I've installed Sonar X3 Studio several times now and think I have everything in the right places across 3 drives but I'm a bit confused about VST plugins.
I opted for the Studio version because I wanted to use Native Instruments Komplete 9 Ultimate and wasn't that keen on paying a lot more for the "Producer" version when the main difference is the quantity of instrument and effect plugins.
Sonar Studio is working well as are the VSTi plugins from NI.
However... On the NI Komplete install I opted just for VSTs but still had to install both the 32bit and 64bit versions. I created folders for each... "Vstplugins" and "Vstplugins32".
In Sonar I have both paths entered in the VST path options.
Now my problem... When I look at SoftSynths and effects from the Sonar menus I often see more than one entry.
For example... I go to Insert SoftSynth and I see "Kontakt 5" three times in the choices and "Absynth 5" twice.
I'm guessing that the double and tripple entries have something to do with there being both 32bit and 64bit versions but I don't need 32bit versions of anything for which there is a 64bit version.
 
Can anyone clear this up for me or point me towards some info on plugin management for Sonar 64bit please? Thanks.

Hi Benjamin
 
If you haven't installed Sonar X3D patch you should.
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/kb/reader.aspx/2007013355
 
After that....
Edit -> Preferences -> File-> VST Settings.
Remove your 32 bit file path for the NI plugins and click apply.
Then click reset followed by rescan.
 
You should be good to go.

32bit plug-ins will show up with (32-bit) appended to the plug-in name in the plug-in lists in SONAR. In the case of Kontakt, NI supplies several versions with different output configurations. Look in the plug-in manager at the file names for the 3 different versions of Kontakt. Modify the plug-names using a custom plug-in layout to differential between them.

Thanks Alex... especially for the heads-up about the D patch. I only installed last week and just found the B and C ones so I'm guessing it's a recent release or else I totally missed it.
If I completely remove the path to my 32bit directory won't that mean that Sonar won't scan it at all. I have several freebee 32bit plugins that do work with Sonar and I wouldn't want to lose and they are in this directory (HiBryt and UpStereo).
How would it be if I just deleted the 32bit ones from that directory (the ones that do have a 64bit version I mean). Would that stop the unnecessary 32bit ones being catalogued by Sonar?
 
Thanks Scook... I didn't realise that "32-bit" was appended. That makes it clearer. I'll also try to find out more about custom plug-in layouts and try to do what you suggest to make it easier to differentiate between them. I can't for the life of me understand why there should be three versions of Kontakt though. Two I can understand (32 and 64 bit) but three! What's that about?

The Native Instruments should be in their own unique folder. Just remove the file path.
I would not delete or remove them just in case Native Instruments gets muddled when updating.
 
If it turns out that there are other 32 bit VSTs in the same file path as the Native Instuments 32 bit plugins then you will need to do some housekeeping to make sure Sonar points to the right 32 bit plugins whilst ignoring the native instruments.
 
You could move the Native Instruments 32 bit VSTs to another folder, but everytime you run the NI updater you will have to remember to put them back...
 
The real issue is the NI installer is stupid, at no stage does it give you an option not to install the 32 bit VST's, and also you've got to be careful where you install your VST's.
 
My VST's are stored like this, it took me a good few hours to move them so everything behaved nice. My NI 32 VST's are in the D:\AudioPlugIns\Depeciated\32bit.
 
Sonar does not know about the Depreciated Folder.
 
D:\AudioPlugIns\32bit
D:\AudioPlugIns\64bit
D:\AudioPlugIns\Depeciated\32bit
D:\AudioPlugIns\Depeciated\64bit
D:\AudioPlugIns\VST3
 
Just remember moving VST's can have consequences, often it's better to uninstall and reinstall. You can also hack the registry (avoid unless you know what you are doing).

Brightsun23
... I go to Insert SoftSynth and I see "Kontakt 5" three times in the choices and "Absynth 5" twice.....

I don't have Absynth so can't comment on that, but it's normal to have three Kontakt options.  They represent Kontakt Basic (Stereo-out), Kontakt 8-output, and Kontakt 16-outputs. 

Just remove the 32-bit path from the search in Cakewalk Plugin Manager.  You only need those for a 32-bit Sonar.
 
I don't have but a couple of third-party 32-bit plugs in my x64 Sonar, and am happy as a clam.
 
Bob Bone
 

Wow... thanks for all the help. Sonar is much tidier now and I'm understanding a lot more about VST plug-ins.
There is just so much to learn when it comes to Sonar isn't there and I've only looked at a few of the NI plug-ins and their documentation so far. It seems I have a lot of reading to do.
Thanks again.

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