I recently switched from sonar 85. to X1 expanded and also switched from an edirol pcr300 to a cakewalk A300 pro and neither on the sonar 8.5/edirol combo, nor on the X1/A300 pro combo can I seem to get ACT to work.

I start a project, insert a VST (diva or dimension pro), turn some knobs on the A300 with the vst's window active and nothing happens. Ok, so I press the ACT learn button, move some faders with the mouse and move same of the A300 faders, press ACT learn and nothing has happened. Technology is supposed to make this monkey proof, what am I doing wrong?

Obviously I have the A300 selected as the ACT controller in the control surfaces area of the preferences. Whether I set it to listen to port 1 or 2 of the A300 (why are there 2 in the first place) does not make a difference. ACT does not work. Sonar does not follow the active window but keeps moving the mixer elements.

What would be great if Sonar would simply recognize the A300 as being plugged in to my computer and takes care of the rest. I could open a plugin window, press ACT learn and it would work, without any other user action needed. Because probably I as user am missing something here...Still, I need to add it in the control surfaces area in preferences, which gives all kinds of options such as an ' in port'  and an ' out port' where potential for user error is created. Additionally, the preferences windows is sized too narrow to see the titles of the control surfaces columns. This is not convenient.

please help me get this complicated stuff to work


the frustrating bit is that after months of no music making I actually found an hour to make music, so I fired up the computer, X1 and drag-dropped an instance of Diva wanting to tweak some knobs, and here I am wasting my music time writing on the forum because something isn't really monkey proof. Clearly, me being the monkey, but with X1 and the A300 both being cakewalk products I would have expected a simply an idiot proof operation.

tried some more preferences and buttons but no luck. Am going to play on my hardware juno60 now, foolproof roland tech  :)

Give this a try, How To Set Up A-PRO With SONAR X1.

skylightron


Give this a try, How To Set Up A-PRO With SONAR X1.

thanks I'll give that a try later when I'm at the pc. Still, this isn't the type of user friendly process you'd expect from combining cakewalk hardware with cakewalk software. There is quite some room for improvement here. true plug and play and not plug, manage preferences and pray.

 
Hi Synthmann,
 
I was wondering if you've got your Pro set up by now, since I was in the same kind of dilemma as well.
I  really thought it would be a little more of a monkey-proof  procedure.
 
So there I was sitting until 2:00 in the morning, trying to get some since out of that A-PRO / A-PRO 1 / A-PRO 2 thing...it really did my head in.
Just when I thought, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer I got it working:
 
So from one monkey to another, I thought I'd share the settings I ended up with succesfully with you, hoping they will work for you as well.
 
What I did:
 
went to
 
Pref/Midi/Divices
 
Inputs checked:
A-PRO MIDI IN
A-PRO 1
A-PRO 2
Outputs checked
A-PRO MIDI OUT
A-PRO
than Pref/MIDI/Control Surfaces
Selected:
 
Controller/Surface  InPort      OutPort    ACT       WAI          WAI color
A-PRO 1             A-PRO 1     A-PRO 1   unchecked  unchecked    doesn't matter
A-PRO 2             A-PRO 2     A-PRO 2   checked    checked      red 
 
Selected A-PRO 2 in the Controller/Surface Module on the controlbar.
Now the controller/surface Properties shows A-PRO 2 and everything works as advertised (so far)
 
 
good luck and best regards,
Daniel
 
 

synthmann

skylightron


Give this a try, How To Set Up A-PRO With SONAR X1.

thanks I'll give that a try later when I'm at the pc. Still, this isn't the type of user friendly process you'd expect from combining cakewalk hardware with cakewalk software. There is quite some room for improvement here. true plug and play and not plug, manage preferences and pray.

Well, (thanks Daniel for also sharing your experiences) I followed these steps and it starts to work... somewhat...but:


1. when I open a synth, (tried with Diva and Fabfilter One) and push ACT learn, move some GUI elements and some faders and then close ACT learn, it says " 6 parameters and 3 controls were touched" , while I really only wiggled 3 GUI elements and 3 physical controls. 


2. when I open Dimension Pro, a cakewalk synth, ACT does not control any logical function as standard like cutoff or resonance but weird stuff like " quality"  and "LoKey01" 


3. Why are there different functions assigned to B1 through B4 under ACT, when ACT is supposed to follow the active window??


So still, no joy, just frustration and I rather just use each synth's midi-learn function and could have gotten an m-audio keyboard with an aftertouch that doesn't require a brute force pressure to engage. I really thought the integration would have been tight and supersmooth with both products coming from cakewalk. Bah, I'm starting to regret having upgraded in the first place.

Hi Synthmann,

your points 1. and 2. I confirm. It's like a Jungle and I was instantly lost. Where I have to say I never do a lot of tweaking within in Synths anyway as a Guitarman, so I'm fine using the mouse . But for you as a Synthman I believe this has a much higher priority. I opened Zeta+2 and what I see in the Controller /Surface Properties is rather confusing. I feel like the blind leading the blind here , sorry.
For most effects, especially the prochannel modules it works to my expectations.

Maybe someone out there who's  using A-Pro mainly for Synths on regular bases could show some mercy and give some assistance here...? : )

Kind rregards,
Daniel

still haven't gotten it to work properly. ACT and the A-300 pro are a plug and pray combo.

1. I did a factory reset on the A300.
2. I made sure the default map it loads on startup is map "0", the Sonar ACT one.

3. I open X1 and start a new project.
4. I drag and drop a Dim Pro x64 and choose "simple instrument track" 
5. I load a preset sound
6. I make sure ACT is enabled in the ACT configuration panel
7. I make sure ACT is enabled on the A300

I open the dimension pro GUI and make sure it is the active window. I turn knobs and nothing happens. I press the ACT learn, wiggle GUI elements and A300 controllers, nothing happens. 

I switch on and off the A300 (not that the above listed steps contain anything that should make it necessary) and restart sonar X1 and go through the same steps.

now I press ACT learn, wiggle GUI elements cutoff, reso and shape (all of which are used in this particular preset), wiggle R1, R2 and R3, press ACT learn again and it says 4 parameters and 3 controls were touched??


I wish cakewalk would make ACT work logically and make the integration of their own branded A300 products supertight, before making an X2 and asking money for that. It should be plug and play and not endless messing about with settings and ports. It is too combersome and it it is plug and pray. one time it works, another time it doesn't. Fix what is there first before moving on, how many times has it not been that users have asked for this.

again, 1,5 hours spent messing with settings, not making music. I have been lured in again by the promise of streamlined operation of X1 but in terms of firing up sonar, loading a vst and tweaking sounds with an A300 it doesn't do anything better than sonar 8.5. the same unreliable illogical ACT remains. Sonar should recognize immediately the A300 on pluging in or powering on, turn it to control map 0 for act, turn ACT on and just work. logical functions like cutoff, resonance and envelopes should be pre-mapped for cakewalk synths like dimension and rapture. that is streamlining. like when I plug anything into my macbook air, it just works.

Hmmm...I have the 800 and it works perfect for me...sounds like you have covered your bases pretty good, though. When I get home I will look and see if there is something I can add to shed some light on your situation. In the meantime, I do hope you can get this solved...

Did this issue just get ignored, or fixed (I hope). I have an a-500pro and can't get act to control any synth properties. controlling the main window (track's, etc) seems to work. But no synths...
 
Thanks in advance
Phil Kemp