Hi Folks,
 
I've recently decided to "start over" in my home studio after many years away and bought an A-300 and the Cakewalk Audio Interface (UA-25EX) and I'm having a terrible time trying to get the A-300 to play nice with Sonar 8.5 LE. 
 
I'm on Windows 7 - 64bit (fully updated).  I run no anti-virus programs.  I have the same issue whether I remove the UA-25EX or not.  The only other thing connected to USB is keyboard and mouse. 
 
I have downloaded the latest driver, Control Surface Plug-in, and Tools (multiple times) and have installed/removed/installed all several times.  The midi keyboard part of the equation works fine.  I can add a SoftSynth and play and record.  The problem is with the Control Surface capabilities. 
 
Here are my symptoms:
1.    In Sonar Controllers/Surfaces Dialog, when I add the A-300 I specify Controller=A-PRO, Input=A-PRO 2, Output=A-PRO per the directions.  When I click the OK button, the ACT light does NOT light up on the A-300 as the directions state.  (I have tried resetting the A-300 to factory settings as well).  Once the Settings Dialog returns to the Controllers Dialog, the A-PRO shows but the In Port and Out Port both show as blank.  I can select them here and close the dialog but if I return they are missing. 
2.    I do not show anything about A-PRO in my Tools menu in Sonar.
 
I've tried manually clicking the ACT button and still nothing in Sonar.     
 
Any suggestions on anything else that I could try?
 
I tried calling support last week but was on hold for 20+ minutes and finally gave up.  I have killed way too much time on this am about to package it up and trade out for another controller. 
 
Any help is appreciated.
 
Rik
 
 

Hi Rik
 
Just got my apro this week so goign through the same process at the same time.  Do not have a direct answer to your problem but just wondering why you chose input = APRO 2 and not APRO 1??  I dont think this is the source of the problem but give it a go.
 
I can't get the ACT to work yet.  The only think I have working is the keys. 
 
When I installed the Apro I spent a while mucking around in the control surface menu.  I ended up deleting ALL control surfaces (I have the VS100) and starting again with them. I followed the instructions on that extra sheet of paper they send with the box to the letter and it worked the second time I did it.  I then added the VS100 after the Apro.  This has screwed both sets of transport controls and neither work at the moment.  I will just keep playing with it until I get it working.
 
Regards
Mick

Hi Mick,

Thanks for sharing in my pain.  :o)  

To answer your question about choosing In Port as A-PRO 2, I was just following directions from the sheet of paper that was included with the A-PRO.  Selecting A-PRO 1 didn't seem to have any affect.

Will keep posting on my progress. 

Searching for an answer for my problem I came across a thread in VS100 forum called Problems using V-S100 as a control surface.  It has some clear steps there from a VS-100 viewpoint.  Might be worth following the steps for teh Apro and see what happens????
 
Me

I had this problem initially, then discovered that in addition to installing the drivers you need to install setup.exe from the A-PRO_CSP folder on your CD ROM. I note you say that you've installed the CSP, but it sounds like it's not installed and/or it's not set up in Sonar/options/controllers surfaces. This isn't in the instruction booklet, but included on a separate instruction sheet.
Sorry if you know all this already, but I had exactly the same problem with my A-500.

Thanks portesham, but I've done everything on the included sheet multiple times and still no love from Sonar for the A-PRO. 

In order to hedge my bets, I've decided to go ahead and order a Novation 49 SL MKII.  I'm willing to pay more for something that "just works". 

I have a 45 day return policy on both controllers and one will go back.   

For what it's worth, I used to have a PCR-300 which was the older version of the A-Pro stuff. I had that working fine as a CS, but not from the instructions, it was from asking questions on the forum. If you do some searching for the PCR-300, you may find some answers if it still works the same way.

Rik,

I had the exact same problem with my A-500.

I emailed tech support and they sent me the following link to an updated Control Surface driver.

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/kb/reader.aspx?ID=2007012938

I tried it out loading the 64bit driver and it still didn't work. I then tried loading the 32bit driver and it works just fine. I emailed tech support back and informed them of the problem with the 64bit version but I don't know if they have addressed the issue.

Hope that helps.

Robert

Thanks for the link.  I had already installed the latest Control Surface 1.01 and still didn't work.

For anyone one that comes across this thread.  I no longer need any help with this controller. 
I packaged the A-300 up and it's heading back to the dealer tomorrow. 

As I mentioned above, after my first week of frustration with the A-300 I decided to hedge my bets and ordered the Novation 49 SL Mk II.  It arrived and I plugged it in and within 15 minutes was making music with full DAW control over Sonar. 

Perhaps I gave up on A-300 too quickly, but I don't do this for a living and have very little time to make music that I'd rather not spend trying to get the tools working.  The Novation "just works" out of the box and AutoMap 3.5 is unbelievable.  Yes, it cost me $200 more and so far is worth every penny of the difference. 

Still a huge Cakewalk fan and I just updated to Sonar Producer 8.5, but they need to do a little better with these controllers.  Kinda sad that the Cakewalk controller won't work with Cakewalk's DAW out of the box and the competition's controller does (and well). 

haluSin8

Kinda sad that the Cakewalk controller won't work with Cakewalk's DAW out of the box and the competition's controller does (and well). 

That is pretty lame. I went with the A-Pro for that very reason... I didn't want to have to do anything but plug it in and use it. Oh well, live and learn.

At least you have a controller that works now.

Rock on.