Reference Guide

883
Cakewalk Generic Surface Plug-in
External Devices
allocate some physical controls to control Track parameters, while other physical controls are
allocated to control plug-in parameters.
ACT Controls
This section let's you assign buttons and knobs to control plug-ins. This section has the following
controls:
• Lock Context radio button. Lets you assign a control on your controller/surface to enable or
disable the Lock Context check box.
• Lock Context check box. When this check box is enabled, your controller/surface controls only
the particular instance of the particular plug-in that had focus when you enabled this check box.
• Context field. Displays the name of the plug-in that currently has focus, unless the Lock
Context check box is enabled.
• Physical Control Type. This field lets you tell SONAR what kind of control you are using for the
selected parameter. For example, if the parameter you’re controlling is an On/Off type of
parameter, like a power button, it would be a good idea to use a button or switch on your
controller instead of a slider.
• Radio buttons 1-9 and A-G. Each of these 16 radio buttons lets you map up to 16 plug-in
parameters to controls on your controller/surface. The name of each of the 16 plug-in parameters
that are currently being controlled are listed in order next to each radio button. To use these
buttons, you must first assign a control on your controller/surface to each one of these buttons.
See “To Use ACT with the Cakewalk Generic Surface” on page 878.
MIDI Message for the Current SONAR Parameter
This section is where you can choose a specific kind of MIDI message to control whatever
parameter is selected in the Track Parameters, ACT Controls (including the ACT Enable check
box), or Global Parameters sections. Most of the time you don’t need to choose, because the
Learn button fills in the fields automatically.
Choose from the following options:
• None. Click this button to disable control of the selected parameter.
• Learn. If you don't know the exact MIDI message that a fader/knob/button transmits, you can
simply move the fader/knob/button a couple of times, and then click Learn to automatically fill in
the correct MIDI message.
• Controller. With this button enabled and a Controller number entered in the Number field,
SONAR moves the selected parameter whenever it receives this specific controller message from
your controller/surface on the specified channel.
• Channel. The MIDI channel the controller/surface uses for the MIDI Message that is controlling
the current parameter.
• NRPN. With this button enabled and a NRPN number entered in the Number field, SONAR
moves the selected parameter whenever it receives this specific NRPN message from your
controller/surface on the specified channel.
• Trigger Value. For triggered actions (mute, solo, play, stop, etc.), specify the Controller, NRPN
or RPN value that will trigger the current parameter.