It doesn't look like you can record these in automation tracks. I use Logic, not Sonar, but according to the GPO5 manual, "The Piano instruments added in GPO 5 include the following performance controls, which have no assigned MIDI CC equivalents". It looks like your only choice is to set the control in the Aria player and leave it at that one setting. I would recommend writing to tech support to verify this.

Thanks Jeffrey.  I knew that there was no MIDI value assigned to those controls, but I can't remember if Sonar has some way of recording controls from a synethesizer that doesn't have a MIDI value assigned to it.  I've been looking around through the Sonar help stuff and haven't found anything yet.  Actually, now that I think about it, those controls may be more representative of qualities inherent in the instrument itself, which wouldn't change, so, yes, setting them and leaving them would make sense.  Anyway, thanks for your response.

If you NEED to automate these controls it is possible, but you'll need to edit the sfz file for the instrument and assign an alternative controller.  The catch is that the dial in the ARIA control panel will not dance around to reflect your real time changes, but they will apply, and be audible.

I'll attempt to explain a method below.  My primary references for tweaking sfz can be found here:

http://drealm.info/sfz/plj-sfz.xhtml

and here:

https://www.plogue.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=4e75be39d60344691ed0c7dd3c641e9c

Here's what seems to be going on.  I'll focus on the "Dynamic Range" setting in the "Concert D Grand Piano" of GPO5 for the sake of brevity.

The custom Garritan UI for the Concert D Piano (this is an XML file that we cannot alter without breaking the GPO5 registration) is using an extended ARIA controller that is outside the range of a Standard MIDI Controller to transmit.  In this case, cc259 (MIDI CC assignments top out at 127).

So, when you turn the dial in ARIA to adjust the "Dynamic Range" of the Concert D Piano, the UI sends an internal CC259 controller message to the ARIA engine, which in turn adjusts some of the ARIA engine opcodes in real time.  If we users could tweak the XML file, we could change it in a way that would display our remote control changes in the control panel, but since we cannot do this without breaking the registration, we'll take another approach.

Here is the good news.  Using your favorite text editor, you CAN edit the sfz files without breaking the registration for you Library.  You can duplicate some lines in the sfz file to perform the same function using an alternate CC event.  Just be aware that the dials in the ARIA Control panel will not sync up and display and changes you make using your alternate controller.

First, you'll need to find the relative sfz file to the piano you wish to edit.  In my case, on a Windows 10 system, with the standard installation paths of the Garritan Installers, I find  the "Steinway Concert D.sfz" file here:

"C:\Program Files\Garritan\Personal Orchestra 5\Instruments\Keyboards"

Next, I'll make a backup of the file in case I mess up, or decide to revert to the original version.  I personally like to make a copy to my desktop, rename the original to "Steinway Concert D.sfz.bak", and then move the copy from my desktop back into place.

Finally, I'll open my favorite text editor in Administrative mode, and open this sfz file for viewing. (Tap the windows key, type "note", then right click the notepad app and choose "run as administrator".  Now I can open a sfz file, make edits, and over-write in the same location, etc.

Lets say I want to remote control the "Dynamic Range" using CC24 (this basically adjusts the strength of the velocity curve).

The first thing I will do is set the same default as the controller that is labeled to be the "Dynamic Range" pot.  Out of the box this Library sets the dynamic rage to around 50%, and I want to duplicate this for CC24 as well.  So I simply add, on a line of its own, anywhere in the <control> sections:

set_cc24=63.5

Next, I'll use the 'search' or 'find' feature of my text editor to locate any opcodes linked to cc259.  When I find one, I copy it, paste it to a new line underneath, and change it to cc24.  In the case of this Concert D piano, all I need to duplicate are two little lines that I have found:

var01_curvecc259=9
var01_oncc259=1

So I copy those, paste them underneath, and change the cc in my copies to 24:

var01_curvecc24=9
var01_oncc24=1

Later I discover that this particular piano has a second <control> section, so I'll set a default for cc24 in that as well.

set_cc24=63.5

Now I save the sfz, reload it into ARIA, and I find that I can adjust the "Dynamic Range" of the piano using either CC24, or the dial in ARIA.

Repeat, wash, and rinse for any of the other dials of which you'd like to create alternate controllers.

If you need to do this, and are having trouble following my instructions here let me know which CC events you'd like to do what, and I'll try to work and post a replacement sfz for you to use and study.

Here you can find a thread where I discuss making a tweak to allow operating the vibrato lfo in a wind instrument with a keyboard that does not support channel-pressure-aftertouch.  It's a similar tweak as above.

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000488188-Using-After-Touch-during-performance-on-my-midi-Keyboard

Wow!  Thanks Brian!  I didn't know you could do that with Garritan .sfz files.  That's amazing!  Even more amazing that you were able to figure that all out.  The moving dials are no big thing, as the levels will be represented in the automation track.  Thanks again!

Marvin,

I've been exploring a bit and I may have been wrong about not being able to alter the UI xml files without breaking registration.  Don't edit any xml in the Banks folder, but....the stuff in the GUI folder seems to be tweakable (just be sure to do backups in case you need to restore them).  Again, be careful to back things up just in case...but so far I've had success.

As an experiment I tried the following:

1.  Loaded up the original Concert D Grand Piano's sfz file into my text editor.

2.  Did a batch search and replace for cc259 into cc24.

3.  Opened up the UI/Grand_Piano.xml file in my favorite text or xml editor.

4.  Located and then Changed the Knob Param and Label Param entries from 259 to 24.

Now CC24 works...the dials in ARIA sync up with any MIDI controls, and the knobs in the UI work, etc.

This might be helpful to know for future situations where you wish to quickly change some things around, or customize the UI of an instrument.  One can 'examine' the bank xml files to see what GUI maps apply when and where.  Just take care not to alter them, as editing anything in the 'bank' directory CAN break registration.