mudgel
why did I get corrupt registry entries? Why has there been such a mess after the Cambridge update?

Don't know. The update happened after or during the time the registry flaked out.
 
I would guess there have been quite a few updates performed in the last few hours and you were the lucky one to have this issue. At least the only one to report it so far.
 
Not sure what good a rollback would do if the registry is foobar. The rollback would be trying to reinstall an older version using a broken registry.

scook
So when running 64bit SONAR 8 and X3 you were actually using the same scanner building the same registry entries.

Yes, I only run x64 versions of hosts.
That's what I discovered, but difference is that once scanning VST3 stuff in X3 things may be off somehow doing a scan in S8. I let the Waves stuff remain where their installer puts it, not to have authorization or update issues.
 
But as I said, just reset/clear and rescan fixed misplaced plugins.
Did a cumulative scan after doing Waves update with BrainTree, and that misplacement happended.
 
So just feel that issue itself is an old one, not new to Cambridge.
And maybe more frequent for long time faithful Sonarites.

I don't do Waves.

scook
Check the scan paths in Preferences > File > VST Settings. If things are as simple has you have described there should only be two entries one each for VST2 and VST3. Have you been experimenting with junctions in the scan path?

after encountering all these plugin problems and unable to get paths to stick in the plugin manager or preferences I tried to setup a jnction link, but it didn't work and I deleted it hence my question about them.

Thanks again for being around to bounce things off. It helps to have someone to remind you of basics in case you don't have them covered. Still no explanation though so I'm not going to change the title of this thread just yet.

Does it look the same in X3? I thought the plugin manager is a shared component.

It is a shared component. Because I'm no longer working with X3 I didn't even thnk to look but I expect it would have been the same although I can't explain this so who knows. It's all sorted now but it took over one and a half hours of mucking around testing, trying and more testing till finally I had it all sorted.

It's weird. if I was using a complex plugin system I could understand perhaps but I have the default ProChannel plugin location and only move the Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins to Program Files\Vstplugins\Cakewalk so that all VST 2 plugins are in a single folder us dived into folders by developer name.

I'm surprised by how disorganised everything became that others aren't complaining. Am I really the only one who's had this problem. Now that is bizarre considering that apart from this my system has been rock solid.

I think I know what's happened.

After doing the Cambridge update I reinstalled all the various plugins through the CCC that had been nullified by having signed out of the CCC. As there were no updates to any of the plugins it used the installers already on my computer. Perhaps there's some changes since Braintree and Cambridge that cause some sort of incompatability with existing plugin registry entries.

I guess those various installers have played havoc with the registry, accounting for the errors and difficulties I've had. I can think of no other rational explanation.

The overloud PC modules are dual mode modules. i,e they can be both PC modules as well as normal FX. The PC spec supports that. Thats why you are seeing them in the plugin browser and its normal. If you don't like seeing them in the internal folder just move them to the normal VST folder. 
BTW please check if you have the internal path listed explicitly in the vst scan path. That is unnecessary if so and should be removed.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
1. The overloud PC modules are dual mode modules. i,e they can be both PC modules as well as normal FX. The PC spec supports that. Thats why you are seeing them in the plugin browser and its normal. If you don't like seeing them in the internal folder just move them to the normal VST folder. 
2. BTW please check if you have the internal path listed explicitly in the vst scan path. That is unnecessary if so and should be removed.

Thanks for chiming in Noel.
1. It's all sorted.
2. It is set that way but why is that the default if it should not be so. Also after the Cambridge update Sonar insisted on wanting to do a Personalisation at startup which I eventually did.