It's been a mystery for me why I can change banks of VSTi's like Z3TA+2 and Korg Legacy Collection ONLY when they are used as standalone applications or loaded in other hosts (I tested them in Studio One 2 and Digital Performer 8), and why I have no problem changing banks of DXi Synth TTS-1 in Sonar, using a knob or button on my A-800Pro.
But today I received a reply from CW tech support, which I've been waiting for a long time.
And I now know why these VSTs failed to receive bank select messages from my keyboard when used in Sonar.
Here's their reply:
"I investigated your case both on my own and with our developer who specializes in SONAR's VST capabilities. I found that Bank Select messages from your A-800PRO keyboard are ignored by Z3TA+ 2 due to the way SONAR transmits the CC message to a VSTi. SONAR handles Bank Select messages as part of the Patch Change message (which you've surely seen in the Event List). This Patch Change + Bank Select message is passed to a VSTi and leaves the VSTi to interpret it. You probably found in the Bank menu of a MIDI track in the Inspector that the only available option for Z3TA+ 2 is "0-bank 0." The Z3TA+ 2 VSTi does not expose its banks to SONAR. When Z3TA+ 2 receives a Patch Change + Bank Select message from SONAR, the bank select data are translated into this Bank 0. This explains why all Bank Select messages that I sent to Z3TA+ 2 from my APro keyboard set Z3TA+ 2's bank to the very first one.I expect that your other VSTi synths expose a similarly small number of Banks to SONAR since their behavior is the same. The TTS-1 is a DirectX General MIDI synth, and exposes several banks to SONAR. Version 1 of z3ta+ exposes four banks, which explains why it received bank select messages. I will submit a feature request on your behalf so Z3TA+ 2 or SONAR might accommodate Bank Select messages more flexibly in the future." Hope that helps