Here is a Workaround for Beatscape and Sonar 64-Bit Incompatiability

There might have been posts addressing this within the last year, so sincere apologies to the experienced forumites who have already conquered this problem for any repetitions herein.  This posting is intended primarily for "Beatscape Newbies" who like myself have pulled out most of their natural hair trying to figure out how to record Beatscape to individual tracks in Sonar 64.  WARNING POSTING IS QUITE LONG - but I think worth it if in the end you can indeed make good use of what I think is a great virtual synth.  The problem is that if it does not work seamlessly with the software then the term "plug-in" becomes a bit of a misnomer, and should probably be replaced by "forced in" or "shoved in".  I sincerely hope that Beatscape developers are working on making this thing 64-bit compatiable - sure would be nice just to be able to drag and drop to record!!!  Hint, Hint Cakewalk!!

Anyways, newbies, I recently upgraded to Sonar 8.5 PE from Sonar 6 Studio and for the past two weeks have been having my first experiences with Beatscape.  Beats me (no pun intended) why almost four years after being the first ones to introduce a fully 64-bit DAW, Cakewalk would include a virtual instrument (and a damn good one at that) which forces you to retrogress to 32-bit work to be able to use it in your tracks.  A few in this forum have previously indicated their ability to drag and drop pad loops directly into 64-bit Sonar tracks - my experience like most people is the opposite - where attempting to drag and drop results in an error message that Rex2 files are not supported on the 64-bit platform.  So if indeed others have an easier way - please share details.

However after two weeks of playing around with the program,  I would like to share a potential workaround for this problem which allows a MIDI keyboard/MIDI controller to trigger pads and allow individual track recording.  Here goes:

1. Insert Soft Synth>Beatscape
2. In dialog box select All Synth Out Stereo, or All Synth Out Mono depending on how you work.  For me I do All Synth Out Stereo.  This particular option yields a Beatscape MIDI track, and 17 beatscape stereo synth tracks.  Note that the first synth track is a stereo track which mixes all the pads.  The other tracks in sequence are output on the Soft Synth stereo outs sequentially.  Therefore when the 17 synth tracks open, I typically move the mixed stereo track (which to me is useless for individual tracking) to the bottom of the track view, and move the MIDI track to the top of the view - so that Track 2 goes out Beatscape Stereo 2, Track 3 goes out Beatscape Stereo 3 and so on.  Also while in dialog box, select MIDI SOURCE, Enable MIDI Output, Open Synth Rack and Synth Property Page.
3. Very rarely will we need all 17 Beatscape synth tracks so you can delete some of the bottom tracks if you wish to keep view clearer.  I typically delete and leave about 12 tracks total.   This deletion also includes the mixed stereo track.  However if for some reason you need all 17 tracks then leave them - just remember which is the mixed track, and keep in mind that every pad will play to this track and thisa could get confusing hence my reason for deleting track all together.
4. Next go to the Beatscape synth interface and load/drag and drop the required loops/samples onto the pads.
5. THIS NEXT STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT and should be done only after doing Step 4 - click on the little number in bottom left corner of each pad to select pad, then go to the edit section on the right of interface and select output - so that Pad 1 goes to Output 1, Pad 2 to Output 2 etc.  NOTE THAT EVEN THOUGH PAD 1 GOES TO OUTPUT 1, WHEN YOU PLAY PAD 1 THE METER IN THE TRACK 2 CONNECTED TO THE INPUT BEATSCAPE STEREO 2 WILL RESPOND.  SIMILARLY WHEN YOU HIT PAD 2 WHICH GOES TO OUTPUT 2, THE METER IN TRACK 3 CONNECTED TO THE INPUT BEATSCAPE STEREO 3 WILL RESPOND.  FOR SOME STRANGE REASON, PROBABLY HAS TO DO WITH THE MIXED TRACK, THE PAD OUTPUTS AND THE TRACK INPUTS ARE OFFSET BY 1. CAKEWALK REP SAYS THEY ARE AWARE OF THIS - NOT SURE WHAT THEY ARE DOING ABOUT IT. 
6. In the Keyboard View at the bottom of the Synth interface the first 16 keys should be shaded to indicate they will trigger the 16 Beatscape pads.  At this point  you ought to be able to press key C2 on your controller and trigger Pad 1, C#2 and trigger Pad 2 and so on.  If it does not trigger, ensure that your MIDI track input is set to All inputs OMNI or to your controller OMNI.  However, this typically self-configures when you insert the synth as I have described.
7. At this point, arm the MIDI Track, begin recording and after the audio metronome count-in press C2 to record pad 2.  If pad is a 1-shot then simply need press and release.  If pad is a loop, then press and hold through the end of loop.  Have not yet found a way to sync Sonar record with loop start - however no to worry this can be easily trimmed after.  Let's say that Pad 1 is a kick and this has recorded MIDI info in measures M1 through M4.  The individual synth track will appear blank, and the midi data will show up in the MIDI track in M1 thru M4.
8.  Move cursor to say M5, arm midi track and when record starts trigger Pad 2 using appropriate key on controller to record say a snare loop through end of M8.
9. Repeat Step 7 or 8 above but with next track to get say HiHat in M9 through M12.  Continue this way to record data for all the pads you are using.
10. To get MIDI data over to audio so you can process and continue developing the rest of your song, you will need to Bounce tracks to Audio one-by-one.  This is where my challenge was for the past two weeks as each time I tried to do this, perhaphs 2 or 3 of the tracks would bounce and others would remain empty.  This is what led me to figure out the method of recording the different pads' midi data in their own blocks of discrete measures .  Therefore, to bounce say the 4-measure kick loop to audio,  highlight measures M1 through M4, and select simultaneously (using CTRL+Click) the MIDI track and the track corresponding to the kick (in our case track 2). Then go Edit>Bounce Track.  When dialog box opens it will ask to create audio track and will automatically populate track field with the next available track number.  Be sure to select "What You Hear" and "Tracks (Not Entire Mix)" in the appropriate fields.  The other fields should default to correct values Stereo Output, Triangular Dithering etc.  Click OK and a new track should appear at the bottom of track view field with M1 to M4 containing the kick audio waveforms.  Solo the new track and check that the procedure worked.
11. Repeat Step 10 for all other tracks, making sure to select 1) the correct measures, and 2) correct tracks, noting that you always select the MIDI and one other synth track.
12. When done you can delete MIDI track as wll as delete the Beatscape Synth to conserve system resources.
13. Finally you can trim and line-up the audios if needed.  Convert to groove-clips, slip them out on track, and continue working on the rest of your project.

Do not be concerned with the fact that after recording and prior to bouncing the actual Beatscape virtual synth tracks do not show any data - as long as the outputs werte setup correctly at the beginning, and you make the appropriate selections prior to bouncing, should be fine.

Others in this forum have dissed Beatscape as useless and "something to be played around with when bored".  I happen to think it has some great content and is worth the effort to be abe to include in projects.

Would appreciate some feedback if anyone actually tries this.  IN THE INTERIM, CAKEWALK PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND MAKE THIS SOFTWARE INSTRUMENT THAT IS CURRENTLY A "SHOVE-IN" INTO A REAL "PLUG-IN"!!