controllers and Sonar

I've been watching a bunch of youtubes showing these guys perform with their little Ozones and such, and they get the knobs and faders to control all these synth parameters in real time and generally have a real good time doing all this on stage.

I searched the forum and found two or three posts--all a few years old--where guys expressed how difficult it is to set this kind of thing up--with or without ACT--but no one had any great answers.

I'm assuming these guys are using soft synths, but I have not had the patience to learn how to program the Sonar synths--even in un-real time--and can not see how one could get a controller to control the controls of Zeta, or Dimension pro, or any of Sonar's other synths.

Does anyone know how to learn this stuff, or are these guys on youtube just so freakin much smarter than me--not inconceivable by any stretch--that they can just intuit it all?

Using a controller looks like a very cool way to perform. I hope someone can hlep open it up for me and anyone else who would want to get into it.

Cakewalk's got this A300 Pro controller that looks like it could be a good one (has to be better than M-Audio gear, anyway).  Are there any Bakers out there who can do a quick tutorial?

Thanks for any help.
 

Yeah, no kidding.

I'm having difficulty figuring out many such considerations. Unfortunately, I'm figuring in a vacum, since I haven't sprung for a controller . . .so far.

I wonder, for instance, if a controller could do a filter sweep on Zeta while the track pane is up.
I've never even figured out how to do a filter sweep in Zeta under any circumstances.

Re: hardware synths: So if I had a hard synth assigned to a certain track, how would I send MIDI CCs to the synth without sending them to every synth in the project?

bitflipper

Set each synthesizer to a different MIDI channel

Of course that would be necessary. But from my experience, to talk to a synth, you have to go into Sonar and select a track to which the synth is assigned, instead of blithely frolicking around on your cool little controller while your stable, uncomplicated software does all the hard work. And that ain't the way it seems to be done in the videos.

Just a quick "how to set this up" in general terms is what I'm looking for:

Set up synth
Set up routing to synth in Sonar
how to communicate with different soft synths and change them in real time
how to score with hot chicks

That kind of thing.

Re: hardware synths: So if I had a hard synth assigned to a certain track, how would I send MIDI CCs to the synth without sending them to every synth in the project?

You have 16 MIDI channels per MIDI interface. Put each synth on a separate channel or a separate interface.

Novation has Automap, which works great (once it works).
To switch to another vst all you gotta do is click on it (focus) in Sonar's window. It automatically maps the controls in the vst to the controls on the hardware.

Wo.
 
Lots o’ good tips.
 
I’m realizing that since I’ve never needed  ACT--and hence have ignored it completely--I haven’t been including it in my calculations. Time to pull that old JC Cooper fadermaster out of the closet and see if it will help me learn ACTing.
 
I think Bvideo got closest to what aspect of this is not clear to me.
 
If I got this right:
 
Only mess with one synth per performance After getting several tracks loaded with a synth each, set the input MIDI channel of each synth uniquely then if I echo enable all of them, only the one on my controller’s current MIDI out channel will respond. And yes, then the hard part will be changing the controller’s MIDI out channel on the fly. I have no idea if any of them provide for this. But then again, if I follow rule 1 (Only mess with one synth per performance), that wouldn’t present a problem, As long as the controller actually can xmit on all 16 channels, I’m ok. And, of course, George C would know. A wise man.  
Regarding which controller I’m interested in: there’s so many M-audio controllers out there, they must be working for a lot of people. But I’ve had terrible experiences with their reliability.
 
I hear lots of praise for the Novation and will look into that.
 
The Roland/Cake Apro 300 looks very good, but it’s possibly the most expensive of the small-keyboard controllers, and I find no reviews of, or performances with, it.
 
Thank you all for helping me think this through. Seems like it’s a good dialog to continue.
 
WT

A300 is smaller and less expensive.

I'd use it for performing, along with an EWI, so mostly for pno, gtr, or string parts.

It would be the only controller going to the laptop w/ the soft snths, or a couple of synths in a rack.

A300 has no sound of its own, so no conflict there.