Longtime -- but only occasional -- user deeply mired in confusion

Apologies in advance for what will probably be a long query filled with minute detail. I'll try to eliminate some of the chaff, but feel it's important to include sufficient detail to fully explain my situation.
 
Briefly, I go back as far as Guitar Tracks 2 and upgraded to GT-3 and, finally, GT Pro 4. At about that time, I stopped recording for a couple of years or more, and didn't really put much time in on 4. When I finally wanted to begin recording again, I found out that they had removed simultaneous multi-track recording from 4, which resulted in extreme disappointment, because I'd formerly been able to record 8 individual tracks at the same time. Now, I was restricted to a stereo track consisting of two channels. Bummer!
 
I contacted Cakewalk, and they generously offered me a good price on Sonar X1 Essential, which would restore the multi-track recording capability. I made the purchase and installed it on my recording computer, which was running Windows XP SP-3. It ran fine, and I was able to read project files from the 3 previous versions of Guitar Tracks. Despite this, I didn't do any new recordings at the time, I just fiddled with it a bit to learn the new interface.
 
Over time, I was notified of and update to X1, which I downloaded, but never installed. Similarly, when I was notified of X2, I purchased and downloaded it, but didn't have the time to play with it, either, so I just saved it on a disk for later installation. (never happened!)
 
When X3 came along, I also bought it and saved it to disk. (In fact, I mistakenly bought it twice, about 6 months apart, but put it on the back burner and never installed it. Until yesterday.)
 
One of the reasons for the delay is that I want/need to update my recording computer. I have a choice of machines to suit the purpose, but I have upgraded other software and have to be careful to use a common-denominator operating system that is supported by all the hardware and software. The biggest limitation is my sound card: an M-Audio Delta 1010LT multi-channel device. Gives my 8 simultaneous channels, and works great. However, Windows 7 is the last version for which drivers were written. From what I've seen, Sonar is supported on Windows 7 & 8.1, but there seem to be mixed results on 10. So, it appeared that everything should be ok if I installed X3 on a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional system, which is what I did last night.
 
Installation went fine -- I chose to install both the 32 & 64 bit versions of X3. Each will open .bun & .cwb files copied from my old XP recording computer. But that's about as far as it goes. I can sometimes play the timeline, but some of the transport controls don't appear to be 'live', despite the fact that they work. And it will frequently freeze, requiring me to shut it down with task manager.  Happens with both the 32 & 64 bit versions.
 
Now, I'm filled with questions:
 
1) I'm having a little trouble even identifying which version of Sonar I have. I originally bought what was called Sonar X1 Essential. X2 also had the 'Essential' name when I bought it, but the next upgrade was simply called Sonar X3. The bottom line is, I'm not exactly certain which version I have anymore. I see that there's an LT version - is this simply Sonar X3, renamed by leaving out the 'Essential' from the name? If I look at the version number in the Help/About section, it shows Sonar X3 (X3a Build 209)
 
2) I saw references to a version e of Sonar X3, so thought that I might look for it. Clicking on 'Check for program updates' in my X3, returns a message that my software is up-to-date. So what the heck am I running? Sonar X3 Essential? Plain old Sonar X3?
 
3) What is the latest/most recent update for my product?
 
4) To attempt a fix, should I uninstall both the 32 & 64 bit versions, and then reinstall one or both? My system is 64-bit Win 7 Pro, with 16GB of RAM. The bundle files that I will importing were written on 32-bit versions of GT 2 through GT4 Pro, and Sonar X1 Essential. I wouldn't think it'd make a different, but...
 
5) Any other ideas? (more info happily-supplied, if requested...)
 
Thanks,
Chuck
 

Hi. I agree with sharke (James) that you should go x64 all the way, regarding both RAM and and vst's. It will save you from potential issues regarding "bridging" plugins in the future as well.
There is also an update to SONAR X3 (X3e)
https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013361/SONAR-X3e-Update
You could also take a look at SONAR Platinum, if you feel like looking into the future
http://forum.cakewalk.com/SONAR-X3-Producer-customers-Get-the-full-SONAR-Platinum-experience-for-60-days-m3369332.aspx
All the best.
 

cbrillow
 Main reason for installing the 32-bit was to (maybe) be more compatible with the bundle files recorded in the older, 32-bit programs.
 

The main reason for this is plugins, and not SONAR itself. I would (at least) do the update to X3e.
All the best.

Did you try to log in at http://www.cakewalk.com/ ? If you have not done this recently (last year(s)), I would contact Cakewalk to get your account up and running.
All the best.
 

I had a M-Audio Delta 1010lt in Win7 for years, so you should be ok in that area. Do you use ASIO drivers? Have you tried to adjust your latency in SONAR, in Preferences (P), Audio, Playback And Recording. Is your "allocate files" set to anything other than 0 (will slow down that start of project, and is on the same page)? Hope it helps.
All the best.

Zargg71
I had a M-Audio Delta 1010lt in Win7 for years, so you should be ok in that area. Do you use ASIO drivers?

Yes, I use ASIO drivers in the old Win XP Pro machine, in which the Delta is currently located. Today, I'll move it to the Windows 7 machine and see what happens.
 

Zargg7
Have you tried to adjust your latency in SONAR, in Preferences (P), Audio, Playback And Recording. Is your "allocate files" set to anything other than 0 (will slow down that start of project, and is on the same page)? Hope it helps.

 
Given that I had no difficulty in setting it up in XP all those years ago, I don't recall these settings, or if I had to change anything. Seems like it just worked... I'll certainly keep these in mind as I try to get everything going in Windows 7, though.
 
Thanks again, and --- cheers!

I used my 1010lt in both XP, Vista and Win 7. Let us know how it goes.
All the best.

If SONAR seems unresponsive, check and make sure that there are no hidden windows behind waiting for your input.
All the best.

Zarrg71
If SONAR seems unresponsive, check and make sure that there are no hidden windows behind waiting for your input.

No, that's not the case. At any rate, it seems that things have improved enough that it's something that I can live with for the moment. I really appreciate your suggestions!
 

bassman999
I have a Delta 1010LT and it works just fine with Sonar Platinum on Windows 10, using Windows 7 64-bit ASIO drivers.

Thanks, bassman! That's certainly good information for future consideration. Nice to know somebody is able to use the Win 7 drivers with Windows 10. Surely, there must be others, as well!
 
The other thing I haven't yet done is to look closely at the drivers that have been chosen by default. With XP - at least at one time in the past - I used ASIO drivers. (think it was ASIO-for-All, but I'm not sure...) As I recall, my new Sonar X3 installation selected MME drivers. I haven't looked at changing them, or even try to record with the system as-is. Maybe that's a project for today...
 
I didn't investigate this situation extensively before deciding on my Win 7 machine for this use. It so happens that this particular machine is more capable than the one on which I currently have Windows 10, which is an older computer that was basically decommissioned. I loaded the Win 10 tech preview on it a couple of years ago, not knowing that Microsoft was going to allow it to legally become a Windows 10 machine at the end of the preview period. Had I known that, I would've installed it on a more capable hardware!
 
The first thought was to put together a new box with a leftover copy of Windows 8 that I've been reserving for updating my XP video/music computer. Then I read about the lack of Windows 10 drivers for the Delta. Can't really justify a new multichannel audio interface, being a retiree who only dabbles in recording, especially when my 1010 works so well. Maybe I'll try it in one of my Win 8 machines, which could be easily updated to 10, for free...

Don't have ASIO4ALL on the 'new' computer. And it's also possible that I was using ASIO4ALL on a different machine, for a different application. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I'll see if that's what I was using with the Delta on the XP machine. It's been too long and too many computers ago to remember, for certain...
 
And, yes -- I need to change my system specs to reflect the newer hardware...