ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button

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HuntJason
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2012/05/25 18:20:01 (permalink)

ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button

I bought a midi foot controller. I set it up as an ACT MIDI controller in the preferences. When I go to the MIDI Controller Utility, on the Controllers tab, and click the first box, I can see that the signal is being received within Sonar because the "Pan C" comes up right away. *Yay* What I want to do, though, is change Pan to be Loop On/Off. On the Options tab, I notice that there aren't a lot of choices when it comes to that row from the Controllers tab as it's listed as rotaries and not the foot switch that I am pressing.

I am likely doing something wrong but, what I would prefer to have happen is to have the foot switch manage the functions in the "Buttons" section. Is there a way I should be switching them or routing clicking the "Rotaries" button to the "Button" function? e.g. Have Rotaries 1 route to Button 1 which could then manage Loop On/Off?

Thanks,
Jason
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    FastBikerBoy
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/26 01:48:37 (permalink)
    Sounds like you may need to sort out your MIDI mapping from your ACT mapping. Basically you map the MIDI device switches to the cells in the ACT properties box (MIDI mapping) then map those cells to the functions in Sonar (ACT mapping). I think the difference confuses a lot of people.

    Have a look at this video which explains how to do both.

    Karl
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    HuntJason
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/26 10:13:57 (permalink)

    You were right about the confusion over MIDI mapping versus ACT mapping.

    At 9:00 of your video you move on to the ACT control.

    What I am wondering is how to get the ACT control to map the MIDI input to a module control (e.g. Loop or Punch Modules) as I don't see an ACT button on those modules when it is being displayed.
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    FastBikerBoy
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/26 12:00:04 (permalink)
    Sorry I'm not sure I'm following. What you need to do (assuming I'm understanding correctly) is to map the physical controller to a cell in the ACT properties box (using MIDI learn) and then select what that cell does in the software (i.e. Turn Loop on/off) by selecting that function for the cell from the drop down list of Sonar functions.

    ACT learn is for plugins etc. Sonar contains selectable functions via the options tab. If you are trying to map a slider or rotary though that option isn't available and AFAIK you can't do that. You may however be able to map a physical rotary or fader to a button cell. TBH I don't know I've never tried but I think it may be possible.

    Next time the studio is fired up I'll give it a whirl.

    Karl
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    HuntJason
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/26 22:04:56 (permalink)
    The issue I'm having is that MIDI learn receives the foot pedal switch info in the rotaries and sliders sections. That much is fine. But, when I click the ACT button to map it to a Sonar function, where do I click in the UI? In your video there is an ACT button on he top of the plug-in you bring up. There is no ACT button on the Loop Module.
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    FastBikerBoy
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/27 01:43:19 (permalink)
    Right got ya'.

    The short answer is you can't.

    The longer answer is ACT learn is there for plugins and instruments. To control SOnar via an ACT device there has to be a function available via the ACT properties option section.

    The good news is that there are various loop options available such as setting loop points, turning loop on & off etc. The bad news is they can't be mapped to sliders or rotaries.

    That's sort of logical as a faders & rotaries are capable of sending continuous controller data whreas a switch is only ever in one of two states either on or off. The rotaries and sliders are interchangeable but they aren't with switches. It's only possible to assign those to volume/pan/send levels & send pan plus maybe a couple of others that I can''t remember right now (working from memory here).

    To do what you are trying to do, you'll need to use MIDI learn to assign the footswitch to one of the button cells and then you can set that button to the function you want by switching to the options tab, selecting that button, and assigning the function you want (loop on/off?) via the drop down menu.

    HTH.

    Karl
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    HuntJason
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/28 10:10:30 (permalink)
    Okay.. I'm following so far. I am doing something wrong though. When I click on one of the button cells, MIDI learn never comes up. It only seems to come up when I click in the Rotaries and Sliders boxes.
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    FastBikerBoy
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/28 10:34:24 (permalink)
    Just check you're clicking in the bottom half of the cell and also that you're not clicking in one of the Shift+Button cells

    Karl
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    HuntJason
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    Re:ACT - Switch Pan to behave as a button 2012/05/28 15:47:47 (permalink)
    Okay... now I'm getting somewhere. Thank you FastBikerBoy! Of course, I was clicking anywhere in the Shift+Button cells and had no luck. Clicking in the lower part of the Button cell enabled MIDI learn. The interesting thing is that pressing the foot pedal switches responds to the rotaries and sliders controls but not the button clicks. Now I am going to have to go back to the manufacturer's settings and dig my heels in to get this working. It might even be worthy of a screencast ;)
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