sharke
 Horrible piece of software. 

Couldn't agree more!!
It's almost as if they were smokin' something when they designed it and thought it would be hilarious to make it confusing as hell. Then, when they sobered up, they completely forgot how *d up they made it.

a) ACT is not MIDI learn . That has one big consequence, it is not strait forward. Understanding what and how it is doing does not take much time, but it takes time. Every option should be understood (f.e. the one mentioned in that thread). Imagine you see a big console for the first time... without learning anything, without understand anything, many knobs, sliders, buttons. You randomly press something... and the sound disappears (real live example from the matrix mixer in out conference room!). And then you say "console is a horrible piece of hardware! developers were smoking something..."
b) there was plug-in mapping bug prior 2017.1, which was preventing saving correctly learned mappings. It still can be required to delete the map file before it starts working normally (the file is effectively corrupted).
 
Other then (a) and (b), ACT is as good/bad as any other such technology (surfaces API in other DAWs, Automap, NKS, etc.). For plug-in control, some cooperations is required from the plug-in, and some are bad in that respect (up to crashing, but it will crash just with an automation added or in any other DAW/technology).
 
I repeat, you can not expect to get perfect guitar recording when you do not know how to play it, hot to connect it, that you have to adjust the gain. Yet that is not the reason to blame the guitar is bad...

Hi. I could never get the hang of ACT. 
I have however (since aszlow3 wouldn't mention it himself) had much better success with AZ Controller. http://www.azslow.com/
Even there I've just got things working with my AKAI MPK 25, but they work  
Even for an absolute dimwit (about computers, and programming) like me, when it comes to configuring anything more advanced than screen resolution 
All the best.
 

I hate to be on the other side of things here, but I have a Roland A800Pro and I use ACT with it a lot.
Although it took a bit to set it up (twice) so that things are working properly (and understood exactly) it works.
I bought it when Roland owned Cakewalk (and for that sole reason). 
 

azslow3
a) ACT is not MIDI learn . That has one big consequence, it is not strait forward.
...
I repeat, you can not expect to get perfect guitar recording when you do not know how to play it, hot to connect it, that you have to adjust the gain. Yet that is not the reason to blame the guitar is bad...

Let me just repeat what I've been saying all along ... I've read through the ACT manual exhaustively. I've used the "F1" help option and I've gone onto Cakewalk's site to read up on it.
The explanations are not just counterintuitive, they do not give you a thorough (THOROUGH) understanding of what functions do what, and why. The instructions don't seem to follow a sensible order of:
1) Do this first, BECAUSE...
2) Do this second, BECAUSE ...
3) Do this third, BECAUSE ...
... and so on.


At least in my attempts to follow the instructions, it seems you need to jump around through them to get a sense of what should be done in what order, and why.

As for looking at a new console for the first time, I doubt many people would have the trouble understanding what does what. It may require reading instructions to get FULL use of it, but few people would be as befuddled by a new console as they/we obviously are by the ACT midi controller.
 
That said, I did discover why I was having the particular problem described in my top post. What I didn't find in the literature, is WHY that created the problem that it did.

It's true. ACT is just one of those things that had a shorter half-life at the time for "v 2.0". Audiosnap was worse but they did eventually do a second pass and get it working better. A better assignable control system paired with an integrated sampler (like is happening in another thread right now) would be an electronica producer's dream. 
 

...wicked
It's true. ACT is just one of those things that had a shorter half-life at the time for "v 2.0". Audiosnap was worse but they did eventually do a second pass and get it working better. A better assignable control system paired with an integrated sampler (like is happening in another thread right now) would be an electronica producer's dream. 
 

I agree.
It's time Cakewalk brought their ACT midi Controller more up to date, or scrap it altogether for something that works better with present-day controllers and plug-ins.

I don't agree that Act blows.
 
I don't often need it, but I can do what I need to with it. I love that AZSLOW3 made the cool stuff that makes my Alpha Track keep being useful. That's awesome.
 
For the most part, my needs are met automating TH3 with the pedal board for playing guitar.

gswitz
I don't agree that Act blows.
 

I didn't say that ACT blows, and I don't believe anyone else here did, either.
I just think it's at least 10 years behind the times. Cakewalk (in my opinion) needs to upgrade its usability and make it easier to integrate with controllers that are out on the market now, as opposed to controllers that are more than 15 years old.

I'll say it, ACT blows.