And, yes, I have done a forum search for it so if I am an idiot it is because I don't know how to search, not because I did not try.

I can't find a place in preferences to set this where I want it to stay.  I can change it on project start but it has no effect, it still puts the folder in C: not my data drive D: as I want it to.  I am probably missing something simple but then again, that is not unusual for me.

Edit/Preferences/File/Folder Locations - set the location you want, click on Apply and OK and that should do it.  If it doesn't, I would try reinstalling Sonar.

I think I am a bit confused.  When you use the default Sonar setting for using 'Per-Project' Audio, Sonar will create a folder called Audio, as a sub-folder within the project it belongs to.
 
So, ultimately, the placement of that Audio sub-folder is really dependent on where the actual Project folder lives.  By default, Sonar stores projects in: C:\\Cakewalk Projects.
 
Lots of folks relocate the Cakewalk Projects folder to a different hard drive, both to save space on the C: drive (particularly if a smaller solid-state drive), but also for performance reasons.
 
To move the Cakewalk Projects folder, go to Edit>Preferences>File>Folder Locations, and change the location of that folder to wherever you want it, and click Apply.  Sonar will now look for projects in the new location, and by default will create Audio folders as sub-folders within project folders in the new location for Cakewalk Projects.
 
On my system, I moved Cakewalk Projects to a different drive.  Each project within D:\\Cakewalk Projects has a sub-folder called Audio within its project folder.
 
If the above is not what your issue is, please take another stab at explaining - because that means I completely missed it.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks for the replies, and you understand what I am saying, but the fixes you both described are exactly how I initially tried to set it up.  I used to simply use a global folder on D:, (specifically D:\X2 wav data) and it worked well.  Since I still have X3 projects (and X1, X2, 8.5, 8 etc...) saved using that global folder I went ahead and set up the global audio folder as that.

What I am wanting to do is now go to per-project for future new projects and set it up so the "new project" default is C:Cakewalk projects (since that is where I have 10 years worth of projects already stored) but the audio path is D:\x2 Wave Data\new project name. (since that is where I have the existing 10 years worth of .wav data stored.) 

I really want to use per-project if I can as I am starting to collaborate on projects recently but am also set up to backup the entire D:drive to a secondary storage drive anytime I get to a critical point in a project so still would like that redundancy and of course I do want to keep the audio drive separate from the C: operating sys. drive as well.

I can change the "New project file" audio path to something else on project start, for example D:\X2 Wav Data\New Project, but it creates no new folder in the D:\X2 wav data folder, in fact, I do not see that it creates one even in the default C:\cakewalk projects\audio, just dumped one bounce file to it without a child folder being created.

My ultimate goal is to have the "New Project File" dialogue box to reflect Location:C:\Cakewalk Projects and Audio Path:D:\X2 Wav Data.  Nothing I have done seems to do that permanantly or even on a per instance basis if I take the time to change it before I create the new project.

Very perplexing.  Feels like a bug.

The intent of per-project audio folders is to have the wave files in a folder immediately below the project files. I do not believe it is possible to have the dialog default any other way. It is possible to create the per-project audio folder anywhere on the PC using the Audio Path in the New Project File dialog . Here is the test project I just created

and a snapshot of the project and audio folders

However I would never use this myself. The per-project audio folder uses a relative path when stored under the project file but uses an absolute path when stored elsewhere. The absolute path presents a problem when moving projects around at the OS level. If a project is created and not saved SONAR removes the project folder but will not remove the remote audio folder. Aside from a history of separating projects from audio, there is no performance advantage to the practice.

Thanks for the time to reply but I am not sure I understand what you are saying here.

"However I would never use this myself. The per-project audio folder uses a relative path when stored under the project file but uses an absolute path when stored elsewhere. The absolute path presents a problem when moving projects around at the OS level. If a project is created and not saved SONAR removes the project folder but will not remove the remote audio folder. Aside from a history of separating projects from audio, there is no performance advantage to the practice."

By relative path are you saying it saves a backup to the C:\Cakewalk Projects\Per-project name\audio folder but writes and reads to the default :\Wav Data folder during actual operation?  I get what you are saying if this is the case, it basically creates a form of mobile bundle file on C: that easily transports but still writes and reads to and from a global audio drive when the file is open.  Am I understanding this correctly?

Otherwise the performance implications are real.   You do take a sometimes significant hit when reading/writing audio to the OS drive so unless it is at least temporarily storing the read-write data somewhere else (on another drive) during recording and playback I do not see how you can say that it offers no performance benefit.  It is established best practice to keep program/os drive and data drive separate.

Allowing the audio folder to reside under the projects. The project folder (which contains all the data including audio) may be moved anywhere and still work. Yes, it is portable like a bundle without the packing the project into a single file. This is because the references to the wave files are stored relative to the project.
 
When storing per-project audio outside of the project folder, the wave references in the project are fully qualified names.
 
There is a performance advantage when using HDs in keeping projects and their audio data on a second internal drive. There is no performance advantage in separating the project files from their data, which was the intent of my previous comments about performance.

SimpleM
Thanks for the replies, and you understand what I am saying, but the fixes you both described are exactly how I initially tried to set it up.  I used to simply use a global folder on D:, (specifically D:\X2 wav data) and it worked well.  Since I still have X3 projects (and X1, X2, 8.5, 8 etc...) saved using that global folder I went ahead and set up the global audio folder as that.

What I am wanting to do is now go to per-project for future new projects and set it up so the "new project" default is C:Cakewalk projects (since that is where I have 10 years worth of projects already stored) but the audio path is D:\x2 Wave Data\new project name. (since that is where I have the existing 10 years worth of .wav data stored.) 

I really want to use per-project if I can as I am starting to collaborate on projects recently but am also set up to backup the entire D:drive to a secondary storage drive anytime I get to a critical point in a project so still would like that redundancy and of course I do want to keep the audio drive separate from the C: operating sys. drive as well.

I can change the "New project file" audio path to something else on project start, for example D:\X2 Wav Data\New Project, but it creates no new folder in the D:\X2 wav data folder, in fact, I do not see that it creates one even in the default C:\cakewalk projects\audio, just dumped one bounce file to it without a child folder being created.

My ultimate goal is to have the "New Project File" dialogue box to reflect Location:C:\Cakewalk Projects and Audio Path:D:\X2 Wav Data.  Nothing I have done seems to do that permanantly or even on a per instance basis if I take the time to change it before I create the new project.

Very perplexing.  Feels like a bug.

I am hoping scook will also weigh in on this notion - would it work for you to TEST out something?
 
What I am thinking is that for the projects that had been set up and saved PRIOR to you starting to use Per-Project Audio, if you used the Save As functionality, I think it might get you a fairly easy way to reorganize projects so their audio was all moved into per-project Audio sub-folders.
 
Sooo, as a TEST, perhaps you could:
 
1.  Decide which older project you want to use as a test of this consolidation effort, and copy its project folder off to somewhere else, so that you can restore it later, if needed.
2.  Go into that project's folder, and rename the project file (the CWP file), to some other name - it will be short-lived so the new name doesn't need much thought.
3.  Now, open that project (using the new name), and let it load
4.  Do a Save As, to the same folder it is currently in, giving it the original name (the one that matches the Project Folder - the project file's original name), making sure to also check the box that tells Sonar to 'Copy All Audio With Project'.  This SHOULD (I think), end up with a project file that again matches the name of the project folder, AND I think it will populate the project folder's Audio sub-folder with all referenced audio for the project, thus setting it up as if it had always used Per-Project Audio.
5.  At this point, I would close the project, then load it using the File>Open, rather than the quick list (because the quick open list would still have the temporary name you gave it, which is NOT what you want).
6.  IF the project opens up properly, and you examine the audio clips, you should hopefully find that they are all now pointing to clips that reside in that project folder's Audio sub-folder.
 
IF all of the above work as I have theorized, then at this point you should be able to delete the temporary CWP project file you created, since you will have created a new version of the project with the original project name.
 
If all worked properly, the steps could then be applied to your other legacy projects, and that would when finished leave you properly and completely set to use Per-Project Audio for ALL projects, both new and old. 
 
You could at some later time go back and clean out the audio clips from the global audio folder, taking great care in that process, so that you didn't get rid of anything you needed, such as exported audio, which by default also goes into the global audio folder.
 
Sooo, I URGE some other members to review my above thoughts and weigh in on whether or not you think they would work for getting all the legacy folder audio clip structure in line with the per-project audio approach.
 
Bob Bone
 

Sonars file system by default is a mess. You can end up with a zillion projects all jumbled together in the global audio file. 
I think a nice feature update would be a dialog that opens the first time you load Sonar that gives you the options to set file  location choices so newbies would not fall into the lost data trap. 
 
After I install Sonar I set a couple of  pathways to the Sonar Data drive "H". I leave most pathways as default. I'm only interested in my Projects and the audio being diverted. 
 
 
In Folder Locations I change: 
Project Files:  H:\    
Wave Files: H:\ Sonar Audio    ( I created this folder ) 
Audio Data : Global Audio = H:\ Sonar Audio 
 
There's nothing but Sonar in Data drive "H" . This is my "working" drive. It is named " Sonar Data" 
Data drive "E" is my safety back up. It is named " Data Back up" 
 
I set the Project files pathway to the root directory of the H data drive because I use a per album folder system. There is about 20 main folders there.
Example- Templates, MIDI files,  Backing Tracks, Uncle Ruckel. 
Some are also also dated = Bruce Baker-12-12-2014.  Johns Originals-10-23-2014. 
Each album (Client)  folder contains the project folders for each song. This way a whole album or session for each client can be easily identified and copied to a back up drive.
 
So all my stuff is organized and easy to find. After a client leaves for the day I re-date the Album folder and drag and drop it to "E"  data drive before I shut down. There might be 6 copies of that same album folder with dates going back a few weeks, months. I also copy these to an external drive every once and a while. I only delete extras when the album is 100% finished. E drive is 2 TB and only 20% full right now. 
 
I never use that open dialog box, I guess I told it to go away a long time ago. 
My templates are in an " album" folder marked Templates on the H drive so going to "FILE"  "Open" takes me to All my songs, MIDI files or my templates. 
To resume a project I just open the correct album folder, then the song folder, then double click the CWP icon.(or the CWT)  Half the time the song is on the current drop down list in "FILE"  
 
If using a template I always perform a "save as" immediately after opening and browse to the album folder it belongs in, create a "new folder" Name the song, open that folder and then save as a CWP file with " copy all audio with project" checked.
Note: if I forget to do this, my audio is easily found in the "H:\ Sonar Audio" folder. 
All I have to do is drag it to the proper place keeping that folder empty for the next time I screw up. 
I have never lost track of any files or audio. It's sort of impossible. 
 
Sorry for the long post. But I hope this makes it clear. If not ask. 

SONAR project layout works for me. I created a directory junction
mklink /j "C:\Cakewalk Projects" "E:\Cakewalk Projects"
and left the folder locations at their default values in SONAR. I did move the picture cache to a different drive. Now every version of SONAR uses the E: drive for projects and per-project audio folders without any extra effort on my part. Most project start off with a name YYYYMMDD-SequenceNumber. They may get renamed at a later date. Additional numbers may get added for different mixes.
 
No need to worry about the Global audio folder, it is normally empty. So it can point to the projects folder. It should be on the same drive as the per-project audio data anyway.
 
As to remediation of historical projects, I don't see a reason to rename or make backup copies, nothing is going to change in the old projects. Open the existing projects and perform a "Save As" to a new location on a second drive. It really does not matter what the top level of the new project directory is because it can be renamed after everything is converted. Or don't bother with converting this historical stuff just start using per-project folders on the second drive and allow the audio folders to nest in the project folders.