Alexey (post above) is working on a preset for his excellent control surface plugin that will fully replace the original, now hobbled (EQ doesn't work at all) Frontier plugin. I'm testing / troubleshooting it with him and it's getting *very* close at this point. Of course this won't help you if your hardware is dead, which sounds like a possibility, or if the driver is somehow so corrupt that reinstalling doesn't work, but something else to try maybe...
 
EDIT: Oh, I see that's what he's linked to up there...

Alexey can tell you more than me but as far as I understand it, no, this does not replace the driver, which still needs to be installed and working. This replaces the plugin which you will have installed previously (it gets installed automatically with the driver if memory serves) to make it work in Sonar. This is a different, general purpose controller plugin, much like the Cakewalk Generic Surface or Act Midi Controller plugins, and accessed in the same way - you set an instance of it up under Preferences -> MIDI -> Control Surfaces, and map the Alphatrack's in and out to it (INSTEAD of to the original Alphatrack plugin), and then within the plugin control window (under Sonar's Utilities menu) you go to the Options tab and select Tweak Current Configuration, select Alphatrack from this menu, and then save it to a preset at the top of the control window. All done.
 
I have just tested the latest build and it's working very well, it gives you EQ control back. Again, it will likely not help if you have hardware or driver issues, but as Alexey pointed out it might help you diagnose what's happening - the plugin is quite verbose in terms of telling you (on the Hardware tab) what MIDI commands it's getting from the device. So if it's not showing anything, that means hardware or driver issues for sure.
 
By the way for the plugin to work the Alphatrack driver has to be in 'Native' mode (selectable from the service icon at Windows' lower right)
 
Hope that helps!

Yeah that sounds like ex-hardware to me. Always a sad moment but it's inevitable, mine will die someday too I'm sure... Hopefully not too soon as I'm just getting into using it again now that Alexey's preset is fully working!
 
I remember I had a grounding problem with the motor fader using it with my laptop a while back, that doesn't happen here at my studio but it felt like the fader was 'resisting' when I tried to move it - unless I lifted my feet off the floor while using it, which was kind of funny - maybe something to do with what you're seeing? It was basically working though so maybe not...
 
Alexey, I don't see anything for 'Left encoder touched' any more on the Overview page - I remember in the testing thread on your site I mentioned this and you said the following:
"I have reverted these controls to "SYSTEM" (to avoid too many "Last MIDI Event"s when you Touch+Push+Turn)"
It seems like they would need to be changed to something visible (on the Options tab?) in order to send visual feedback to the Overview page?

Hi again.
 
OK if you don't see Alphatrack on the "Options -> Tweak current configuration" list then you're using the 'released' version. The Alphatrack preset has not been moved to the 'Releases' area yet, though I think Alexey will do this very soon - he was waiting on me to confirm that everything was working, which I did last night (there are still a few niggles, but it's perfectly usable as it is, and better than the original in that EQ control is fully functional).
 
Until he moves it to the release area, you need to go to Alexey's download area and go to the 'test versions' area: http://www.azslow.com/index.php?action=downloads;cat=3
 
... download that one, run it, then open Sonar and the plugin control window again, and you should see Alphatrack on the list.
 
It's not quite as simple as the original Frontier plugin, because Alexey's plugin is general-purpose (for any controller) and WAAAAY more powerful and flexible, but with the preset it should just work (or not, if your hardware has indeed gone south).
 
If you want to use it to test the touch input from the encoders, you have to go to the Options tab, select "Left Encoder touched" from the drop-down list under Hardware Control (or Right encoder, or Middle) and then right of that where it says 'System' change that to Rotary and press the Save button beside it. Now go to the Overview tab and it should give you feedback on that event. 
 
'Strip' should already be configured to give touch feedback in the Alphatrack preset, as should the fader, turning the encoders and pressing all buttons. You can use this as a diagnostic tool to see if MIDI commands are coming in from the device for those events. If they are, and the driver is working properly, then Alexey's preset should be able to interpret them correctly.
 
Hope that helps!
 

Aha, that's an easier way to do the diagnostic for sure, thanks Alexey! No need to change them out of 'System' mode. I wasn't clear on that, but it's obviously a better way.
 
By the way I'm working on the display pictures / video now...

I am posting to this thread just do I can find it again. My alpha track stays put away most of the time now that I have a touch screen, but I'm interested in trying to get the EQ stuff working again. I remember that as valuable back in the days of six, I think.

subtlearts
@dede I'm not sure when Alexey will put the Alphatrack preset into the Release download area, for now you need to use the Testing download to see the AT preset...

Released as 0.3r9

dede
Ok, with the test preset I could see what you guys were talking about. The Fader and Stripe send no 'touched' messages at all.

Is motor still working? Check in the Overview tab that "Motor:On", "Fader touched:No", "_TmpMotor:On". Without touching anything, move fader in Sonar.
 
Without working motor, this fader is just normal not motorized, not touch sensitive... Not much I can do: switch to the Logic Tab, move the fader (you will see the Actions list). Select "Direct Linear, Manual Touch" and change (in Action Configuration section, at the bottom) "Direct -> Catch", "Manual touch -> Timeout touch". You can also try "Direct->Instant" with "Linear->Convex". The result will be far from the original, but still better then what you have now.
 
If motor is still working, you will have not touch sensitive motorized fader. I will make special preset for you in this case, since there will be quite some changed. Automation rewriting will not work good (I mean if you have some changes already), but the rest will. For the automation you can then use "pure man" solution, I can define that some Function button is the fader touch, so when you want rewrite, you press the button by one hand and do modifications by other (the way I do this with StudioMix, since its motorized faders and natively not touch sensitive...).

People!!
Just went through some old posts in the original Frontier blog.
I found a moderator proposing a first simple solution to try on an AT whose Fader was acting funny:
 
shift+stop+f4 (recalibrate)
 
It just worked, it's fully functional again!!!

i can't believe this, at least this misadventure with (so far) happy ending has a bonus: discovering this AZ preset, having the EQ back.
I'm a happy man, thanks you all/
DD
 

subtlearts
p.s. if you're finding Alexey's work valuable, on his site there's a 'Flowers for my wife' post in which he speculates that he might have an easier time justifying the ongoing time maintaining the plugin, if some end users buy his wife flowers once in a while. I'm going to drop something in the jar at the end of the month when CD Baby tops up my PayPal account...

 
+1

I can get the old Alphatrack plugin working (not with plugins of course) but not Alexsy's. It doesn't even recognise my alphatrack.
That's to say that the Alphatrack doesn't respond in any way to Alexsy's plugin.

I am using version 0.3r9b217.
 
The Alphatrack is now responding. Any movement in the screen elements of a plugin are so slow/fine that it is much quicker to use a mouse. is this rate of movement adjustable somehow?
 
Is it able to work with the ProChannel?

gswitz
The controls adjusted the values on the EQ slower than the old AT did. Don't forget to push in the fader and rotate for faster pot adjustments of the EQ.

At the moment, "fast" mode is MIDI, so 1/127 of the range per tick and "fine" mode is 1/1000 of the range per tick. I will think about adding more options.
 
I do not think "Disconnects" can be related to my plug-in, it has no influence on Sonar MIDI settings and for sure not on Windows drivers.
 
But if the Fader is moving to incorrect position, that can be my bug. Please try to find some "pattern" when that happened.
 
The preset was so far tested by Subtlearts only (I do not have the device). So there can be some not yet spotted bugs. Up to you to help eliminate them!

I've only really spent 30 minutes with it and that included the original troubleshooting to get the plugin working. Now that I have a bit of a better working knowledge of it I'm sure I can figure it out.

It's been ages since I've used the Alphatrack for anything other than transport control.

Since I got my AT back on track I'm using this AZ preset. It works ok here. Didn't try the EQ that much, but tweaking Sends, Pan and Volume .
Actually I can't see many differences in performance between this preset and the original. I'm just using it now as I always did with the AT standard, my usual workflow (ie: ignoring the EQ) and it works fine.
Once I start using the EQ it'll be a great upgrade from the Frontier original.
Only difference so far: the display information.
This morning for example, I was tweaking a SEND that I needed at -9.6dB to match other tracks' sends, and I realized this AZ won't show decimals, so I went from 8dB to 9dN and then 10d, I couldn't make 9.6 without looking at the screen, that's a drag.
But didn't find any of Mike's original issues. I guess that with a little setup (as easy as with the original)  it works very well.