Roland A-300 Midi Controller and Windows 10

I spoke with Sweetwater but the rep said he wasn't aware of any midi controller by Roland 

WOW! You've made up my mind. THANKS!

Cactus Music
Not sure where you heard Roland has not had drivers??. Roland has a lot of stuff and even for old old equipment.

What about all VS-700 (VS-20, and other Roland) threads? 
 
Roland was a bit late with Win10 drivers, they was added after Win10 initial release. The problem is that Roland "lock" all there drivers to particular Windows releases (something other companied are/was not doing). So it is impossible to install f.e. Win8.1 driver on Win10 without tricks, even if technically speaking it is working.
 
Roland has made a lot of "friends" with that. Not supporting some not so old devices was pure political decision. Technically most Roland drivers are the same (Edirol... in Linux kernel all of them are supported by the same code, control panel for my VS-20 looks EXACTLY the same as for my TD-11). But some was labeled as "Win10 compatible", other not.
 
Roland is not alone... some not so old M-Audio interfaces was declired Win10 incompatible (as with Roland, also correlated with corporate changes of ownership).
 
For A-Pro there was several threads about problems before, if I remember correctly even before Win10. But then new drivers was released and the Internel keep silence (means everything is working fine now).

I think Roland may have gotten dinged for some of their audio interfaces, but so far I have seen no bugs with the MIDI controller A-300 Pro.
 
This controller is plug n play with Windows 10.  The driver is installed automatically by Windows.
https://www.roland.com/us/support/by_product/a-300pro/updates_drivers/703e59c5-65de-492a-993f-33726f044a6c/

I'm pretty happy with the A49 it always works and was the best "feel" in that price range. 
The one before was A Roland PC 200 from 1989. I wore out the C2 & D2 key :) 

Does anyone who has the A-300 know how to bring up the A-Pro control surface plugin menu as shown in the screen shots above? I can't find anywhere in which I can bring that up, and I'm only able to control plugins with the a-pro, not my transport or faders. Any help will be much obliged.

The control surface plugin is a separate download and install from here:
https://www.roland.com/us/support/by_product/a-300pro/updates_drivers/
 
Just scroll down to the link for "A-PRO Series Control Surface Plug-in for SONAR"

First off, thank you for taking the time to help me with this--very appreciated. The plugin had shown up under plugin manager under control surfaces, but I uninstalled and downloaded the plugin again. It still shows up under plugin manager in utilities but I can't find any way to open it. The read me file says the following: From SONAR’s menus, click [Tools] – [A-PRO-1]. I'm assuming this should be in utilities but there is no reference to an A-PRO 1 plugin anywhere. There is a generic ACT midi controller 1 that I can open in utilities but it brings up the generic MIDI map page. I still can't open the a-pro control surface plug.

cmj,
 
How's this working out for you?  A friend had a used A-300 he is going to sell for $180, and it interested me as I would like to have a controller in addition to the midi keyboard...The Console 1 looks nice, but its $499 and at this point only works with Softube and UAD plug-ins of which I have none...
Does the A-300 work with any 3rd party plug ins besides Cakewalk's??
Thx!

timidi
Just a heads up.
I was looking at controllers today and learned that not all controllers have standard size keys.
 

The A-300 is standard.

bokchoyboy
cmj,
 
How's this working out for you?  A friend had a used A-300 he is going to sell for $180, and it interested me as I would like to have a controller in addition to the midi keyboard...The Console 1 looks nice, but its $499 and at this point only works with Softube and UAD plug-ins of which I have none...
Does the A-300 work with any 3rd party plug ins besides Cakewalk's??
Thx!

All depends on what you mean by "work with".

The A-300 plugin can control certain elements in the Sonar interface, in several modes.

In track mode you can work with track controls such as faders, pan, etc.

In plugin mode or FX mode, it switches to the plugin in focus.  It works better with some plugins than others, but it's better than having to midi learn every control on every plugin, in every project.

The A-PRO series are probably the only dedicated controllers available for Sonar.

For 3rd party plugins, if you are into the Native Instruments Komplete stuff, there are other keyboards that have dedicated controls mapped into that software.  For 3rd party stuff the A-300 will not have pre-mapped control of the plugin innards.  But the tools are there if you are inclined to do a bit of custom mapping.

abacab

bokchoyboy
cmj,
 
How's this working out for you?  A friend had a used A-300 he is going to sell for $180, and it interested me as I would like to have a controller in addition to the midi keyboard...The Console 1 looks nice, but its $499 and at this point only works with Softube and UAD plug-ins of which I have none...
Does the A-300 work with any 3rd party plug ins besides Cakewalk's??
Thx!

All depends on what you mean by "work with".

The A-300 plugin can control certain elements in the Sonar interface, in several modes.

In track mode you can work with track controls such as faders, pan, etc.

In plugin mode or FX mode, it switches to the plugin in focus.  It works better with some plugins than others, but it's better than having to midi learn every control on every plugin, in every project.

The A-PRO series are probably the only dedicated controllers available for Sonar.

For 3rd party plugins, if you are into the Native Instruments Komplete stuff, there are other keyboards that have dedicated controls mapped into that software.  For 3rd party stuff the A-300 will not have pre-mapped control of the plugin innards.  But the tools are there if you are inclined to do a bit of custom mapping.

A few more questions... Can any control be performed in console view?   And have you attempted any mapping?  Is there transport control for Sonar, or the potential(with mapping)?
Thanks again!
 

When you start plug-ins mapping, I suggest to start "from scratch" (delete ACT Map XML files) and use this on regular basis: http://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,297.0.html
Almost a must for Sonar before 2017.1, but can save your keyboard, monitor and nerves with any version...
 

abacab
If I want to control a plugin I usually just click midi learn and wiggle the one I want.  Done.

That:
a) become quite annoying fast, even for someone who does not really "mix". The problem with MIDI learn (apart leaking to tracks/synth with "unpredictable" effect MIDI messages) is binding to particular track. I mean if you want quick set compression on several tracks, you need to learn every time
b) corresponding MIDI messages are leaking to tracks/synth, with "unpredictable" result.
c) does not work well with endless encoders
 
Also for such use case, there are way to avoid midi learn. Sometimes called "Quick dial", when some knob simply control the last parameter changed (exists in AZ Controller, inspired by Automap and tutorials from Craig...)
 

Or maybe if I find a big enough pile of money lying around, I'll go all in on a NI Komplete Kontrol S Series and Komplete Ultimate!!!

... which is not going to help with controlling DAW and with 3d party plug-ins will work exactly like ACT Dynamic Mapping. No, I do not think the controller is bad. It has endless encoders and display, the combination which for some reason not so many products have (a perfect combination for controlling plug-ins). If only they could lower there own ago and "open" the controller protocol along with NKS software interface, that could be "to go" controller for everything.
Behringer is also "close" in concept with Motör. It has open protocol, more controls and motor faders. But no display...
Why all companies always "forget" something? And when something is about "right" (like Alphatrack, with motor fader, touch sensitive encoders, many buttons and display), it is declared "obsolete" and goes out of production...

OK,  I decided to take the plunge and pick up a new A-300 Pro...   thanks all for your help, I'm sure I will be adding to this thread down the road with questions...