The Akai MPK49 has 3 midi outputs. It also has whats called the Common Control or CC which you set in global options. By default, the Sonar preset uses Port B while the CC (keyboard keys, MMC controls) use port A. I personally like this separation as it keeps ACT controls seperate from the keyboard data. It sounds to me like you have ACT linked to the wrong Akai input port. I forget how it works. I think Port B is Akai 3 or something unintuitive. It will most likely be the next one after whatever you have the MMC set to.
I agree that ACT is substandard but it's workable if you know its limitations...
If you havent already, read this post I've made about the nuances of CGS and ACT:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1713897&high=. Particularly read the bit about "ACT" referring to 2 different things...(e.g. you can have "ACT" in a CGS but there is an "ACT controller plugin" which can have "ACT" enabled OR disabled(!!!))
For MPK49 I use 2 controllers: a CGS with ACT disabled for the track controls and an ACT controller plugin (set to NOT follow context) for synths/plugins. I use 2 data sets in my MPK (SonarTrk and SonarACT) to switch between them. I'll send you my Akai settings if you PM me your email...
A few things to know: - The ACT Akai MPK49 preset doesn't seem to do anything.
- The CGS default setup is perfectly fine for the Akai. Its Akai preset works fine too though you may wish to tweak it.
- ACT plugin tends to forget your mappings to the keyboard (CGS doesnt) but they are easy to reassign
- ACT plugin can only support 8 sliders and knobs so banks B and C on your Akai are not needed (not so for the CGS though!). BUT ACT plugin supports its own banks, 4 to be precise, which you can assign a button to rotate through. You CANT assign bank B or the akai to Bank 2 of ACT. It doesnt work that way.
- If you are happy to have only 16 mapped controls for playing with a synth or plugin, for god's sake, just use the CGS with follow context on. It's way more stable than ACT and actually far easier to set up once you understand it. 16 isn't really that many though. For example, a 6 band eq has Freq,Q,Res and Type = 24 controls...
- CGS can't control the bus. Don't bother with ACT plugin and the bus. ACT for track controls is even wearier than for synths (no mute/solo, etc). Don't even try. If you want to control the bus, create a Sonar template that you always start from with the busses you most commonly use and right click each slider, knob, button and use "Assign" or whatever its called. It's the 3rd method Sonar provides to map controls.
- Play/Stop/Rec/etc controls on the Akai MPK49 always use the common channel so they may not be on the same midi port/channel as your knobs sliders. I'd keep them as you have them, as a seperate MMC control. I've tried getting fancy with them in the CGS and it's not really worth it
- The CGS doesn't have as many button assignment options as ACT plugin but...
- I advise not to use ACT and controller buttons for actions that can be assigned to keyboard shortcuts. The computer keyboard is WAY more versatile than your 8 buttons plus ACT will ever be. And the buttons are all labelled! I have a couple exceptions to this which include ACT learn and ACT lock
Button Assignment Tips for ACT controller: - For ACT you'll want to assign a "shift" key. It allows you to assign alternate controls to buttons (just like Shift on the comp keyboard). You might want to make one of your drum pads into a controller and use that as the shift key. I then set each of my buttons to use ACT so they control the active synth/plugin but I set the SHIFT+Button to not use ACT and assign them to controls I always want available. For me, these are as follows:
- ACT lock
- ACT learn
- Toggle ACT Display
- Prev Slider/Controller Bank
- Next Slider/Controller Bank
Good luck and let me know if any of this needs clarification.
Gratefully
HKS