Anderton
For what it's worth...I just installed X3c (and set a system restore point first, just in case). I opened a project and it had a ton of missing plug-ins, including Cakewalk ones, which concerned me. I closed Sonar, opened, created a new project, and ran the VST scan. After the scan was done I opened up the original project, and all the plug-ins loaded properly.
Just to be ornery I rooted around my hard drive for some projects done in X1 and X2, and they all loaded properly too. This included several projects that had lots of plug-ins from Waves, Universal Audio, and other companies. So either I'm lucky, the Gods of Sonar like me, or the VST scan thing is indeed an important part of the update process.
That's been my experience also, Craig. I think the main problem (from what I've read and experienced myself) is there are certain plugins that may not have been tested with others at the same time. For example, I have several projects that use Pristine Space as my room sim for guitars along with a UAD 1176 crushing the room. I can't even open a project that uses this combination with the plugins turned on.
It baffled me that the project template containing these 2 plugs would even open. I come to find out the reason for that is both were disabled in the template. As soon as I turned them both on...bang! What's even more strange is, they can both be enabled in the same project. They just can't be on the same FX bin. So it is my belief that strange little anomalies like this may be some of the reasons we see crashes. Due to the plugin manager being new, we may experience a few growing pains.
I think (just my opinion here) this is what we may be seeing with some of the plugin issues. Another example....I have used ARC 1 version 1.1.1 for 100 years. I can't even open Sonar with that version. I've had issues with the later versions of ARC 1 not loading the corrections even though they are listed as "loaded". I have to reload each instance then the plug works. Using an older version stopped this...but Sonar X2 and 3 will not allow it without a crash.
Other than the above, I've not experienced any show-stoppers.
+100 on that reset and scan plugins advice, Craig. This is quite amazing as to how many issues it seems to fix. I don't think people are doing this correctly all the time. If anyone is not quite sure....here's how to do it just in case. You should do this each full install of Sonar from X2 to present and do it with each patch update.
Plugin Reset and Rescan:
Go to preferences VST. If your scanner is set to automatic...set it to manual just for now. (we'll put it back after)
Next, click the reset button. Unfortunately if you have any custom plug configurations, you'll need to put them back in...but this is a necessity.
Next, put checks in the box for both "rescan existing plugins" and "rescan failed plugins". Then press the scan button. It may take about 5-10 minutes for this depending on computer speed as well as the amount of plugins you have.
After it's done the scan, take both check marks out of the boxes marked "rescan existing plugins" and "rescan failed plugins" and set your scanner back to "automatic" if you want it that way. Close Sonar and reopen and this cures plugin issues completely about 95% of the time. If you still have an issue with plugs after this procedure, definitely contact support or fill out a bug report if possible.
I sure am sorry to hear about those experiencing show stoppers. I hate when that happens. I can remember a few versions of Sonar years ago that were like that for me. I couldn't wait to use them and heard from people how great they were because they didn't use Sonar the way I did....so I had to wait it out until a fix came. That's the other side of the coin....we use the thing so many different ways, it must be hard to track down some of these issues. Whew....what a nightmare that must be! Luckily huge fixes just about always come fast...let's hope the same thing happens here for those experiencing stuff like that.
-Danny