still cannot access plugins

'ello,
i read all the replies to my previous request for info about plugins, but still cannot get to them
here's what happens: i right-click in the effects area of a track, get a choice of:
Bypass bin (which appears to do nothing or take me anywhere)
MIDI Plugins > Plugin Layouts
Cakewalk Effects
the cakewalk effects has 7 choices, but i'm not interested in these at the moment.
if i go to plugin layouts>Manage Layouts- it opens the plugin manager, says there are
9 categories of plugins, each with varying numbers of effects. this is what i'm after.
i tried adding them to the cakewalk effects folder, but they don't show up to be accessed from that menu
in the effects bin. i tried making new folders, put some plugins in the folders, but again, can't get them to appear
when accessing from the effects bin of the tracks. this is killing me- all these cool-sounding effects & i can't
get to them. the help file is pretty useless- all it's concerned with is showing you how to manage the menu/
layouts, as in folder management. i need to know how to APPLY effects to my tracks.
somebody? anybody?

ok:
9 categories are: directx audio (DX), VST audio effects (VST), DirectX Instruments (DXi),
VST Instruments (VSTi), MIDI Effects (MFX), DirectX Media Objects (DMO), Control surfaces.
I'm after the DX, VST,MFX in particular- under the DX effects are 33 plugins: all Cakewalk-
Alias Factoe, Amp Sim, Chorus, Classic Phaser, delay,compressor, et etc.
VST Audio effects has Studio Devil, and of course the MFX are the 7 available under the Cakewalk effects (which it appears are accesible). and yeah i do realize that the first 2 categories are audio effects, which i assume will only work on audio tracks...

so... i've only ever had mc4- why would there even be entries for effects that don't exist in this program?
do you think cakewalk made mc4 by dumbing-down sonar?

i read all the replies to my previous request for info about plugins, but still cannot get to them
here's what happens: i right-click in the effects area of a track, get a choice of:
Bypass bin (which appears to do nothing or take me anywhere)
MIDI Plugins > Plugin Layouts
Cakewalk Effects

looks to me that you are in a MIDI track....try this in an AUDIO track because the Cakewalk plugins are audio plugins.

The audio plugins are not available to a midi track. (because there is no audio in a midi track..only data) If you want to use them, you must convert the midi data to audio using bounce to audio or some other method to get the music into the audio domain. THEN...you will have the music in an audio track where you will be able to insert the Cakewalk Audio plugins.

edit: to test this...just insert a new audio track and try inserting a plugin in that empty audio track.... I'll bet it works.

OK, I understand better now why you're confused.

Your looking at the area where you manage your plug-ins. You are correct...this is where you manage your menu layouts, as in folder management like you mentioned.

There may be many things listed in there that you don't have.

This is Cakewalk's default plug in's management settings. It's up to you whether you want to continue using thier default settings or to create your own settings.

Let's say you want to lay a bass track and you have 4 or 5 synths from your collection of 30 synths that you use exclusively for a bass sound. But you don't want to open a menu of 30 synths to hunt down the synth your looking for. You could create your own menu called "Bass" and place those 4 or 5 synths in that folder to make make it easier to find the bass synth you're looking for.

But as I stated, what you're looking at is Cakewalk's default setup. This doesn't mean you have all these things installed on your computer. Although that would be nice wouldn't it?

You can go to Explore > Program Files > Cakewalk and look at the Plug-in, Shared Plug-in, and VST folders if you want to confirm what synths and plug-ins you have installed.

Hope this helps.

Pete