Hi,
I have a few songs that  I completed using Sonar 8.5 and which contained samples from Dimension Pro, Kontakt 3, Battery 3 for Drums and Garritan Jazz and Big Band 3.
 
My hard disk crashed and I went to install a Ghost 15 Image to the new disk, but it failed, so I just started fresh with a new installation of Win 7 Pro.
 
My question is, if I would have taken those completed projects and had "Frozen" the synths and then had created a "Bundle", would that have been enough for me to now open those projects in X3 and do more basic editing (mixing volumes, eq), on them if I wanted?
 
I'd like to know for next time as I haven't tried opening any of those projects yet, but I'm worried that the new install won't properly link to all of my Samples, and since I had so much trouble with Komplete 5 and Sonar 8.5 working together, I don't even want to install Native Instruments on this new machine.
 
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks.

The simple answer is yes. If you had saved each of your projects as a .cwb file after having bounced or frozen all your synths and fx you would have had something to go back to. You would still have to have the samples used by programs like Kontakt in the same place as they were in when you recorded the project. Although you could have replaced them if located else where.

I'd suggest you do the following for the future as well as back up your, project to another drive.

If you set Sonar to save Per Project Audio folders then you have a contained location for each project.
You can then just back up that folder for each project.

Sonar lets you select the location for projects, by default this is C:\Cakewalk Projects.

If you were to create a Sonar project in whichever version and call the project My Song.

Sonar would save the project to a My Song.cwp file and place it into the C:\cakewalk Projects\My Song folder along with an Audio folder which contains all the .wav files for My Song.cwp.

C:\Cakewalk Projects
C:\Cakewalk Projects\My Song
C:\Cakewalk Projects\My Song\My Song.cwp
C:\Cakewalk Projects\My Song\Audio
C:\Cakewalk Projects\My Song\Audio\my song 01.wav
C:\Cakewalk Projects\My Song\Audio\my song 02.wav

The outlined method allows you to just backup your whole Cakewalk Projects folder to some external source as you like. It also makes it easy to select a single project to back up as well.

.cwb files can be handy but are also more prone to corruption so are not recommended for archiving. You get the same degree of compression by using win zip or other such program if you need to collect everything together for each project in one zip file.

Hey, thanks.
 
So, you mean I don't have to Freeze or bounce tracks containing the Kontakt samples, and those Audio file folders have all of the samples in them, so that I don't have to reinstall Kontakt again in the new machine?
 
I didn't know this as I thought I had looked at the Audio folder once before that was created by Cakewalk when the Per Project option was chosen, and I don't remember seeing all of the sample files. I only remember seeing audio of things like vocals or other instruments that I actually played into Sonar. I'll have to check that again.

I have used all of the Komplete series from 3 through my current 8 Ultimate, and all have worked just fine with Sonar releases from 8.5.3 through my current install of Sonar X3b Producer Edition.
 
I wouldn't give up on the Komplete software - it has some REALLY nice components, although some of them were deprecated (no longer work), at least in 64-bit Windows 7/8.
 
However, some of the older libraries, such as the ones for Akoustik Piano, can be played by Kontakt, if they are added as libraries, even though the Akoustik Piano software itself no longer works for Win 7/8 64-bit.  I chose to keep those libraries because they had some piano presets that were NOT carried forward when they rolled Akoustik Piano up into Kontakt, so by my adding those libraries, I still have access to the really nice ones I liked so much.
 
If you are having any issues - please by all means post the issues and I will keep an eye out for them and try to help you.
 
You can also PM me and I will give you my cell, if you want Komplete-specific assistance.
 
Bob Bone

Thanks so much, Bob. I really liked Akoustic Piano and some of the other ones that I got with Komplete 3, but I had so much trouble with Sonar 8.5 and Kontakt, that I haven't installed them in the new system and am trying to use Dimension Pro.
I appreciate you offering to talk about it on the phone should I get adventurous and want to try to install it.
What state are you in? I'm from NYC and living in western NJ now.
Thanks again.

Just a point regarding samples. They are.not saved with each project. When you bounce to track the.MIDI data triggers the instrument to play those samples and converted to audio files which are what is saved with the project.

Hi Mike.
Thanks, that what I was thinking as I did go back and examine that Audio folder.
In the old days, I'd just have to worry about my MIDI files as no matter what setup I moved to, as long as I had my hardware synths outputting the sound, everything was always available. I only switched to soft synths about 8 years ago.
 
PS
Off subject, but, do we have to always enter a Verification Code when logging in to these Forums now? I use Roboform, that stores my Username and Password, but I still have to always type in a Code. Is this the way it is?

JGarvey
Thanks so much, Bob. I really liked Akoustic Piano and some of the other ones that I got with Komplete 3, but I had so much trouble with Sonar 8.5 and Kontakt, that I haven't installed them in the new system and am trying to use Dimension Pro.
I appreciate you offering to talk about it on the phone should I get adventurous and want to try to install it.
What state are you in? I'm from NYC and living in western NJ now.
Thanks again.

I am in Maryland - the Akoustik Piano sounds are WELL worth adding to Kontakt, so if you want assistance with them, please feel free to contact me - I am happy to help.  
 
Bob Bone