Understand the definition.
Sonar's ACT Controller's properties == "ACT MIDI Controller-1".  Properties means I open that windows/interface page where it has mapping layout.  I did this just to see how the ACT mapping is outside of A-PRO-1, and it does map corresponding to the ACT Editor. This verified that ACT is done correctly and so ACT Editor done its job and save, close.
For clarification from this point:
A-PRO-1 == the Virtual Controller
APro == the hardware
 
I start Sonar, select A-PRO-1 as controller:
With APro's ACT hardware button on (by default when you start Sonar) APro does work for transport and all the default Sonar controls.  I added a soft synth and I can play sound with the keyboard. So midi is setup. 
This is where the issue begin:
Bring the soft synth into focus, the mapping in the A-PRO-1 is not what laid out in ACT Editor.  It's still default to whatever and although the APro works, it operates on some parameters that I don't want, worst, it assigned button to Resonate Frequency, for example.  This is what we all want right? to control the parameters we use.
So this is my question:  how do you get the A-PRO-1 to map to what I have mapped? and then how do you get that to the APro hardware?
The only way I know to map the ACT to A-PRO-1 to the hardware is to do the ACT Learn.  I did this (many times by now) and saved off the config.  The APro pads don't seems to work right as most of the time it can't learn, but the knobs an sliders do work.  But this way Sonar saves this in sonaract.xml, which is zero'ed if you use ACT Editor again.
Hope it makes sense.

I'm on X3e so no updates for awhile now. I'm the kind that stick to what works and very leery of 'updates'. 
So are you saying that A-PRO-1 should automatically 'load' the right mapping (if it's working)?
If Sonar saves something in the generic.xml file, I edit a map with ACT Editor without launching sonar, save it and then launch Sonar, at this point the only generic.xml is the one last updated by ACT Editor.  Then I launch Sonar, even in this case the A-PRO-1 still gets the 'bad' mapping from somewhere.  Which leads me to suspect that this is the A-Pro hardware's build in map for Sonar, and it loads up to the A-PRO-1 when the hardware's ACT button is enable.

I think I have found one possible source of that (and may be some other) problem. I mean the map you call "build in Sonar ACT map for A-PRO".
 
Move all other xml files from the configuration directory. I mean files *act.xml, *genericpluginparams.xml, where "*" is SONAR1, SONAR2.
 
Either capitalization of parameter names is still required or the editor will start to work with all plug-ins is still an option question, I am going to check this evening.
 
I have never used A-Pro or other standard old plug-ins. That is why while the problem was there for me as well, it was harder to hit. Real explanation is too long to put here, at least till we check my current guess is right.
 
EDIT: without other files, I see everything function fine with ACT Editor (for plug-ins I had problems before). Also I see desired mapping in APro plug-in, buttons inclusive.
 
NOTE: In default configuration, pads and buttons are excluded from ACT in all 4 banks. Can be changed by right clicking.
NOTE: Till "Map ACT identically..." is unchecked in options, only 8 ACT  knobs + sliders + buttons can be controlled, independent how many banks you define with ACT controls. When unchecked, you can control up to 4x more ACT controls (normally 3x to not scarify strip controls)

Have you noticed that I have edited my previous post?
 

micv
I have not tried capitalized the params name.  I did open the genericpluginparams.xml file and only with notepad so it's like trying to decode the U-Boat's Enigma machine!!! So I will defer this as last resort.  I will try moving everything else off that folder and only leave the genericpluginparams.xml there tonight.

If you do not do ACT Lean, you need sonaract.xml (zeroed!) as well. I have updated the test version of AZCtrl so it "beautify" genericpluginparams.xml the way notepad can work with it (was with Linux line ending style before).See my original link how to use that.
 
If you are going to use "ACT Learn", you need REAL (not zeroed) sonaract.xml. It will not work correctly otherwise. Note that you can not learn VST3 that way. And as you have noticed remapping is a nightmare.
 

So far I have mapped:
Pro Channel: EQ, Compressor, etc.  Thought I would start with something within Sonar first.  Using ACT Learn (touch a function and wiggle the hardware controller). This works quite well for the first time but at times it's 'stubborn' (won't map) if you want to re-assign something you already mapped. 
Oxford EQ.  Thought I would try an FX that I use a lot and with a high number of params.  This is where I started to have issue and started to search for solution.

So, go ACT Editor or manual way. You will save time and nerves.
 

  Pads are defaulted to Sonar function and I can't assign to the plug-ins.

See my first "Note".
 

  Knobs and faders mapped fine but at some point they reverted back to the initial random map.
Arturia Solina:  Before doing in ACT, I mapped this to the A-Pro via the A-Pro Editor without any issue.  Within ACT,  maps are all over the place and controller don;t work consistently.

Hard to achieve if you do not have correct sonaract.xml, no chance if that is VST3.
 

The big one I want to do is NI B4, with all those draw bars. For this I will need to understand how to use the Bank to have more controller, but first thing first, let get the basic to work.

See my second "Note".

All these XMLs are not influencing the Volume control from faders (I mean strip volume control).
About 4 banks I have already answered (you should uncheck one option).
sonaract.xml is YET ANOTHER mapping file. For some reason, I get it corrupted faster then other one. In fact since it was corrupted before I have started to understand the whole structure, I was thinking for long time it is not used at all.
 
Well constructed genericpluginparams.xml should work. Unfortunately, there is no indication from Sonar when it is not well constructed. I suggest you take a deep breath and do the sequence one more time:
1. Configure A-Pro plug-in for ACT banks / ACT pads as you want (I mean options and "Exclude from"). Exit Sonar.
2. Move away other XMLs, except zeroed sonaract.xml and good genericpluginparams.xml (may be even remove it to regenerate).
3. Open sonar, focus all plug-ins you want ACT control (just click on plugin in FX bin, nothing else). Exit Sonar.
4. Start ACT Editor, start Sonar, add AZCtrl and open its property window. Set ACT Editor follow AZ Ctrl.
5. Clicking on plug-ins select then in ACT Editor. Map parameters. Press "Save". Also confirm saving if ACT Editor asks in addition.  Exit Sonar. Press "Save" in ACT Editor one more time. Close it.
6. Restart Sonar to use the mapping.

azslow3
About 4 banks I have already answered (you should uncheck one option).

If I understand correctly, in the virtual A-PRO-1 I unchecked something like  "not include pads/button in ACT" which makes the pads and controller available for mapping.  But that still one set of 8 knobs/Sliders/Pads.  What I want to do, if possible, is to hit Bank 2 or 3, or 4 button and have another set of 8 to map to something else.
Since mapping outside of ACT does work, I'm taking a break from ACT and just trying to map the Hammond B4 plug-ins directly to the hardware so I can have some fun. In the A-PRO Editor (Roland) I don't see anyway of setting up 4 banks.
Also in ACT Editor I don't recall seeing 32 count for each type of controller.
 
I will do the sequence you lay out tonight.  btw in all my previous tests, I never did use AZCtrl.  Perhaps I misunderstood that ACT Editor can work without AZCtrl.
Again really appreciate you hanging in here with me.
 

Ground control to Major azslow3, we have lift off
Got it to work with a synth and a Fx plug-ins. 
First I deleted the genericpluginparams.xml file and followed your 6 steps.  I only 'focus' a the two plug-ins that I was testing so the xml fie is small so I can observe the context.  Sonar re-generated the file and all parameters are in lower case.  In my limited testing, I found that the order which you open/close ACT Editor and Sonar doesn't seems to matter.  I didn't not configure AZCtrl in/out to none as I missed that in your post until now, so I had it at the same port as the A-PRO -1.
What really helps for troubleshooting is the AZCtrl displays the midi and the controller values as you're hitting the hardware so you can see exactly what's going in the from the hardware to the plug-ins.
I still need to take it all in and trying to understand more.
I believe that the issues I had were likely due to:
1) A 'corrupted' genericpluginparams.xml or more likely that Sonar has inherent issue of processing 'ACT Learned' parameters.
2) Bugs/crappy A-PRO plug-in.  After I got things to work, I select the A-PRO-1 interface and although the mapping is correct, the pads still not working consistently as it still displaying/sending on/off/0%/100% as you click the virtual pads, and then stuck/frozen. The hardware behaves exactly as the virtual plug-ins.  This got me confused before as I though it might be the mapping.  With the AZCtrl as interface everything works fine. 
-----------
I still need to play with the Bank setting.  My though is to use Bank3 and Bank4 to control Synth (exclude the transport button L1-L8) and leave Bank1 and 2 for default Sonar mapping. I noticed that the rotaries goes from R1 to R20 when I switch from Bank3 to Bank4, expecting R10. In ACT Editor I think that rotaries are sequential R1-32 so I still need to work on the second set of controller.
 

azslow3
In short test I was able to reproduce that.
It looks like A-Pro plug-in does not like when the same parameter is assigned to several controls, especially pads. Note that not only duplicated control stop working (or showing 100%), other do that as well. You just have to
remove duplicated assignments (duplicated "paramindex") from XML. The simplest way is to do this manually,
"beautify" the XML with AZCtrl ("Options" tab, "Tweak current configuration...", "*Format genericpluginparams.xml")
and then edit it with Notepad

Is it b/c ACT Editor creates the duplicate?  As I do the mapping, the parameter is not 're-assigned' but rather assigned to a specified controller, so if such para is already mapped to some other controller would that cause a duplicate?  If so then should I first do a clear all and would ACT Editor then knows to unassigned thus prevent the duplicates?
Now that I have a taste of this excellent AZCtrl, can it be used as standalone or outside of Sonar?  So for live use of synth, for example, you'd have the same mapping and control.  To do this now I have to use the very limited A-PRO Editor and remap everything.

If you plan to record/play MIDI with APro, I recommend to either reinsert it with "None" or check that A-Pro plug-in is listed AFTER AZCtrl in Sonar preferences.

Argg, didn't make much progress tonight!!  I recorded a synth track but the Midi CC is not recorded no matter what controller I selected or set AZCtrl to none.  Must be something simple I overlooked.
Did however successfully use ACT Editor with AZCtrl set to none and I was able to map 'visually' by selecting a function on the synth plugin and assign it to a controller.  Very cool and save my sanity.

With ACT you can write track automations instead.

Do you mean turn on Sonar's ACT Learn button? I thought that the keyboard's ACT button somehow passes the message to the plug-ins and onto Sonar.
So then if I look in the Event Editor view I won't see any midi CC but these events is recorded in the Track Automation Lane?

Sonar supports Track automations. That can be volume, VSTi parameter and even CC. It does not matter how they are "created", with mouse on track or recorded from changing parameter in VSTi (by mouse or throw ACT).

I think I understand the concept but still unclear.  When I move a fader on the keyboard that mapped to the A-PRO plugin to control freq sweep, for example, I do see the corresponding virtual fader of the plugin moves and the freq do get sweep. When playing back the only thing recorded is the notes and velocities.
From reading the quote above, are you saying that if I use the mouse to move the fader on the A-PRO plug-in or the sweep knob on the virtual synth, those will get recorded on Track automation?  But do see those move when I use the keyboard knob.  Or are you saying that I need to enable the audio track automation, in this case the synth plug-in, and not the midi track?  Sorry I'm a bit slow today (or any day really). Perhaps can you give me a step by step.

Thanks I got it now.  I'm very familiar with Audio Track automation for vol/pan/fx-send/etc. and Fx plug-ins parameters.  I have never used (didn't know that you can) it for vst instruments though.  For years I've always recorded the Midi message which can be edited in Piano Roll or Event Viewer so that was my thinking.  Always good to learn a few new tricks.  Would be interesting to see how many parameters are available for a synth though, can be a lot.

As stated by the OP in this thread - and by Roland's marketing pages, ACT configuration should be straightforward. For me, not so much. I followed the basic instructions for configuring ACT - in preferences > control surfaces.
 
In Port: A-PRO 2
Out Port: A-PRO
ACT, WAI boxes: checked
WAI color: (why not?) green
 
In Utilities the named controller shows up. On the list of presets, I do not find a Roland A300. There is an entry for an Edirol 300/500/800 which is the predecessor of the Roland-branded board, but those presets do not work.

Just to verify, yes, I checked the "Active Controller Technology" checkbox in the lower left of the Utilities > Controller dialogue, and yes, I activated the blue "act" button in the upper right corner of the dialogue. And, yes, I activated the physical act button on the Roland board. It lights up orange.
 
I see evidence that something is happening. In Sonar LE, (which I installed before upgrading the Roland's kit DAW to Artist) I see pixels light up at the top and bottom of sliders when I push a controller button. In Artist, not much, but it does show the spinning wheel every few seconds when "act" is activated on the board - and the green WAI bands are present around the tracks. (remember, I picked green in the preferences dialogue)
 
The basic test I try is to use the transport buttons. Nothing. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I strongly believe the idea with ACT and transport buttons is that those buttons act as physical surrogates for the transport buttons in the DAW.

I can imagine other controls could be a mystery, so I stuck to the transport buttons for basic config testing. If they don't work out of the box with the provided DAW, as Roland suggested, I don't want to go further into configuring custom setups. Not yet.
 
Okay, so maybe I missed something. I did install A-Pro editor. I found Cakewalk Control Surface plugins on the Cakewalk site and used the provided .exe installer (Windows)

I checked that I had installed the A300 drivers from Rolands site. Check.
I found some A-Pro series preset control maps on the Roland downloads page. Nothing in there for Sonar.  I found the A-Pro Control Surface Plugin for Sonar on Roland's download page. Installed it.

I see a Shared Control Surfaces directory in my Program files > Cakewalk directory. I see an A-Pro .dll in there.

Not sure what I'm missing. I would expect to find Roland A-Pro presets among the long list of presets on the Utilities > ACT Midi Controller dialogue. 

It gets worse. I abandoned any interest in presets and ACT for a few days and just used my new board. And another board from another maker - with no DAW controllers.
 
When I turn off ACT on the Roland board, it no longer works for whatever soft synths I have installed. The other board continues to play songs, as it were, but whatever soft synth was listening to the Roland goes silent. Switch input to omni or the other board and the other board works. I usually have to shut down Sonar, and restart. I think one time or two I had to unplug the USB cable to the Roland board, restart Sonar and plug the Roland A-PRO in again before it would recognize keyboard notes again.
 
 I contacted both Roland and Cakewalk with my allowed 2,000 character support request, but it probably takes more than 24 hours for either for them to respond, which is how long it's been (well 20, but close enough - one business day)
 
This is not right. Could be something wrong with the board, but there's got to be a way to test that. I could start configuring the board with the A-Pro editor but I'm wary, not having first seen a stable configuration from the manufacturers who imply the board and DAW have at least some basic transport pairing with ACT.

I concur with earlier reports that the documentation is abysmal. I've seen references to .mid, .spp and .xml files as protocols for storing control configurations. I've seen references to a vast pool of information about Midi CC numbering conventions available via a google search. Closest I got to something relevant was that Sonar's transport buttons are somewhere between 58 and 63. For eight buttons. Six numbers. I'm not ready to start editing in A-Pro with not much more than that to start with.
 
Admittedly, I'm new to Midi but have more than a little programming and IT experience. Give me a reasonable starting place and I usually study, learn and explore my way into a technology, which I'm confident I can do with Midi control surfaces. In this case, the reasonable starting place - the safe configuration to which I can return if all else fails while I'm learning - is not there.
 
Any ideas?
 
 
 
 

Thanks Azslow, that cleared it up. When I first added the control surface in Preferences, I either did not notice the drop down menu on which Act MIDI Controller is the default, or maybe I connected it before I installed the Roland plugin and APro was not yet on the list. Either way, it's there now. The default Sonar controller mapping utility is now replaced with A-Pro, which opens a GUI that resembles the layout of the control surface.

Of course, it takes more than general programming knowledge to know A-Pro functionality is not a subset of ACT Midi Controller, that the A-Pro plugin is a different plugin than ACT MIDI Controller. As far as I still know, ACT is not a plugin, but part of the core Sonar technology that exposes control surface mapping to whatever plugin is active at the time, along with whatever developer-provided presets or user-generated mappings various plugins might allow.

After checking the Cakewalk documentation, I see that "ACT support is not available in SONAR LE" which is odd, because Roland ships Sonar LE with the board, and the board has a prominent ACT button. I would presume, then, that the Roland plugin configures the control surface without ACT and now better understand the original meaning of this thread - we can manually configure control surfaces to work with plugins or use ACT. I see the board controls the Sonar screen without the ACT button activated.

binario
I would presume, then, that the Roland plugin configures the control surface without ACT and now better understand the original meaning of this thread - we can manually configure control surfaces to work with plugins or use ACT. I see the board controls the Sonar screen without the ACT button activated.

That is correct, it took me a few days to understand that when I went through this.
Without ACT way: Roland includes a 'stand alone' plugin.  This simply uses midi CC#.  You map midi CC# and then save the 'mapping' to file on the computer and load/save it to the keyboard. Apro has 18 users memory slots so you can save and recall from the keyboard.  The reason you see thing starts to work b/c some controller has the corresponding midi CC# with Sonar, most likely GM midi value, for example volume = CC#7.
When you get into ACT mapping that's when the real fun begins :-)