Reference Guide

1223
Cakewalk Generic Surface plug-in
External devices
To Use ACT with the Cakewalk Generic Surface
1. Make sure you have completed the following preliminary steps:
• Successfully connected your controller/surface to SONAR (if necessary, see “Setting up
control surfaces” on page 1214).
• Opened the Cakewalk Generic Surface property page (if necessary, see “To open the
Cakewalk Generic Surface property page” on page 1221).
2. In the ACT Controls section of the Cakewalk Generic Surface property page are radio buttons
1-9 and A-G. These buttons control plug-in parameters in the active effect or synth plug-in. You
first need to assign a knob or control on your controller/surface to each one of these radio
buttons. Do this by clicking a radio button, moving a knob or control on your controller/surface,
and then clicking the Learn button in the Cakewalk Generic Surface property page. You can
check what MIDI message you’ve assigned to each button by clicking a button and then reading
the value in the MIDI Message for Current SONAR Parameter section. If the None radio button
is highlighted after you click an ACT Controls radio button, you have not assigned a control to
that ACT Controls radio button. When you finish, save your assignments as a preset.
3. Next, in the Cakewalk Generic Surface property page, in the Use ACT or Strip Params fields,
make sure that either the ACT Enable check box is enabled, or that the Both check box is
enabled. If the Both check box is enabled, your controller/surface is controlling both track
parameters and plug-in parameters.
4. In SONAR, put the focus on the plug-in effect or synth -that you want to configure: either click its
property page, or click its name in an effects bin.
The name of the plug-in appears in the Context field in the Cakewalk Generic Surface property
page.
5. Enable the ACT Learn Mode button in the Control Bar’s ACT module.
6. In the property page of the plug-in that you want to control, click the parameters that you want to
control.
7. Move the sliders/knobs on your controller/surface that you want to use to control the parameters
with, in the same order that you clicked the parameters (you can reverse steps 6 and 7).
8. Disable the ACT Learn Mode button in the Control Bar’s ACT module.
9. A dialog box appears, asking if you want to keep your assignments. Click Yes or No.
As soon as you disable the ACT Learn Mode button, any plug-in mappings that you keep are saved
globally, and will be the same in every project for a particular plug-in. Now your controller/surface
can control whatever soft synth or effect currently has focus. If you want to control only a single
instance of a plug-in, regardless of which plug-in has focus, enable the Lock Context check box. For
more information about ACT, see “ACT” on page 1234.
You can save Track parameter mappings and knob/radio button mappings in the Presets window
that is at the top of the Cakewalk Generic Surface property page.