Well ... here we are again
After some trials I can tell that the Kronos can be used as a control surface in Sonar. It's quite easy to get the sliders, buttons, and knobs to work. But up to now I have no idea how to get the start/stop/forward/rewind etc. buttons in the game. There is a Global/Midi/Midi item to check a "start/stop realtime out" function, but I had no success to make use of it in sonar.
Here are some first basic facts, how it works:
--- Kronos:
Kronos provides 127 setups for "External 1", which correspond to the left side of the keyboard and to the 8 slider, 16 buttons , 8 knobs area.
The setups can be defined in Global/Midi/External 1 and each of the items can be a contoller having it's own midi-channel and it's own CC# (I picked setup 127, because it was completely unused - every item was turned to "off". Then I defined unused CC# per item - 4x8=32).
If more than 8 channels shall be controlled, a second setup might be required, providing different CC#. In external mode the setups can be switched back and forth ...
Saving out the Global settings save also the External 1 setups.
--- Sonar:
Sonar supports so called "control surfaces" that can be used to get external midi data to control the DAW. To prepare for Kronos, the keyboard midi driver has to be activated in Sonar as one of the midi input/output devices (Preferences/Midi/Devices).
Now in Preferences/Midi/Control Surfaces a new "Cakewalk Generic Surface" can be created. To connect the new control surface to the Kronos it's input has to be set to "Kronos Keyboard" and it's output should be set to "Kronos Sound"
This done, the Controller Surface Property window can be opened and the "Parameters=Volume/Pan/Mute/Solo/RecordArm ..." can be set to various inputs from external devices. To link a parameter to a Kronos slider/button/knob just select CC# as input for the parameter and type in the corresponding CC# ... or use the learn button after having moved or switched the device.
To get a button trigger the "record arm" function in Sonar as it does in the Kronos, the "Midi Message Interpretation" section can be used in "ON/OFF" mode and after this being set to ON=127 and OFF=0 the switch will toggle as expected.
There is also a section of "general functions" like play/stop/forward/rewind and more. Unfortunately I could not link these functions to the Kronos play/stop button of the sequencer. Well, may be, I missed something. At least the function inside Sonar seems to work. I selected for play/stop in Sonar a "midi-note" as trigger. This can be selected as one of the external input data sources. It worked perfectly with the keyboard keys - but that was not the goal - just a proof, that I have not found a better way to do it.
I hope this gives some hint, how to do it. If I find a way to get the Kronos non-MMC start/stop buttons to work, I will add this information.
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How to control VST or VSTi in Sonar via Kronos ...
I guess, the same way. If the Kronos External 1 setup is prepared with CC#s on a midi-channel that a VST will receive and accept, there should be no problem at all.
Define the midi-channel and the CC# for the VST or VSTi in a specific Kronos setup for External 1 and ready to go. Unfortunately the Kronos seems not to support a midi-learn function. One has to get the VST/VSTi CC#s from a handbook and type them in the Kronos accordingly.