I am in total agreement with the front panel and all the bells and whistles being part of the “trip”! It’s one of the main reasons why I dig this board, because of all the different options for expression, (although I do miss that ribbon)....
I think the difference I’m feeling in this particular scenario is that all the other controllers are assigned beforehand. When I reach out and touch them it’s to “perform”. In this case I’m essentially reaching out to “program” the faders TO perform with them. And it’s gonna be an extra burden to remember where they should be assigned to (which sets of parts or which elements) for each particular performance (although Jason’s suggestion seems to be the way to go).
It all connects to my initial issue: the REC SW effecting both the expression pedal and the faders, forcing me to assign the knobs to control PART Volumes; taking the knobs out of the equation it seems....

I’m still in the weening phase coming from the ES, trying to shake old habits and learn new ones. The lineage is apparent; but not all of it is on the surface. Luckily, most of the road blocks I’ve hit had answers somewhere; the manual, videos, articles....but this forum, and these discussions, are invaluable:-)

The fact that the Receive Switch for “Vol/Exp” is OFF for a Part does not prevent you from controlling that Parts output. What it does is defeat the Part Fader (cc7) and the default FC1 (cc11) from affecting that Part.

Part Volume and Element Level are still directly assignable to other controllers (including the Assign Knob System) within the Control matrix. Just because you have deactivated the Receive Switch does not prevent you from accomplishing output level Control. That’s what is important in this discussion.

You would deactivate the “Vol/Exp” Receive Switch when you want to “fix” the output of a Part... perhaps in a situation where, you are playing a Piano/String layer and want the Piano at a ‘fixed’ Volume, while the Strings follow the FC1 Expression Pedal. Or any time you wish to dynamically control the Performance Volume of one segment while another remains unchanged.

I don’t see using it as a “template” to build on, but rather a ‘special’ use case. Use when necessary.

Slider Function is an Either/Or
In order to have a selection where the Slider Function = Part Volume, it is logical that this would be for all 16 Parts (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16)
And it is logical for the “Slider Function”, when set to Element/Operator, (1-4, 5-8), would be for the currently *selected* Part.

Control Beyond the *selected* Part
What crosses all boundaries are the things you assign to the Super Knob (which is omnipotent/omnipresent) it controls what it is assigned to control at all times whether the Part is *selected* or not; and things you assign to the Scene Memory, which can be applied at any time regardless of what is *selected*.

In spite of the Receive Switch setting for “Vol/Exp”, the system lets you control volume in ways you may not yet have even dreamed about. Example, use the Super Knob to fade out all backing Parts except your lead sound... which you can be controlling separately. The Super Knob can be set to do something different to each Part.

Early attempts at programming one winds up assigning everything to the Super Knob... as you start to appreciate what you actually require in a situation, you begin to be more selective about what you choose to assign there (at least that has been my observation). This is particularly true in custom setups. It really is determined by what you need from a particular program for the specific use case.

In one of the tutorial examples, we point out how when setting multiple instruments in a Performance (Setup for individual selection), the Super Knob can be setup to address each of the Parts doing exactly what that instrument requires to perform it. For example, when a Brass Orchestra sound is the *selected* Part, the Super Knob System is doing the Element Level cross-fading to create the harmonic “swell” articulation, but when you *select* the Acoustic Piano the Super Knob is doing changes to the room acoustics, and when the organ is the *selected* Part, the Super Knob can do whatever you might design for it — it could be rebalancing your “footage” setting (Element Level); etc.

This is when you discover that the programming that links a Part’s Assign Knob to the top level Common Assign Knobs (and the Super Knob) is not completely lost when “merging” Parts into a new custom Performance. Those assignments remain associated with the Part when you “merge” it, you simply need to activate them within their new home. That’s when you fall in love, all over again, with this controller matrix!