Hey guys, I know this thread is pretty old but I thought I would chime in.

ALL my waves stuff wasn't working in Sonar 8 x64 as of yesterday, and I followed the instructions above and everything works 100% now. The only thing is two copies of each plugin appeared in my menu in Sonar, so I had to go through the plugin layout editor and delete, rename, reorganize etc.

Minimal hair-pulling, etc. Guess I'm lucky that you guys went through this before I did!

Thanks, bitman and everyone else!

So for any one still using Sonar Producer 8.5 in Windows 10 64bit and having issues with getting your Waves plugins working or recognized in Sonar Producer (8.5.3) (Waves plugin versions 6.0 and below) This is what fixed it for me. 
 
1. After installing Sonar Producer 8.5 (64 Bit Version) and its updates (versions 8.5.1, 8.5.2, and 8.5.3) type the windows key, scroll to Cakewalk, pull the drop down menu down and right click on "Sonar 8.5 Producer(x64)", go to "More", click on "Open file location", right click the (should be already) highlighted "Sonar 8.5 Producer(x64)", go to and click on "properties", Select the "Compatibility" Tab, See selected settings here . Copy the same settings as listed in this first linked image. Click "Apply" then "Okay". Sonar is now in compatibility mode for excepting those plugins.
 
2. Now its time to install the plugins. Before installing any Waves plugins (versions 6.0 and below) you need to locate the file for executing the installer program (I.E.Waves IR-1 5.2.Setup  ), right click on the file and select Properties, now go to the compatibility Tab, Copy selected settings like this image here , click Apply and then Okay. Now double click and start the install process of the plugin(s). For 32bit Plugins install the file location to C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves ,then install the plugins to the following directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Plug-Ins . Follow these steps for installing all Waves related Plugins.
 
3. Now its time to tell Sonar Producer 8.5 where to look for these plugins. Launch Sonar, after it loads select Options, Global, and then the VST Plugins Tab. Add VST directories and check the check boxes as shown in this image here. Now click on "Scan VST Folders", let Sonar do its thing. Depending on how many plugins you installed, it may take a little time for them to all load. After its done loading plugins in the back ground, Uncheck all the check boxes and click Okay (other wise every time you launch the program it will look for those plugins again that its already found and take a while for the program to launch, trust me it gets annoying). Your plugins should be in the list now somewhere under either "waves" or "Waveshells". 
 
4. If you are having issues with viewing what ever selected plugins GUI then go to Options, Global, General Tab, and Uncheck the "Enable X-Ray" box at the bottom, then click okay.
 
Please be aware this method is for the 32bit plugins only and i have not yet tested this method for any 64bit plugins. I imagine the selected directories would be some what similar to such as C:\Program Files\Waves and then C:\Program Files\Waves\Plug-Ins as this is where much of the 64bit plugins want to be installed at and Compatibility modes for said plugin setup applications would possibly for Windows 7 and up. But double check with the appropriate plugin manufacture or the "Read Me" file that comes with your software.  
 
I do hope this helps somebody as it did take me a while to figure this out for my self. 
 
Best regards
Matt
 
 

so heres post number 3
 

and 5