Roland A-Pro Panning & DP

[mesayre]

Hey all,
I recently got my hands on a Roland A800-Pro Keyboard keyboard to use as my main controller. It's got knobs & faders, and integrates really well with Sonar, which I also use, and that's why I got it.

It also claims to be useable with DP via Mackie Control protocol, and it sorta is, but there's a major annoyance. Because it has regular pots (as opposed to the Mackie Control's encoders), it's set up to control panning via "encoder simulation" - ie, the further you turn it to the left, the faster the value increments to the left. To stop the value from changing it's gotta be dead center. And there's no dead zone in the middle. Try as a I might, I never get it quite it the center, so my tracks all drift as I'm working. Maddening.

So my question for you all is: is there a way to set specific pan values via the Mackie Control protocol? I can use the Apro's editor to send any arbitrary MIDI message from the pots. I'm happy to read through documentation to figure out what that message needs to be, but am having some difficulty finding a clear explanation of the protocol.

Any assistance would be welcome. Otherwise I'll just have to disable the pots entirely.

Thanks,
Mike