Docs say EUCON is supported.  Does this mean that the Artist Control would be fully enabled when working with SONAR? 
 
Anyone using this? 
 
Can other vendors develop hardware to the Eucon profile or just software?  I have not seen any other non-avid eucon controllers.

I asked this same question a while back.  CJ is using this in his studio and seems to have success with it.  You might try to PM him?  There weren't many others that responded to the question though......  Personally, I elected to go a different route and stick to MCU protocols.  EUCON scares me a bit (but really don't know why!)

Oh..... and if you look at the features that are supported in PT as compared to the features that are supported in SONAR.....BIG difference!  (I found some info about this on the AVID site.)

I think most people get the jitters with Avid because they're tight-lipped about their standards - many vendors have to reverse-engineer Avid products to get compatibility. I'm looking really hard at the Behringer X-Touch, it's less than half the price of a typical Artist series controller - it appears the be a better unit than an MCU...
 

SuperG
I think most people get the jitters with Avid because they're tight-lipped about their standards - many vendors have to reverse-engineer Avid products to get compatibility. I'm looking really hard at the Behringer X-Touch, it's less than half the price of a typical Artist series controller - it appears the be a better unit than an MCU...
 

I opted for the Icon QCon Pro.  It is premapped for Samplitude and the manual says it can be custom mapped to Sonar.
 
You can get a QCon for a bit more than the listed price of the new X-touch.  I like it more than the X-touch because of overall look and that the scribble strip can be tilted up, plus some other intangibles.

200bpm:
 
Did this article help you any? http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=ExternalDevices.13.html
 

I use the Eucon A/C with X3 through Sonar 8.5. it works well as a matter of fact.
 
You need to install the latest drivers from Eucon and you need to install the Sonar patch. 
Then just enable it in sonar just like any other control surface.
 
CJ

The QCON Pro does not work well with Sonar, it is unable to establish the MC handshake.  There is a workaround:
http://fr.audiofanzine.com/surface-de-controle-motorisee/icon/qcon/forums/t.481396,help-sonar-x1-and-qcon.html
 
Unfortunately, (I spoke with tech suport) there is no way to change any of the QCON control mappings, so even if you do get SONAR to recognize one of the QCon's profiles (cubase) the function buttons will not be mapped properly to SONAR functions.  If the QCON profiles could be edited then the unit might be serviceable.
 
The CQON also has "Midi learn" mode, but that can't be used in conjuction with Mackie Control mode; it is essentially just a dumb midi controller at that point.
 
In Samplitude, the QCon works well, but again it is not customizable in any way, so there is no way to reassign any of the buttons to do something else that you find more useful.  This goes back to the store.
 
As of today, what is the best Control Surface for Sonar?
 
Do any of them give you the ability to customize what a control does in the software? 
 
 

In general, all control surfaces are more or less "dumb midi controllers". What they do depends from the "smartness" of the software which translate signals into particular DAW operations (and back).
Since CW has written specialized plug-ins for MCU and VS, I think they are "the best".
 
Once I finish my plug-in, any CS will be as good as any other for SONAR

azslow3
In general, all control surfaces are more or less "dumb midi controllers". What they do depends from the "smartness" of the software which translate signals into particular DAW operations (and back).
Since CW has written specialized plug-ins for MCU and VS, I think they are "the best".
 
Once I finish my plug-in, any CS will be as good as any other for SONAR

This is great.  Did you use the cakewalk plugin source as a baseline?  
 
Is it possible in Sonar to modify what Sonar does in response to the MCU?
 
The QCON Pro implements MCU protocol, but apparently there are some differences (and the button layout is different).  When you start the QCON, it asks you to select a DAW mode (cubase, reason, etc) and once the software is started, connection is established and you can use the surface.
 
The problem in sonar is that despite which profile is selected, the handshake is never established and the surface does nothing.  Threads on the QCON suggest methods for sending a sysex to the qcon, but the QCON will still be operating in "Cubase Mode" which has the buttons programmed to do something useful in cubase.
 
To get this working well in sonar would need the ability to custom map MCU commands from the surface to do the desired thing in sonar.