Most of my 32bit plugins work in 64bit mode just fine.
 
Are they presented? Do you have them on your Scan Path? (Apologies if plain obvious).

I have to be dragged kicking and screaming if I am going to use 32 bit plugins. 64 bit plugins make better use of your systems memory, are more reliable and take up fewer resources. 32 bit plugins also require extra resources for virtualization with 64 bit Sonar, and you should use 64 bit Sonar BTW. Get rid of as many 32 plugins as you can.
 
I strongly recommend this tutorial, it covers pretty much everything:
http://www.groove3.com/str/SONAR-X3-Explained.html
 

Further 64bit advantages / discussion below:
- Addressable memory
- Sample rates
(+ that's the future for the technology for general computing needs).
 
Thread:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/64-bit-can-be-done-but-to-what-advantage-m2770281.aspx
 
Article:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov10/articles/64-bit.htm
 

kidsinglish productions
It is a bit of a pain having to reach for a qwerty keyboard to save when I'm standing at the mic (closest I can get the keyboard is a metre and a half from the mic) - it was easier with a mouse and a save button.

 
Seriously, check out the POK. It will change your life 
 

Wonder if there's any advantage working in 64bit. Anyone know what the difference is (audio quality-wise especially)?

 
64-bit doesn't affect audio quality, but the ability to address lots of memory is really great. I have 32GB in my computer and loading instruments with huge sample libraries is painless.
 

I think the sonar/cakewalk folk could probably provide more tech support for folk like me who struggle to get the software up and running, and provide more resources targeting my needs - the software continues to improve but the tech support and resources continue to decline in quality my opinion. I figure the older generation of users get passed over in favour of a younger more tech savvy bunch.

In what way did you interact with Cakewalk tech support? Did you call, email, work through a retailer, depend on the online help, or...?
 
I think a good rule of thumb for support is if you're having problems with a system, setup, installation, etc. that's when you need to contact Cakewalk directly so they can walk through your setup. For getting started with the software, there are plenty of tutorials but you have to know how to find them. For example, there's a tutorial I did called Mixing in the ProChannel with Sonar X3 Producer. It has a downloadable project that takes you through how to make tracks sound better and fit in with each other using step-by-step tutorials. I took the same approach as when I wrote two of Adobe's "Classroom on a Book" projects except the Sonar one, you get for free 
 
Also remember that Cakewalk doesn't charge for support...none of this "$99 per incident" stuff. As a result there's a tradeoff: You can charge people more for the product and give better support because you can hire more people, you can charge per incident but people really like that support is free, or you can keep it free and require people to do more research on their own. Buying third party materials is a good compromise. The people who need the support pay for it, while the people who don't get a more affordable product.
 
 

I agree that 64 bit is the future, because of the memory thing. But since the OP seems content to depend on GrooveSynth and TTS1, two of the LEAST memory hungry synths in Sonar, there is really no reason to work in 64 bit. There is no difference in sound quality whatsoever. I suspect there is a problem with his installation because those synths are working fine in 64 bit for everyone else. But if he ever were to switch away from them to memory hungry plugs he can always switch to 64 bit Sonar. Not to mention this may be after having installed X4, X5 or X6 which may solve the problem.

I still don't get why it took three months to get up and running. I'm sure people here could have given you a hand before. What exactly was the issue?

Craig...your link is wrong :-)

Why did x3 take me 3 months to get up and running? I had problems with many things.
Wouldn't/couldn't download from the website. Couldn't extract files. Didn't know what to do with the extracted files. Couldn't get registration/serial codes. Wouldn't accept these codes. Same problem with each and every bundled software (dimension pro, rapture and melodyne). And here's the rub with all of the above: there are no instructions about how to do any of this stuff - a lot of the instructions are in the downloaded files (but if you can't download them you can't access the instructions). When I finally did get the files downloaded and extracted, I opened the "read me first" file I saw amongst the plethora of files that I had downloaded. Great, I thought, this will explain everything. But the instructions to install began with something like: double click on the sonar.exe file (whatever the file was I did not have it amongst my downloaded files). After several weeks of double-clicking on files (there's only so much of this stuff you can take in one session without losing your sanity), eventually the computer started to install sonar. At the end of this process my computer experienced the blue screen of death. After two months of fiddling around, I simply bought a new computer with windows 8.1 (old one runs windows 7 and sonar 8.5 very well - amd quad core and 8 gig ram). I've spent the past month going through all of the above problems (including the blue screen of death - had to reinstall windows 8.1 and start from scratch) on the new computer. Apart from crashing the whole computer, the worst problems were sonar x3 (when I finally got it installed) not recognising my focusrite scarlett 2i2 audio interface, and struggling to figure out how to install my 3rd party plug-ins (a variety of older 32bit softsynths and a bunch of Waves plug-ins).
 
I tried emailing tech support a few times - but you don't here back from them for a while and by the time you do they seem to be reading from a manual (to, say, double-click on an .exe file you already can't locate) - by that time you're already dealing with a new set of issues. They don't respond past a first email (if you reply saying they haven't solved an issue, or that you need more help).
 
I've tried to phone them - I'm in Australia - but have never managed to get through on the numbers they give on their website.
 
Here's my honest opinion - and really I am not trying to be rude or offensive so I will start by saying that having worked with sonar x3 (32bit) for one day, I think it's a stunning bit of software. I've managed to get more work done (I make a kids tv show and need to get through a lot of audio and midi recording on a daily basis) in one day than I would sometimes take a week to do. BUT (and it's a huge but)... it can be (from my personal experience) an awful nightmare to install and get running. I can't help but wonder if Cubase or Logic are any easier to install/set up (or if they provide better tech support to get it done). I've been using sonar so long I probably won't change, but if someone was new to recording software, I'd suggest they try out the others. The past 3 months have not been pleasant or easy.
 
I use video editing and animation software extensively also - and have never experienced the installation/set-up issues I have with sonar (okay, I admit the earlier versions of Adobe Premiere and Encore were horribly buggy and crash prone, but in recent years they have ironed things out and have managed to maintain a continuity in how the software works so you don't need to go to "Adobe university" or completely retrain yourself from scratch to install/set-up/use the latest version).
 
I would like to use the 64bit version of sonar x3 - but it doesn't run a bunch of my 32-bit plug-ins (to those who have managed to get Cakewalk TTS and Roland Groove synth working in 64bit x3, tell me how, cause I can't, although they work in 32bit x3!).
 
Happy recording everyone. I only appear on these forums every 5 years or so (everyone breathes a sigh of relief) and have never found them much help - I can't understand a lot of what people say in reply to my questions/posts (too technical) and what I can understand makes me feel I've offended people (for not being unreservedly complimentary about sonar? - but aren't these forums partly to iron out problems people are having?)

TTS and GrooveSynth won't work in 64 bit SONAR - only 32 bit VST plug-ins can be bridged to run in 64 bit SONAR, and both those plug-ins are DirectX (an oversight that there isn't a bridge for DX plug-ins in my opinion - I have a bunch that will likely never be updated (eg. Sony/SoundForge ones)).
 
That said, 32 bit SONAR runs very well under 64 bit Windows so I'd stick with that if you need access to 32 bit plug-ins: it's less stressful and more reliable.  And SONAR does actually get access to more memory than under 32 bit Windows (4GB rather than the usual 2).

TTS-1 and Groovesynth both work fine in my x64 X3e.

I'm sorry you have had so many installation troubles. If something like that happens again, do ask questions here. People can help. As for the tone of your posts, I think you would get more positive replies if you didn't start out by proclaiming that the people at Cakewalk don't know what they're doing and that only the "computer buffs" (not a great way to name the people you're requesting help from) must understand it. There are many professionals (and knowledgeable amateurs) on here who are trying to give advice in their free time. If you keep that in mind, you'll be fine.

KPerry
TTS and GrooveSynth won't work in 64 bit SONAR - only 32 bit VST plug-ins can be bridged to run in 64 bit SONAR, and both those plug-ins are DirectX (an oversight that there isn't a bridge for DX plug-ins in my opinion - I have a bunch that will likely never be updated (eg. Sony/SoundForge ones)).
 
That said, 32 bit SONAR runs very well under 64 bit Windows so I'd stick with that if you need access to 32 bit plug-ins: it's less stressful and more reliable.  And SONAR does actually get access to more memory than under 32 bit Windows (4GB rather than the usual 2).

Hi - Some time ago, Cakewalk actually DID release a 64-bit DXi version of TTS-1 and GrooveSynth.
 
To use the 64-bit versions of these 2 synths, you MUST pick up the 64-bit versions by running the 64-bit Sonar installer, and making sure you select them during the 64-bit install.  Please note that they might be already checked by default by the install script the installer follows.
 
If you have already run the 64-bit Sonar install but had not selected TTS-1 and/or GrooveSynth during that install, you can remove the checks for everything else except them, and then they will be the only thing this installation run will actually install.  (in other words you are stripping out everything else from the install run except those synths, since everything else was installed already from your prior install).
 
By installation default, the paths for these two 64-bit DXi Sonar synths are:
 
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared DXi\TTS-1
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared DXi\Groove Player
 
I hope the above addresses your issues with TTS-1 and/or GrooveSynth.
 
Bob Bone