SONAR LE Documentation is based on the full version of SONAR. Some screenshots, folder paths, features and other references may differ from your installation.

Setting up control surfaces

If you are not using a Roland A-PRO controller, use the following procedures to connect or disconnect your controller/surface:

To enable MIDI Input and Output drivers

1.	Go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Devices.

2.	In the Inputs list, make sure that the MIDI Input driver or drivers that your controller/surface uses are selected.

3.	If you have a bi-directional controller/surface (one that both sends and receives data in order to control a software application), also make sure that the MIDI Output driver or drivers that the controller/surface uses are enabled in the Outputs pane on the right side of the dialog box.

4.

Click OK.

To connect a controller/surface to SONAR

1.	Follow your controller/surface’s instructions for physically connecting your controller/surface to your computer (you may need to close SONAR first).

2.	In SONAR, go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Control Surfaces.

3.	Click the Add Controller/Surface button , which opens the Controller/Surface Settings dialog box.

4.

In the Controller/Surface field of the Controller/Surface Settings dialog box, find the name of your controller/surface, and select it. However, if you want to use Active Controller Technology, or if your controller/surface is not listed, select either the Cakewalk Generic Surface or the ACT MIDI Controller.

Note: The Cakewalk Generic Surface plug-in is not bi-directional.

5.	In the Input Port and Output Port fields, select which MIDI input and output ports the controller/surface uses.

Note 1: You may need to read the documentation for your controller/surface to find out which MIDI input driver your controller/surface uses to control software applications. If your controller/surface includes a MIDI keyboard, your controller/surface might use one MIDI input driver for the controller/surface functions, and a different MIDI input driver to send MIDI notes and pitch bend data to the application (the piano keyboard functions).

Note 2: Control surfaces retain their current MIDI port assignments even if you add or remove MIDI devices. If any assigned MIDI port is missing when you load a project, SONAR will let you remap each missing port to an available port. For more information, see Changing MIDI Output devices.

6.	Click OK to close the Controller/Surface Settings dialog box.

7.	In the Preferences dialog box, make sure that both the ACT and WAI check boxes are enabled, and click Close.

Important: If your controller/surface needs to be in a certain mode, or have a certain memory preset loaded in order to control a software application, put your controller/surface in the proper mode or load the required memory preset now.

Now that your controller/surface is connected, you can see which tracks and/or buses are being controlled by it by looking at the colored markings (the WAI display; see The WAI display for more information) in SONAR’s interface.

If you selected the ACT MIDI Controller plug-in or the Cakewalk Generic Surface plug-in for your controller/surface, you can load a default set of mappings by opening the property page for either plug-in, and selecting the name of your controller/surface from the Presets window in the property page.

Synchronizing channel strips between SONAR and control surfaces

SONAR allows control surfaces to display all channel strips in a project, or only the channel strips that are visible in the Track view or Console view.

1.	Go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Control Surfaces.

2.	Under Control Strips Visible in, click one of the following:

Track View. The controller/surface matches the channel strips that are visible in the Track view.

Console View. The controller/surface matches the channel strips that are visible in the Console view.

All Strips. The controller/surface shows all channel strips in the project.

The controller/surface immediately refreshes and displays the specified channel strips.

Figure 386. The Control Surfaces section.

 

See also:

To use ACT with the ACT MIDI Controller plug-in

To disconnect a controller/surface from SONAR

1.	Go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Control Surfaces.

2.	In the Controller/Surface column, click the name of the controller/surface that you want to disconnect.

3.	Click the Delete button , which deletes the name of the controller/surface that you selected.

4.	Click Close.

Control surface refresh rate

Control surfaces are refreshed by posting a windows message every 75 milliseconds.

CtrlSurfaceRefreshMS=<50 - 5000> (default=75)

You may want to increase the value of this Cakewalk.ini variable if you are experiencing sluggish UI responsiveness when using a control surface and playing back high CPU projects.

Also, if you are using a control surface that is not bi-directional, the surface does not need to be refreshed at all and you can safely increase the value.

This variable should be set in the [Wincake] section. For example:

[Wincake]

CtrlSurfaceRefreshMS=75

 

See:

ACT MIDI Controller plug-in

Cakewalk Generic Surface plug-in

The WAI display

ACT