If you have one of those Roland A pro midi controller can you let me know some details of the integration.
- Is it a '2-way' midi message, meaning if I open a Sonar project would the knobs or faders of the Roland controller sync to the values of Sonar? or do I need to move the knob/fader to the midi value and then it would 'latch'
- Are the rotary knobs 'endless' ?
- What exactly does the controller mapped to in Sonar?
- For 3rd party VST fx or instrument I have to manually map, correct?
 

1. The knob will latch - you can choose either soft takeover when It gets to the appropriate value or immediate. None if the controls are motorised.
2. No they are not
3. The integration is quite deep - more than most any other controller for Sonar, and it works straight out of the box. You can downland details from Roland for specifics. There are 4 layer buttons, each with individual control assignments depending on what part of sonar you wish to edit (Track view, soft synth etc). The bundled editor for it is very straight forward and functional.
4. Mostly, yes. Basic functions like 'next program' generally work without mapping.
 
Considering it's low cost it is great bang for buck. 

The major advantage of A Pro is out of the box Sonar support. The only alternative (with own support) is Nektar Impact (but not Panorama).
For endless encoders, check Novation Impulse.
 
There is no boards with motor faders (except with one, like Panorama), such combination will be really expensive (add the price of Behringer X-Touch to the current price to get an idea what it will cost). And you can get keyboard without controls and separate DAW controller, combining the keys you like with good controller.

tenfoot
3. The integration is quite deep - more than most any other controller for Sonar, and it works straight out of the box. You can downland details from Roland for specifics.

I went on the Roland site and downloaded the User's Manual but I didn't see anything specific to Sonar accept a brief mentioned of using ACT.  Greatly appreciated if you could point me to the right documentation.
 
 

azslow3
The only alternative (with own support) is Nektar Impact (but not Panorama).
 
There is no boards with motor faders (except with one, like Panorama), such combination will be really expensive (add the price of Behringer X-Touch to the current price to get an idea what it will cost). And you can get keyboard without controls and separate DAW controller, combining the keys you like with good controller.

Thanks for the heads up on the Nektar Impact, at that price I can't expect it to have good keybed or knobs/faders. I might have to check it out anyway.  Most of my controller needs (and most time consuming to map) are for controlling VST synth and Fx.
The X-Touch Compact looks great and I think Sonar do support Mackie MCU, but it's too new to know how well it would actually works with Sonar or how reliable it will be long term.

micv
Most of my controller needs (and most time consuming to map) are for controlling VST synth and Fx.
The X-Touch Compact looks great and I think Sonar do support Mackie MCU, but it's too new to know how well it would actually works with Sonar or how reliable it will be long term.

Mackie can not control VST synth, only Strips/FX (it does not work throw ACT).
Have you checked that endless encoders is really what you want to control VSTs, especially live? One "tick" on endless encoder is normally physically longer then on normal knob. That means you either have less accuracy or should turn it more than on 270 degree for full range. If yes:
1) old Novation AutoMap style
2) new NI and AKAI solutions
3) almost any board or board plus controller combination with acceptable for you hardware quality/capability. To use with my plug-in. At the moment, only Nektar Panorama is known to be NOT supported (unknown proprietary protocol for which I was unable to find any information)
 
(1) and (2) are VST wrappers based. You get more pre-maped controls and do not need to deal with a bit broken at the moment ACT (quite complicated to make initial mapping, but once done it works well). There are known problems, at least with (1). (2) most probably is not going to cooperate with FX control.
(3) is not company supported solution, but most flexible. And the flexibility means it can take a while till you get the mapping you want (I and other will help). Check BCR-2000 threads and Preset section on my site (see signature) to get an idea.

azslow3

micv
Most of my controller needs (and most time consuming to map) are for controlling VST synth and Fx.
The X-Touch Compact looks great and I think Sonar do support Mackie MCU, but it's too new to know how well it would actually works with Sonar or how reliable it will be long term.

1) old Novation AutoMap style
2) new NI and AKAI solutions
 

I honestly wouldn't recommend anything that uses Novation Automap in Sonar. I have an Ultranover that has always been a nightmare as far as mapping controllers. Just google automap on this forum - there are several threads.  

I 'think' I need endless knob b/c a relative value seems to work better for me than latching. For example if I open a project and a knob is at 64,  turning cw if I want to increase from 64.  For latching knob type, I have to 'hunt' for that spot and almost always overshoot the original value by a lot so fine adjustment is difficult.
A few years back when I was fiddling with this, I can't remember the details now, I ended up using Generic midi controller over ACT for my needs.  I think it's b/c in ACT you're limited to 8 controllers for a type (fader/knob).  Generic Midi also has limitation but as I recall it was more flexible to map vst instrument and fx.

tenfoot
1. The knob will latch - you can choose either soft takeover when It gets to the appropriate value or immediate. None if the controls are motorised.

I just got a A500pro, can't resist a Black Friday's deal.  How do you set the knob to do soft take over?  I don't see an option anywhere.

Not in the studio the moment, but IIRC you open the A-pro editor on your computer and click on any of the knobs to edit them it is one of the available options. They are called something like relative and direct.
 
It as been quite a while since I programmed mine so I will check once I return.