How did you transition a archive of projects from a 32bit to 64bit habitat?

You shouldn't have any problems. You have separate x64 & x86 folders for your plugins, correct?
If you're using Sonar just remember to re-scan, the x64 plugins should load. If I wanted to find out if x86 plugins are used or needed I'd simply delete the x86 plugins folder TEMPORARILY, open a project & a message box will show if any x86 versions are missing from the project.


Also for the few x86 plugins I have & need I put an x86 next to the name of it in my plugin menu layouts to avoid confusion.

mike_mccue

How do the 32 and 64 bit plugins show up in plugin lists?

Somebody recommended the following once, which makes your question irrelevant.
 
You probably do not want both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of most plugs anyway.  So just install only the 64-bit versions.  Should you actually want both, or if the installer gives you no choice, put the 32-bit versions in a directory (named, say, VST-32-bit-duplicates).  Do not include that in Sonar's VST directory list, and you'll be in great shape.  For me, the only VST I wanted both was IK ARC.
 
If I recall, 64-bit X2 does provide a indicator in the effects bin name list that indicates if it's using a 32-bit version.  That clue, indicating Sonar was not using the version I thought it should be, was what prompted me to take the above action.  Has worked like charm so far.

If there is a 64 bit version of a plugin available for the 32 bit version you used - then it's really simple.
Install the 64 bit version (not the 32) and when you open the project it just opens the plugin as it always has - it's just going to be 64 bit.

If it's an older 32 bit plugin that does not have a 64 bit version available, you will still need to install it and bridge it but you won't have duplicates, because there is no 64 bit version installed.

I can't be 100% certain that all plugins will be this transparent during the switch, but the ones I use were (some waves, some toontracks, Valhalla room & shimmer, the sonar plugins, etc...)

I moved from XP to W7-64 recently.  One particular softsynth that does not seem to like W7-64 is SampleTank.  This has been discussed elsewhere and it is apparent that this software is badly in need of an update.

One plugin that I had problems with was 2c-Aether.  It would not install properly until I updated to the 64-bit version.  Now it works fine, even in old projects that make use of this plugin.  In contrast the 64-bit version of Rapture would crash any old Sonar project that included Rapture.  So I re-installed Rapture and this time selected the 32-bit option instead.  The problem disappeared.

My biggest annoyance is Battery 3.  This has nothing to do changing operating systems, but is due to the fact that I updated to a more recent version before installing, not realising that this newer version no longer includes a DXi.  I have dozens of old projects that rely on the DXi version of Battery.  Substituting the VSTi version is a tedious process.

Thank you all very much for the thoughtful and detailed replies.

The explanations are really helpful.


best regards,
mike