With the upcoming release of Sonar X4 I am thinking about cleaning out my old versions of Cakewalk. I have every version since 8.5 in my older studio desktop. I am thinking about getting rid of everything but X2 and X3. I never even crack the lid open on these older versions and I just feel like the machine might perk up some if I get them out of there.
I know the overall answer is to just leave everything be. I am wondering if there are going to be major changes to the Sonar line since Gibson-Tascam owns us now. Also, if I uninstall all versions and re-install 2 and 3, how much of a pain will it be to re-register Melodyne? I've been thru the drill re-installing Toontracks, XLN, etc. I know it is NOT fun.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Believe me, I know what kind of ordeal this is going to be! I could just wait for Santa to bring me a new fully loaded computer rig and just start fresh.
Any comments?

I got rid of 8.5.3 some time ago, and X1 about 6 months ago or so.
 
I have retained X2, and of course X3e.
 
I tend to keep releases of Sonar for 2 reasons: first, so I can finish projects started in a given release, and second, to preserve components that were dropped - such as V-Vocal and BeatScape, etc....
 
As time passes, I lose reliance on needing the old versions, and then I end up removing them.
 
They are not particularly big, the above is just my take on them, and it works for me.
 
Bob Bone
 

I guess it depends on your archive strategy and need to open old projects. There were significant changes to the MS libs used in X2 which broke XP compatibility. I would have at least one version prior to X2 installed for old projects. I would also keep the last 32bit I used installed. That said, I only have the 64bit X-Series versions installed myself.
 
WRT Melodyne, I am not sure uninstalling SONAR removes Melodyne. The SONAR installer launches a separate Melodyne installer at the end of the SONAR install process. Not actually running SONAR's uninstall, I cannot say if it also links to the Melodyne uninstall process. I doubt it.
 
If you are getting a new machine in the next few months, why bother messing with the current model?

I can't see why your machine would "perk up" from removing Sonar versions unless you have serious space issues on your main drive. I don't think there is a whole lot happening at boot just from having Sonar installed, and you could break functionality of older projects (or even current ones depending on which plugs you use). I would really, really recommend against doing something like this "just for the heck of it" unless music is purely a hobby for you and you wouldn't be bothered by a lot of downtime getting stuff running again should you happen to break anything.

scook
WRT Melodyne, I am not sure uninstalling SONAR removes Melodyne.

it does not!

Thanks, I did not think it would.

I would never consider removing it unless I were changing computers.  It's a preference I guess, but there is a chance that something might change in a not so good way...maybe a small chance, but any change at all is too much for me. It's probably more likely you would be ok but I'm too chicken to take that chance. No real gain in speed there that I can tell.
 
 

I just a little downtime between projects and thought this may be a good time to clean out some junk I don't use. I did have instances with XP on a studio computer where I worked at the time that some older versions of Cake started interfering with the newer version. I think it was around Sonar 3 times.
I just have X3 on my mobile laptop and I may just install 4 on there and not bother with the desktop until I upgrade to a better one.
Thanks for the input, guys!

I tidy up my system on a fairly regular basis (as in every couple of years). The oldest version I have on any of my systems now is X2. I got rid of 8.5 not long after X1 came along which for me was a revelation.
 
I have however run sevearl custom installs to get some of the older VSTs installed. I even kept "Revalver" going until that eventually fell over (on x64 just after V7 IIRC).
 
I have opened and worked on stuff that was created in older versions, certainly as old as V5, maybe older in X1 & X2 with  no issues other than where I have dropped FX VSTs and replaced them with newer versions.
 
Having said that I also have old archives of projects stowed away on external hard drives so if the worst comes to the worst I can always get back to them.

I would remove irrelevant installs. First I would find a midi file and right click on it and use the Open With command and open it with Sonar. I would not uninstall the version that the midi file opens in. Before I did a complete reinstall of my OS, I kept Sonar 8 and got rid of the older version but that one. I use the open with command to open midi files quite a bit and if you get rid of the first installation of Sonar on your current OS install, the open with command won't work.