6 (32 bit), 7 (32 bit) and 8.5 (64 bit) on one pc (Windows 64 bit)?

I am having immense problems opening old projects in Sonar 8.5. I found out that a major reason is the fact that back then I had Snar 6 en later 7installed as 32 bit on a 32 bit system. Right now I have Sonar 8.5 64 bit on Windows 7 64 bit. (All versions are Producer btw.)

Because I will be re-installing my system the coming week I didn't mind doing a test and so I installed Sonar 7 on my pc in 32 bit. To my surprise it worked without problems and I could open older projects, that I made with this version, almost without any problems!

Now I was thinking about installing ALL my music software on my new installment: Sonar 6 and 7 as 32 bit and Sonar 8.5 as 64 bit. And I also would like to install ALL the versions I have of plugins like Guitar Rig (2 and 3), Kontakt Player (2,3 and 4), etc. etc. etc.

Now my only worry is: will this work...!? I can imagine that Sonar 8.5 will install newer versions of certain plugins (I use Sonitus a lot) and maybe those version won't work with Sonar 6 or 7, maybe also because of the 32 vs 64 bit...?

It would be awesome if I could simply open an old Sonar 6 project in Sonar 6 without having to open it in 8.5 and having to import all plugins again and figuring out all settings (which are lost by then).

As said, yesterday I installed 7 32 bit while 8.5 64 bit was installed (I installed all shared stuff in a different folder btw). Anyone here who has all his or hers version of Sonar on one computer, 32 bit mixed with 64 bit? Are there thngs I should watch out for (like shared folders)?

Ok, cool, thanks! I was indeed planning to install them in the right order.

So version 6 (32 bit) won't get into problems with newer versions of plugins from version 85. (64 bit)...? And I can install everything in that same Shared folder? When I tested this yesterday, I installed the version 7 plugins into a seperate folder, just to be sure. ;) But if it's not necessary all the better! ;) Seperate folders take more space on my precious SSD...

I tested some more on my current system (before reinstalling it all) and installed Sonar 6 PE too. Ir worked but I did have some problems with certain plugins not loading, also in Sonar 7 PE. I have installed each and every version I have of every plugin, so I for instance have Guitar Rig 2 and Guitar Rig 3 and the latter, after updating, has a dll in the VSTplugin folder but also two other ones in folders called 32 bit and 64 bit: apparently they added 64 bit support for it. But this resulted in some projects not loading and even locking up the system. I had to manually remove the dll from the VSTplugins folder AND that 64 bit one and I had to let Sonar 7 use it with jBridge too. Of course in new project the 64 bit GR is needed... So all in all it does work (even though I have installed it all in the wrong order, which I won't do when I reinstall everything), but it still can get a bit complicated, depending on how much plugins you use... It's not an option to only install the latest versions of each plugin, because then older projects won't load them and lose all the settings... I wish using Sonar 6 prjects in Sonar 8.5 was as easy as using InDesign 2 documents in InDesign 5... ;)

Yes, I managed to get almost everything working, but it takes some trial and error. ;) But it's a LOT better than trying to restore a Sonar 6 32 bit project in Sonar 8.5 64 bit...! I should have tried this a long time ago. From now on I will always keep older versions installed (or reinstall them when I get a new system). Although... there are limits, of course... I won't be reinstalling a version of Cakewalk Pro Audio anytime soon, I guess... ;)