The above is much appreciated and naturally understood.
 
However, I am no Noob to this.
 
I agree that it is within the respective manufacturers to write said templates for inclusion into major DAWS but I feel here that Sonar is very old school in that if you look at the presets included for ACT they are most dated if not beyond that.
 
Presets for Emu Xboard controllers for example????
 
Fault can be had at both sides here with Sonar and NI (or whoever) but ultimately it is us the User base that truly suffers.
 
Surely as I  suggested in my original post, if Sonar had a better system than the current process of ACT and GUI that it would make us, the customer creatives a far off better place to interact our studio kit, I am not talking about cutom built non linear gear here, I am talking about a MAJOR DAW and a MAJOR Controller.
 
 

markyzno
Surely as I  suggested in my original post, if Sonar had a better system than the current process of ACT and GUI that it would make us, the customer creatives a far off better place to interact our studio kit, I am not talking about cutom built non linear gear here, I am talking about a MAJOR DAW and a MAJOR Controller.

Sonar has advanced system for control surfaces! But it is not ACT and it has no GUI. It is API.
 
The problem is that Sonar is not a Major DAW for NI and Machine is not a Major controller for CW. Marketing rules.
 
A year ago I could agree with everyone that there is no way to use the potential of Surface XYZ with Sonar. So I have exposed powerful Sonar CS API as something configurable and with GUI. In a hope that such addition triggers some user activity and creativity. Such activity in turn could attract some attention from CW side, there are quite some bugs there and some new features could be handy. But nothing has happened so far. Which just prove that CW idea to move into touch direction and freeze hardware controllers support was right.
 
You can turn the wheel. Create some interesting interaction between Machine and Sonar (inside AZC, my claim is that IS possible) and so attract more users to use Machine with Sonar. That can make CW users potential customers for NI and Machine users potential customers for CW. And both companies can be convinced to spend some time for development in that direction.

cool, show me how to get the transport to work with in Sonar with the S61 or Maschine then?
 
I want my NI Kit to work with my HOME (Sonar) in terms of jog wheel, transport etc...

Try this guys plugin.  Worked awesome for my console.  Now I can control everything I need in Sonar from my ZED R16.
 www.azslow.com - my Universal MIDI Control Surface plug-in

markyzno
cool, show me how to get the transport to work with in Sonar with the S61 or Maschine then?
I want my NI Kit to work with my HOME (Sonar) in terms of jog wheel, transport etc...

There are two possible approaches:

1. You understand how to make configuration. Start with "Startup" tutorial to get basics (will take 15 minutes, your transport should work then), following "ACT MIDI Explained" tutorial (plan 1-3 hours, at least read it if you do not have time to follow), the "User manual" will give you ideas what you can do (Jog for example, up to 1 hour to understand/test possibilities). You can also read help files for Mackie Control and VS-700 plug-ins for inspiration. You also should find out what Machine can do, especially what it can interpret on input (LED rings, PAD colors, etc.). And then... you can transpose ideas into configuration (I am in the near in case something is unclear, does not work or not yet implemented).
2. Another way, which was used for mentioned R16 (see http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3125708). You "scan" some preset of choice in Machine (what is sent on each control) and write me what you want these controls do. And I prepare ready to use preset using that information (effectively doing AZC related part from (1))

You are asking for pairing one complicated system (Machine) with other complicated system (Sonar). The intermediate "module" (AZC) is also complicated system (do not be confused by its size or "old timer" interface).