Active Controller Technology (ACT) The Saga Continues

Joy

Great thread title. Welcome.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few of us lurking around these boards for some helpful ACT info.

My suggestion to you is delete all the controller surfaces and just use midi-learn.

But that's just me. And until I figure out ACT a little better, "midi-learn" is my choice.


I have a question for you about those digital mixers....
I know the faders can transmit midi controller info, but can the buttons above each fader transmit as well?
The idea being midi-learned to mute or solo for that track on-screen. Hope I said that right.
I'll be in the market for a super-mixer like those soon.

In the upgrade from SPE 6 to 6.2 are you aware that the scheme where SONAR files are kept was changed because of VISTA compatability which was introduced during that update. Perhaps that's why your plugins and info seems like it gone. Check it out. Maybe of some help to you.

I have been using the control surface for the 01V by Chris Boucher for years now and it works well. You will get full bi-directional use and transport controls as well. It does not use ACT though but as already stated, although you can get ACT to work it is only unidirectional so is of less use than the specific driver Chris developed.

You can find Chris' driver here. It is worth giving it a try. It won't work with your 01V96 though.

+1 on Mudgel's advice regarding the update to 6.2. This is very likely to be where things are going wrong.

ORIGINAL: DayDrumFour

Joy

Great thread title. Welcome.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few of us lurking around these boards for some helpful ACT info.

My suggestion to you is delete all the controller surfaces and just use midi-learn.

But that's just me. And until I figure out ACT a little better, "midi-learn" is my choice.


I have a question for you about those digital mixers....
I know the faders can transmit midi controller info, but can the buttons above each fader transmit as well?
The idea being midi-learned to mute or solo for that track on-screen. Hope I said that right.
I'll be in the market for a super-mixer like those soon.

My suggestion to you is delete all the controller surfaces and just use midi-learn.

How can you use midi learn without a controller surface?

but can the buttons above each fader transmit as well?

Doubtful, but I will try to let you know once I get all faders working.

Thanks!

ORIGINAL: mudgel

In the upgrade from SPE 6 to 6.2 are you aware that the scheme where SONAR files are kept was changed because of VISTA compatability which was introduced during that update. Perhaps that's why your plugins and info seems like it gone. Check it out. Maybe of some help to you.

I was aware of that but I never imagined that an upgrade patch would require me to figure out where I need to move my files.

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ease

I have been using the control surface for the 01V by Chris Boucher for years now and it works well. You will get full bi-directional use and transport controls as well. It does not use ACT though but as already stated, although you can get ACT to work it is only unidirectional so is of less use than the specific driver Chris developed.

You can find Chris' driver here. It is worth giving it a try. It won't work with your 01V96 though.

+1 on Mudgel's advice regarding the update to 6.2. This is very likely to be where things are going wrong.

I used Chris Boucher's control surface years ago for my 01V. My 01V96 comes with Studio Manager which is the bomb in a great way and automates all aspects of my board except preamp volume control. I desperately need to automate Sonar's console view faders with the 01V96's faders and I am so close. Very important for me at mix time.

From what Cakewalk has told me ACT does not support bi-directionality aka motorized faders. Trying to use the 01v96's motorized faders with ACT simply will not work correctly.

I am only interested in single directionality. I want to use the faders of the 01V96 to control Sonar's faders for mixdown. I can do this with 8 faders right now and it works perfectly. I need at least 8 more faders for a total of 16 to make it work for me.

Try this Mackie Control Emulator software ... http://www.wisemix.com/ ... it is supposed to let Sonar and other apps see any control surface as an MCU, so this might do the trick.

I checked out the software at the wisemix.com site but ideally would like to avoid using another piece of software if at all possible since I've already purchased a tool that is supposed to do the job.

Thanks!

How can you use midi learn without a controller surface?

It's the easiest option.

If the control surface help from others here doesn't work out for you, try the old school way.

Put mouse cursor on Sonar fader, right click and select "remote control", click "learn" and move Yamaha fader. Click ok.

Repeat for as many faders as you want.

ORIGINAL: LionSound

Oh sorry I thought the 01V faders were motorized and thus required some sort of bi-directional functionality on the other end to work OK. ACT can switch banks.

Here's how you might be able to do what you want to do in ACT ...

- Open the ACT MIDI Controller page
- Notice that each row (sliders, knobs, and buttons) has four banks which are switchable via the Bank tab next to each row
- Now select the Options tab
- Locate the Buttons row and notice the third tab should be defaulted to Transport | Rewind
- Click that tab and scroll all the way to the top
- Five or six selections from the top are Previous Track Bank and Next Track Bank
- Assign these two functions to which ever buttons on the ACT page you want
- Then use ACT learn to learn these buttons to two real buttons on your 01v
- now ACT learn said banks from 01v to the ACT page virtual banks

Now you should be able to scroll banks easily via the assigned buttons on your 01v.

I appreciate your time and help but I am unable to assign buttons on this board.
I would also prefer not to go through banks or layers when doing a mixdown. I need a minimum of 16 faders to be accessible at one time.

Again thanks, Joy

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ease

ORIGINAL: LionSound

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ease

ORIGINAL: LionSound

Unfortunately ACT does not support motorized faders, so it probably won't work very well if at all with the 01V96.

Strictly speaking ACT does support bi-directional BUT it is not available with the generic surface. You need a specific driver to support it. In fact this was also true BEFORE ACT.

From what Cakewalk has told me ACT does not support bi-directionality aka motorized faders. Trying to use the 01v96's motorized faders with ACT simply will not work correctly.

Joy,

Try this Mackie Control Emulator software ... http://www.wisemix.com/ ... it is supposed to let Sonar and other apps see any control surface as an MCU, so this might do the trick.

It is the generic control surface that does not support bi-directional comms. Specific drivers CAN use bi-directional comms. using the details given in the SDK. If someone was brave enough to write drivers for the 01V96 it could be bi-directional much as the 01V driver by Chris Boucher or indeed the MCU.

However the OP has now said he doesn't need it!

However the OP has now said he doesn't need it!

I (She) never brought up bi-directionality but appreciate your input.

ORIGINAL: DayDrumFour

Great suggestion but I get the same problem as when I use the Cakewalk Generic Surfaces Plug-in.

Don't use that either (Generic Surfaces Plug-in). Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.

Options->Controllers/Surfaces - Highlight everything and delete them ( or hit the red X ).

The midi-learn function is a part of Sonar itself. It may even conflict with ACT or Control surfaces so it best to remove those two first. Then do the learns...

Put mouse cursor on Sonar fader, right click and select "remote control", click "learn" and move Yamaha fader. Click ok. Repeat for as many faders as you want.

If your 16 Yamaha faders all transmit midi, this should work.

Then save that file as an empty song. You'll open that as your starter/template.

Thank you DayDrumFour for your input as it is most appreciated.

Here is the behavior of Cakewalk Sonar and the Yamaha 01V96 in regards to Remote automation which you suggested.

1. I open Sonar without any MIDI Plug-in controller surface.
2. I see my Midi input/output/Activity light pulsing steadily on the left and I have no Midi controllers on except the 01V96 and I haven't touched it.
3. I set up a file template with audio.
4. Midi input/output/Activity light is off now.
5. Remote does not work at all.
6. I click on Options-Midi devices and I see my Yamaha USB port is selected already so I click okay. Now the Midi input/output/Activity light is pulsing again steadily on the left. Huh!
7. I right click on the fader(s), select Remote, click learn, move my fader(s) and I get random sporadic movement in Sonar's console view like sometimes the fader will do nothing, other times it will move an eighth of the way, and sometimes it will move up and down four, six or 8 times, and many times the wrong faders will move etc. etc.

Again, I have tried the ACT Midi Controller Plug-in and it works perfectly but only on 8 channels.

I have tried Cakewalk’s Generic (Geriatric) Plug-in and all 16 faders work but Sonar’s faders go spastic and convulse up and down hundreds of times as I raise the fader over the course and duration of a one 100-mm fader rise.

I have tried the Remote function (see above).

I have tried setting up the 01V96 to transmit in a myriad of ways using the Pro Tools protocol, along with Nuendo, Cubase and the General Daw and User Defined settings.

Thanks, Joy

ORIGINAL: dreamkeeper

I have tried the ACT Midi Controller Plug-in and it works perfectly but only on 8 channels.

You can use a 2nd ACT MIDI controller (up to 16 are possible IIRC). MIDI-Learn it to your channel controls 9-16 and save as a new preset. Go about this VERY systematically, so you don't assign the same control to different cells by accident. These things are hard to trouble-shoot and it's often best to start over again if it happens.

When setting up the individual ACT controllers, open them one at a time. There seems to be a bug where changing presets on one controller will affect another open one. Even then the displayed preset name might be wrong, but the settings are correct. (that's with Sonar 6 though, maybe it has been fixed in the meantime)

There's one little downside though: The position/assignment of the controller pug-ins wrt to the track list doesn't seem to stick. After re-opening a project, all configured ACT controllers will be assigned to the first 8 tracks - one "on top" of the other. So you'd have to drag the coloured WAI indicator(s) to the correct set of tracks each time you open the project.

You can find more details about multiple ACT controllers here. HTH

werner

I have never been able to use my 01Vs to control Sonar and that is about all I want to do with them now since I use Apogee convertors, outboard preamps, FX plugs, etc.

I searched posts over at the 01V96 forum yesterday and posted. Replies came back that Sonar and this board have never gotten along. I understand this dearly. The 01V96 uses the Pro Tools protocol and is set up to work with Pro Tools, Nuendo, and Cubase right out of the box. It's a Cakewalk/Roland vs. Steinberg/Yamaha thingy ;-)

Can't we all just get along! VSTi vs. DXi, MAS, AU, RTAS ASIO vs. WDM, Mac vs. Windows, AMD vs. Intel, on and on and... etc.

Anyway a post came in from TB who had just found a link to a guy who might have programmed Sonar and Yamaha to talk to each other. You have to set up a dll file and do some tweaks to both parties, but the 01V96 will show up in the control surfaces drop down list. I can now use the 01V96 to control Sonar like never before. Hoohaaa!!!!! in my best Al Pacino voice.

Here is the link: http://www.theexis.com/utilities/01v96/

The work done by this author will help Sonar sell a lot more software and Yamaha a lot more boards in the future. Daw controllers are selling like hotcakes now and it's about time these two learned to talk.

I am personally going to thank the author right now.

Good luck, HIO out

Thanks for the info. Where is the O1v96 forum.

thanks
Andy T.

ORIGINAL: pooldude

Thanks for the info. Where is the O1v96 forum.

thanks
Andy T.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/01v96/