeek did a killer write upon ACT there

This applies to your problem too FBB

Yeah, sorry, I was a little unclear

I did get some trouble with using both an M-Audio device and an M-Audio device so I had to not use one as an ACT controler and I believe it's because they use the same driver. It's like one of them was clogging up the ACT controll preventing the other to access it. Removing one did the trick for me and I am actually happy with the outcome. Probably not what you're after but they certainly could make ACT a little more friendly in use with several controllers;)


Right, it suddenly feel like we've hijacked the thread:p I thought I was replying in your Thread FBB

I bet we would do a poll in the forum and 99% of users would agree that ACT should be dropped.

No.


ACT can be vastly improved, but its really not that hard to use.

I absolutely HATE using the mouse unless necessary, so if ACT were dropped, I would drop Sonar. Your assumption about "99%" is silly, and making up statistics is never a good approach to get your opinion heard.

cornieleous

I bet we would do a poll in the forum and 99% of users would agree that ACT should be dropped.

No.


ACT can be vastly improved, but its really not that hard to use.

I absolutely HATE using the mouse unless necessary, so if ACT were dropped, I would drop Sonar. Your assumption about "99%" is silly, and making up statistics is never a good approach to get your opinion heard.

I agree with you! ACT is one of the reasons I don't ever want to leave Sonar - and hessitated to do so when contemplating it. But there are room for improvement although I'm not stressing about it

pwal


42% of statistics are useless

There's been a 20-40% improvement in useful statistics since you read that!
 
Brian

It is limited with its strict 8 knobs/faders/buttons and shift design and the available control destinatations. And theres this one bug which prevents me from using it, after setting up multiple ACT controllers and a generic surface controller: The ACT controllers aren't recalled and don't work after loading/creating a project. You have to go into every ACT controller and recall its settings, and the preset management is so unintuitive or buggy that I overwrote presets accidentally after spending hours of setting it up. Waste of time. It could be so easy. Yes, it needs a major overhaul! And bug fixes!

Hey rmluzon - Check out Thegeeks post here, if you really want ACT to work and don't mind a bit of reading
http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.ashx?m=2174288

Brandon Ryan [Cakewalk
]

zblip


Is it just me or: ACT is totally unintuitive, complicated to setup, hard to understand, doesn't work or partly works, all the promo videos about ACT feature "Cakewalk/Ediro" controlers (...), No video explaning how to setup non roland gear. I hate ACT! Other platforms have universal "instant midi learn". You click the knob, you click midi learn and voilà. Stenberg goes even further, they sell a knob that changes the value of anything you mouse points to, instantly! I wish Cakewalk would drop ACT, it is the only tuely non pruductive aspect of Sonar. I bet we would do a poll in the forum and 99% of users would agree that ACT should be dropped.

Actually there is a video like the one you describe -  that explains how to setup non-native ACT controllers (i.e. non-Roland).


I have to say that I rather disagree with your assessment of ACT. I use it everyday and, while not perfect, it works quite well for me for whatever is in focus on screen. I've also set it up in lots of scenarios for people who were not using Roland gear.


Also, basic ("instant") MIDI learn exists for many functions in SONAR and a number of synths and effects (including 3rd party) have it as well. Right-click, MIDI learn, etc. You can actually use MIDI learn in conjunction with ACT in some scenarios.


How difficult it is to setup really depends on what hardware you are using and how complicated your application is. Rather than dropping ACT, it would make much more sense to just improve it based on customer feedback.

Anyway, I'm sure the community here (i.e. the 1% using it ) can help you get it sorted. If not, and the video doesn't help, our technical support staff can surely help.

Brandon I have a great suggestion not so much for ACT itself but for control surfaces. How about forget about Mackie mode MCU, ect And instead take the approach that NI took with how you can set up Traktor Pro, So that any midi controller can be used and mapped out the way you want, The ability to use modifiers , toggles, fader, encoders , buttons, ect  in a way that you want, And of course a master save. So you set it up once and forget it..  
 Also I like how Expanded works as far as the FX chain interface box goes, were you can add knobs as u want/skins , perhaps ACT can go in that direction.. Or maybe a drag and drop to knob in an interface box thats assigned to you hardware controller knob.