Hi Milt,
The migration will take some time (especially if you have a lot of new large sample libraries - Kontakt, Omnisphere, etc)...
But the transition to Win7x64 is overall pretty smooth.
- Make sure your audio interface has solid x64 drivers
- Plugin organization under x64 is a little more complex (just need to pay close attention when installing)
I'd make sure to setup two separate VstPlugins folders (one for 64Bit plugins... and a 2nd for 32Bit plugins)
C:\ProgramFiles\VstPlugins_64Bit
C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\VstPlugins_32Bit
When you're installing plugins, pay careful attention to where the 32Bit and 64Bit dlls are installed. (Make sure they're pointing to the right folder - otherwise you end up with a confused mess)
By keeping 32Bit and 64Bit plugin dlls separate, you have separate control of them.
You can exclude 32Bit plugins, you can 'bridge' problematic 32Bit plugins using JBridge (3rd party applet that 'bridges' plugins - similar to Sonar's build in BitBridge).
Most 32Bit plugins work well with BitBridge2 ('bridges' 32Bit plugins in Sonar 8.5).
If you encounter a particular plugin that just doesn't cope well with BitBridge2 (ie: Melodyne), you have two workarounds:
- Purchase JBridge (~$21) and use that to bridge the problematic plugin
- Open the project in the 32Bit version of Sonar... use the problematic plugin and freeze it.
I'd install both the 32Bit and 64Bit versions of Sonar (they'll exist side-by-side).
This gives you a fail-safe if you encounter a particular plugin that refuses to be bridged.
You'll need to do fresh install of all your apps/plugins...
But one thing that can save significant time:
If you have large plugin libraries (already on HD), you can copy those libraries over to the new machine (to your Sample HD).
Then, install the accompanying plugin/s... and choose to
not install the sample library.
Once installed, open the plugin... and point it to the location of the sample library you copied over.