The conventional approach to ACT is using templates that let you apply hands-on control to various instruments and effects. This usually implies having a dedicated controller, spending some time setting up assignments and creating templates, and so on. However, you can also treat ACT more like a \u201ccontroller scratch pad\u201d that\u2019s easy, efficient, and works with just about any MIDI controller. It\u2019s the ideal solution for when you simply want some hands-on control without having to venture very far into left-brain territory.<\/p>\n
Step 1: Choose Your Controller<\/strong><\/p>\n One of my favorite ACT controllers is Native Instruments\u2019 discontinued Kore 2 controller. The industrial design is first-class, it\u2019s built solidly, and there\u2019s enough functionality for what we need. Another advantage is that when NI stopped supporting Kore, the eBay prices took a major tumble. Although the examples in this article are based on Kore, please note that the same principles apply to virtually any MIDI controller.<\/p>\n Step 2: Grab Your Software<\/strong><\/p>\n Many controllers have dedicated drivers, so if needed, make sure you have the latest. NI still offers the 32\/64-bit Kore 2 Controller Driver 3.0.0 and the latest NI Controller Editor, which you can download for free from their site. Follow the instructions when installing, or you\u2019ll wonder why the controller doesn’t work.<\/p>\n (Note: With the Kore 2 controller, you may first be greeted with an unusable bright red display. No worries: Hit Kore 2\u2019s F2 button, navigate to Set, hit Enter, and use the navigation buttons and data wheel to control the Contrast and Backlight parameter values.)<\/p>\n The Controller Editor for NI’s Kore lets you specify various characteristics of the Kore 2 controller. In this picture, a button is being assigned to output a trigger when pushed down.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Various controllers may have options\u2014such as assigning buttons to a latch, toggle, or trigger mode. Many of them have editors; Kore 2\u2019s is somewhat more sophisticated than many others, but again, the principles are the same. In the case of Kore you open the Editor, select Kore Controller 2 from the drop-down menu, and use the Edit button in the Templates tab to choose New. This creates a general purpose MIDI control template. (While you\u2019re at it, I recommend assigning the eight main buttons associated with the pots to Trigger, and action on Down. For a shift button, assign the monitor [speaker icon] button to Gate, again with action on down. Go to the file menu, and save the configuration as \u201cSonar ACT.ncc.\u201d)<\/p>\n Step 3: Set Up SONAR<\/strong><\/p>\n Your controller communicates with SONAR<\/a> via MIDI, so go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Select MIDI Devices, and under inputs, enable your controller\u2019s MIDI in (don\u2019t use MIDI out with ACT, as it\u2019s not bi-directional). After making your assignments, click on Apply.<\/p>\n Also under MIDI preferences, click on Control Surfaces. Click on the Add New Controller\/Surface button that looks like a little gold star, then from the Controller\/Surface Settings pop-up, select ACT MIDI Controller (not<\/em> the name of your particular hardware controller, if it\u2019s listed) from the Controller\/Surface drop-down menu. Choose the device\u2019s MIDI input port (enabled previously as a MIDI Device), and select None for the output port.<\/p>\n Click on OK in the Controller\/Surface Settings box, and you\u2019ll see the ACT MIDI controller listed under Connected Controllers\/Surfaces in the Control Surfaces preferences. Click on Close.<\/p>\n Step 4: Take a Trip to the Links<\/strong><\/p>\n Now you need to do a one-time setup to link your controller hardware to ACT. Here\u2019s the step-by-step procedure.<\/p>\n 1. From Sonar\u2019s Utilities menu, select ACT MIDI Controller. The ACT template appears.<\/p>\n 2. Click on the Active Controller Technology Enable check box in the lower left.<\/p>\n 3. If a preset exists for your controller, for example you have a Line 6 KB37, choose it from the Presets drop-down menu and then click on the Options tab. Look in the Comments box for instructions on how to set up your controller, and you\u2019re pretty much ready to go. But we\u2019ll assume your device doesn\u2019t have a preset, so choose the Default preset.<\/p>\n 4. To start with a clean slate, click on the Options tab, then click on Defaults and the Clear MIDI Learn buttons. Next, click on the Controllers tab.<\/p>\n 5. ACT assumes a default controller with eight rotary controls, eight sliders, eight buttons, and a button you can dedicate as a shift key to have eight additional button functions by holding down shift and one of the buttons. Kore 2 has no sliders, so we\u2019ll use the rotary controls and buttons.<\/p>\n 6. Now link Kore\u2019s eight controls, in order, to the eight rotary control cells in the ACT template. To do this, click in the lower half of the R1 (R as in \u201cRotary\u201d) cell and rotate the first controller knob. Now click in the lower half of the R2 cell, and rotate the second control. Proceed until all eight controls are assigned to cells R1-R8.<\/p>\n 7. ACT allows for four banks of controls, and we need to link to these as well. From the drop-down menu to the left of the R cells, select Bank 2 and similarly link the knobs to the Bank 2 cells. Do the same for Banks 3 and 4.<\/p>\n 8. Now assign the buttons similarly: click in the lower part of each button cell (B1-B8), and click on the button you want to assign to it. Again, assign them to the four sets of button banks.<\/p>\n 9. To assign a shift button, click on the ACT template\u2019s Shift Learn, then click on the button you want to use as a shift control.<\/p>\n 10. After all the assignments are made, rename the template\u2019s Default preset (e.g., \u201cKore 2\u201d) and save it so you don\u2019t have to go through this kind of setup again.<\/p>\n Note on the ACT template that some controls have a green background, and some blue. Green means a control is excluded from ACT, so no matter what you do with ACT, it will always have the same function. To be able to use an excluded control for ACT, go to the Options tab, choose the control from the drop-down menus, and uncheck \u201cExclude this bank (or button) from ACT.\u201d For example, I unchecked all Shift-button and button settings (except for B7 and B8 in all button banks, for reasons we\u2019ll see later) so the buttons would always be available for ACT.<\/p>\n Step 5: Start ACTing<\/strong><\/p>\n Now insert some effects into a track to practice using ACT. Drag the Sonitus Compressor, Cakewalk Tempo Delay, and Classic Phaser into a track FX bin.<\/p>\n Click on the Classic Phaser. The ACT template now shows which parameters are assigned to the rotary controls. Turn the controls on Kore that correspond to the rotaries, and you\u2019ll see the Classic Phaser parameters move.<\/p>\n Now click on the Tempo Delay to give the focus (ACT follows whatever has the focus). There are more than eight controls, but ACT has banks to access other parameters. You could choose these from the Bank drop-down menu, but note that Button 7 defaults to selecting the next higher Rotary and Slider bank with each button press, and Button 8 defaults to doing the same thing with the button bank. So if you push button 7, the second bank of parameters appears, and now you can adjust Mix and Level with rotaries one and two.<\/p>\n The ACT template shows what the rotary and button banks control. Note that the four buttons are assigned redundantly, so I don\u2019t have to remember which group of four buttons controls specific parameters. Buttons B7 and B8 are excluded from ACT in order to choose different rotary and button banks.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Next, check out the Sonitus compressor. Again, we have hands-on control over the parameters\u2014but there are some complications, as the defaults for which controls affect which parameters may not seem logical, and it can be a hassle to look at the template and try to correlate knobs to parameters. Or some parameters might default to sliders, which this controller doesn\u2019t have. Fortunately, as the controls are linked to the template by MIDI, we can assign any<\/em> control to any<\/em> parameter.<\/p>\n Step 6: Customizing the Links<\/strong><\/p>\n Minimize the template, as you don\u2019t really need to edit it any more. Click on the Tempo Delay; suppose you\u2019ve already set up the Delay Time, and you simply want to experiment with the EQ so that four knobs control, from left to right, EQ mode, low, mid, and high.<\/p>\n To do this, click on the effect\u2019s ACT Learn button. Move the four effect parameters you want to assign, then move the four hardware controls. The first knob you move will link to the first parameter you moved, the second knob will link to the second parameter you moved, and so on. You can also do this in the reverse order\u2014move the controls first, then the parameters.<\/p>\n ACT Learn has been used to assign the seven Transient Shaper knobs to the Kore controller\u2019s first seven rotary controls. Note that the order in ACT mimics the order on the Transient Shaper.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n After doing the assignments, turn off ACT Learn. A dialog box tells you how many parameters were moved, and how many controls. To keep the assignments, click on Yes. Now the four controls affect the four parameters you chose. These assignments remain in place until changed, even if you close and re-open Sonar. You don\u2019t even have to save the ACT template to retain the custom mappings, as it stores only the link assignments between hardware and ACT\u2014the custom mappings are just sort of magically saved within the ACT Data folder (which you should back up periodically, in case you need to re-install Sonar someday).<\/p>\n Step 7: Advanced ACT<\/strong><\/p>\n What\u2019s cool about this approach is that instead of having to memorize or look up which banks of controls affect which parameters and so on, you can work with the same knobs, re-assigning them as needed. For example, you might do a custom assignment of a synth\u2019s filter envelope parameters. When that\u2019s tweaked, you might re-assign the same knobs to control filter cutoff and resonance, velocity, and envelope amount. Also note that a single parameter can map to multiple controls.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth spending some time on the ACT template\u2019s Options page. For example, you can choose whether parameters jump immediately to the hardware knob settings when moved, or the control position has to match the parameter value before it will move.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t worked with ACT, give it a try\u2014once your links are set up, you\u2019ll find it\u2019s easy to customize ACT to provide hardware control for the task at hand.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NI-Editor.jpg\" "\\"NI")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Compressor+Template.jpg\" "\\"Compressor+Template\\"")
<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ACT-Learn.jpg\" "\\"ACT")
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