Hello Everybody,
 
These questions are for anyone and everyone.  When I upgrade to X3 Producer, will I have to re-install all of my third party items, including Superior Drummer, additional Midi and looping clips, etc.?  Also, I would like to uninstall Producer 8.5, X1, and possibly X2 from this same PC. Any known issues doing that?
 
Thanks,
 
Kevin

All third party stuff should be OK, just like with your older versions of SONAR.
 
While each version of SONAR installs in a separate directory, they all share tools and plug-ins. Removing a version of SONAR frees up at most 200MB of disk space. Removing older versions of SONAR could result in missing plug-ins in project created by older versions of SONAR. This can been addressed by going back and performing advanced installs of the previous releases. You may also issues with older projects in the current version that may only be resolved by using an older version. Should you encounter a problem with the current version of SONAR having older releases can assist in diagnosing the issue or completing the project.

Third-party stuff that is installed will remain so, you just have to make sure any paths to it are put into the search path for X3.
 
Be careful when uninstalling prior versions, because it will ask you if you want to delete a bunch of stuff that will include DLL's and such.  I recommend you say 'No to All' when it asks if it is OK to delete any of that sort of thing.
 
Also, V-Vocal is no longer part of Sonar, so if you remove all of your prior Sonar versions, you will also no longer have access to V-Vocal.  It has been replaced in X3 by Melodyne, which I like better than V-Vocal, but older projects that reference V-Vocal will not be happy if it goes away.
 
V-Vocal is part of the base install of 8.5.3, X1, and X2, so I would suggest you keep one of those versions, just to make sure you can still have access to V-Vocal.  In addition, I would keep your most recent prior version of Sonar so that if any project refuses to open in X3, you would still be able to open it using the older version (whichever one you keep around for a while).
 
I hope any of that makes sense, and further hope it was helpful.
 
Bob Bone
 

Please avoid uninstalling your previous Sonar apps, they aren't doing any harm.
Also I always suggest a backup before any major software installation.

Thank you all for your feedback.  I do have plenty of hard drive space, so I will leave previous versions of Sonar on my PC. Soon, I will post my entire set-up for review, comments and suggestions as to how I might improve it. 
 
Thanks again.

OK. My next question is How do I make sure that EVERY feature or plugin is installed?  I thought I installed Dimension Pro 1.5, but when I went to Programs and Features of Windows 7, it only showed version 1.2 (which was there with X2 Producer). Are there any other ways to verify installation of Dimension Pro 1.5 Rapture, etc.?
 
Thanks again,
 
Kevin

Sadly cakewalk does not provide an auto update facility so please check with the store.
The best way at the moment is to make sure your plugin folders are well organised and centralised, I've got mine away from the program files folder now for instance. It can take some work but it is worth it.

DimPro v1.2 predates the X series. If you have v1.2 of Dimension Pro installed the easiest way to get v1.5 is download the update from the support page http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/reader.aspx/2007013166. Dimension Pro has always used a separate installer. When shipped with the SONAR DVDs, it is on it's own DVD. When downloaded, it is in two separate files, one installs the synth, the other installs the Expansion Packs.
 
I know of no list that shows the versions of each component included in any version of SONAR. You could compare the list of plug-ins with the included plug-in listed in the help or the version comparison page http://www.cakewalk.com/p..cts/sonar/versions.aspx