Can I use my Sonar Instruments and FX in other DAWS

Interesting question. I'd imagine any of the standalone stuff like Z3ta would be fine and any effects that are simple plug ins should be fine. Pro Channel stuff would probably be out. IDK... open Ableton and see if you can navigate to the Cakewalk folder for the plugs/instruments. I might give this a try myself when I install the Ableton Lite thingy that I just got.

I wonder... does Session Drummer run elsewhere or does it need to be hosted by Sonar? I don't think I've ever seen it used in anything other than Sonar in my intertube journeys. This is actually a very interesting thread/question. Might result in a list of what does and doesn't work outside of Sonar.

 Yes you can. As stated above, just point your other DAW to where your Vst plugins are in Sonar. I'm using Studio One v2 as my only other DAW, and after specifying the location for the Vsts, they show up in Studio One's Browser - some of them, that is. I tried each one by dragging & dropping them into tracks, etc. Things like Zeta, Dim Pro, Rapture, and all 4 of the S1 instruments showed up. Also things like the Vocal Channel and a few others. Some that show up, but don't work will produce a message like 'This is specific to & can only be used in Sonar or Cakewalk' or something like that. True Pianos is one of those that I remember seeing that for - probably because it's a sample teaser that's included exclusively for & with Cake.

Okay, so the specific question was never really answered. The question was, "Will Session Drummer work in other DAWs?" None of the answers referenced Session Drummer specifically.
 
I'm thinking the answer is No. I'm using Studio One 2 and it doesn't see Session Drummer. Many of the other plugins from Sonar work fine but I fear Session Drummer is one of those that will not travel.
 
Too bad about that. I like it. Oh well. If anyone knows a way to allow its use, well, wouldn't that be great!

Session Drummer 3 shows up in both Live and Reaper.
You should be able use any of the VSTs that Sonar installs in the vstplugins folder without problems. You probably won't be able to use the Pro-Channel plugins unless they are also installed as regular VSTs (Overloud does this).
Live can only use a single plugin folder, I think Reaper can use multiple folders like Sonar. I have a few plugins that got installed in different locations (I probably clicked ok before looking at where they were getting put), I just made a separate VST64 folder that I copied everything to and point both Live and Reaper at that. Everything shows up and works fine in both DAWs.
Pro-Tools and Reason do not support VST but they do support ReWire so you can use your VSTis in both if you use Reaper as an intermediary. I could be wrong but my understanding is that if you want to use Reason as a rewire master you need to use the ReBirth Input Machine. You can also configure Reaper to act like an audio interface so you can even use effect plugins in addition to instruments.
So the answer is yes, you should be able to use any VST Sonar installs in virtually any DAW. You can't normally bitbridge 32 bit plugins into a 64 bit DAW (Sonar does that automatically) but if you install everything with the same bittyness (64/32), that shouldn't be a problem. Some DAWs may take a bit more fiddling to get them to work (Pro-Tools, Reason) but that's just a matter of wiring.
I'm sitting here playing with the OldZepKit in Live as we speak.

You cannot use the Nomad Factory Blue Tubes suite in other DAWs (X3 only), they are licensed to Sonar only. I tried to use one in Maschine, in Sonar, and was met with a license prompt. I have a feeling Rolands R-Mix may be restricted to Sonar as well (X2?). As an X1 user you are probably safe, but it is a legit question that might effect newer version users. 

To the OP = is there any thread for your Sonar issues that can be bumped to see if we can get them sorted out for you?  I would sure like an opportunity to try.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Yeah - twas just a shot at it, in case it was something they were interested in.  We sometimes have had success with getting someone to provide enough detail to where we can 'fix' them.
 
Bob Bone