Anyone Using Poly Aftertouch Successfully with Rapture or Dim Pro?

I've had the same results in the past, Craig.  The Poly Aftertouch entry in the Matrix seems to ignore that extra data byte for the current MIDI Note.  I want to say that I discussed this with Rene at one point, but I'll have to check my notes.  It's been quite a while now.  I'll revisit the test bed with some capable controllers when I get back home today.

what are you trying to control craig? my guess is that this is due to vst 2.4 architecture and why steinberg included per note expression as part of the vst3 spec. their current synths like retrologue and padshop can map poly aftertouch to items like per-note panning and cutoff, etc. i can try one of those synths in sonar later, but i don't have a poly aft keyboard and it might take a bit to figure how to write in the controller data. my guess is that poly aftertouch for note specific parameter modifications is just not possible in vst2.x.

OK, Craig, here's what I came up with.  Simplest configuration:  Rapture or Dimension Pro microhost; Initialize Program; sine.wav Multisample; one Matrix line using Polyphonic Aftertouch as a Source; appropriate Depth for a select Destination.  Polyphonic aftertouch transmission confirmed in Bome's SendSX before testing.
 
In either synth (untested in Rapture Pro), a Pitch destination to a single Element was easy to discriminate.  Two notes with varying PAT pressure seemed to 'fight' each other for control.  Lots of warbling before the firmest pressure won out (set to an octave up).
 
With a Pitch LFO Freq destination, the first note triggered seemed to take precedence.  That is, the first note would have to be released before the 2nd note (with additional pressure) took over.  So, it didn't really accumulate like Channel Aftertouch would.  It was more of a tradeoff between notes and current polyphonic pressure.
 
I should mention here that the AKAI MAX49 sends a 'true' Note Off message with a Release Velocity of 0.
 
Rapture (but not Dimension Pro) got a little stranger.  There were occasions where changing Destinations would 'stick' on the original Destination, until - oddly - another wavetable oscillator was selected.  Very preliminary testing here, and hardly conclusive.  But thanks for reviving the questions that I've had on the "how's & why's" this should work.

Arturia's VST2 version of the CS-80V works with Poly Aftertouch but that's the only soft synth I've found so far that does, and it doesn't even have a "poly aftertouch" option - just aftertouch. Weird.
 
Anyway I'm going to be gone for a while, but just wanted to close the loop on this before taking off. Thanks for looking into this!

the reason iirc that kontakt gets away with this in zones is that each zone that's defined is instantiated within the plugin as a separate instance of the synth. i would guess the cs-80v might have the same sort of architecture.

Mostly no. Rapture Pro recognizes poly aftertouch, but responds to it as if it was channel aftertouch. 

I believe that the Korg Legacy M1 and Wavestation respond to poly aftertouch correctly. Although I am not near my DAW right now to verify this, Alchemy (may it rest in peace) does also.
 
It may be wise to verify that your controller sends poly aftertouch correctly. Years ago, when the Roland A80 MIDI controller was in production, we bought one. I quickly discovered that its poly aftertouch did not work. Trapping and analyzing its MIDI output on a sequencer (Cakewalk!) revealed that the poly aftertouch was being sent three octaves above the actual key pressed. And this was after the A80 had been in production for a few years! We were the first to notice this issue! Roland was very expeditious in producing a firmware fix, and the shop where we bought it installed the firmware fix quickly. (I don't know how such firmware fixes would be deployed in today's world of ecommerce.) The firmware upgrade was performed at Synthony Music in Phoenix, AZ ... a store which went out of business years ago and which we greatly miss.
 
My point is, the polyphonic aftertouch feature, and other similar specialized features, may not have been thoroughly design-verified by the controller manufacturer, since there are so few modules/VST's that support this feature. If you have issues with poly aftertouch, the problem may not lie in the module/VST.