This was great info.  I too have suffered a long time with SONAR changing my volume in KONTAKT... even though I could adjust the fader in SONAR (and use SONAR automation) to control dynamics.  Sending a weak audio signal into SONAR just didn't feel right.
 
Jim

williamcopper
A surprising thing to me was that Sonar voluntarily sends a CC64 message every time playback stops.    Like so much else, it would be way better if sonar kept its little hands to itself.

Ancient issue confirmed by cakewalk a zillion years ago... I assumed it was fixed...

http://www.digifreq.com/d...opic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5759

FYI All bugs more than 3 years old are not a bugs ;)

I believe you can select whether or not to send those Controller reset messages on stop (unless CC64 is an exception to the rule).  I actually like zeroing controllers and pitch wheel on stop and then searching back on start—but I can see why some might prefer it to work another way.

One reason not to do it is because some synths have CCs assigned to controls where the defaults are not zero. So, you could load something into Kontakt, record a part, hit Stop, play it back, and it would sound different since one or more of the controls have now been set to zero.

konradh
Removing the check stopped the slide from jumping to the low position, thanks.  I still wish I knew what was going on.
 

 
Right-click the volume widget in the SONAR MIDI track (or MIDI tab of a simple instrument track), and choose disable control. Moving it will automatically reactivate it, and whatever value is set will be sent at the start of playback. And as Nat pointed out, if the Kontakt instrument options aren't set so that CC7=127 is +12dB, you're likely to see the volume drop when playback starts with the widget active.