Im using the Mini Saw preset and for some reason adding this to parts 1 and 2 causes both faders to move if I move part 2's fader. I even deleted the part and readded a different part and it doesnt happen but when I added Mini Saw back in there was the issue. What is causing that?

This second issue occurs if I copy part 1 to part 2 or part 2 to part 3. The DAWs track wants to recognize it as the same midi channel.

Your assignable knobs look at CC values. If you have MIDI THRU configured on your DAW then the knob movement is going to be echoed back to Montage. I'm not sure how your DAW handles incoming MIDI and possibly re-channels the data. Because if the "input" channel was set to "any" and output channel for each track (in DAW) is set to 1, 2, 3, 4, etc - then any incoming MIDI message might be re-channeled to the output MIDI channel.

You may see superknob also gets cascaded to all channels but there's not a consequence here since only channel 1 is "looking" for SN.

IF that's the issue, you can change the incoming MIDI channel for each track to only match the single MIDI channel given to that particular Part.

I'm not really familiar with Bitwig.

Since there's a surprise about the MIDI addressing - I'm assuming your keyboard is set to multi-channel mode and not hybrid or single.

Overall, this sounds like a MIDI routing issue (at the DAW) - which is what the bulk of my reasoning above is based on.

Thanks Ill check it out further and report back. I do have each track set to ANY input. I suppose if I change it to Montage channel 1 - 3 for each part maybe it will work better. I will try some tests. But if it still persists especially that copying parts on the Montage and fader issue, I dont know what to make of it

Ok I found the issue. In Bitwig there is actually three different areas which affect the midi input and output. 1 is the Track settings. Here we can set the Channel in to out. All or 1-16 to Same of 1-16. By default all tracks are set as From ALL to 1. So when I copied the track and copied part 1 to part 2 on teh montage both were sending on channel 1 per the track assignment in Bitwig. This is different than setting the midi channel on the Hardware Instrument. Also there is a controller input setting as well. So that is a third dynamic. The attached image shows how to set it up so that all 16 parts of Montage can be recorded on a single track., if thats your thing.

However it still doesnt explain the midi feedback resistance on the Montage as I turn knobs. This happens when either the track is armed or the HW instrument in ON. Of course turning off either of these messes me up and I cant record.

I'd really have to mess with that DAW to see how it works. Your screenshot settings seem fine but who knows what else there may be. Pull up a MIDI monitor and take a look at the messages (CC, Sysex, everything but clock and active sense (you can turn off all "real time" messages if that's an option) and show the results here while configured in the "broken" state and having problems.

That would tell you on the bus what's happening although wouldn't tell you why.

ok Bitwig support is saying I have to turn off receive midi notes on the hardware side while recording the Montage. Is that normal? How is it that this type of midi issue has not been addressed all these years? So we are supposed to turn off incoming signals on the keyboard to record it in? And then turn it back on?

Typically this is handled by Local Control OFF on Montage and then making sure there's no redundancy on the DAW side. I don't know Bitwig well enough.

If I turn local control OFF then I cant turn the knobs to record in live automation changes. Im thinking the way I need to do this is to use VCV as an audio recorder and just capture all my playing in real time as an audio clip. It does look like the automation does capture correctly but on the montage its always appearing to fight the knob turns with the red led lights showing different values. This happens even when there is no automation recorded for that part. So what is feeding the information to the knobs (ie cutoff offset or superknob) when there is not yet any midi automation recorded. It is strange to me. I have nothing cor the cutoff of set or superknob or anything else and yet while trying to record automation in, the leds are resisting. It does look like the recorded auiomation is correct though after the fact.

If you have local control on and am feeding back MIDI from your DAW then the MIDI monitor will show double messages by inference because you know the outgoing messages are sent straight to the tone generator with Local ON and then a 2nd set coming back in from the DAW.

ok I solved it. In Bitwig there is this nearly hidden setting called track monitoring. By default it is set to Auto for each track that is created. I turned it off and now I can record the knobs and everything while playing with none of that LED stuff going on.

Thanks for persisting and letting the community know what to look out for.