I am running a Win 7 64 machine and have had no issues with X1. I loaded X2 and pentagon was not found, and then tried in X1, and is also "gone." After a few install issues, I decided to load ONLY Pentagon (from the X2 install) and that worked... but only for that session (last night). Tonight X2 says Pentagon is missing again, but I also tried inserting under the "shared dxi." It starts to create the track, then promptly crashes the audio engine, and X2 goes down hard (meaning not responding at all). I saw a post with a recommendation to the msconfig settings, but that did not seem to help. This is the only plug-in I seem to be having issues with. Does anyone know what is causing this? As an aside, having to unpack the entire X2 producer suite to install one thing is painful. Is there an option to get these separately?

The first time you use Pentagon in X1 or X2, you have to run Sonar as administrator which means going to the Sonar shortcut, right-click and select Run as Administrator. Then insert Pentagon into the synth rack and it should ask you for your registration key. Also, you have to use the VST version of Pentagon, not the DX version which doesn't work in 64-bit Sonar, so re-installing won't help. Running the VST Scan may help. 

+1 for the above suggestions, 

Bob Bone

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you tried to insert it under the "shared dxi".

In my setup, Pentagon I is just another of the included synths that were installed with the entire X2 program.  It can be inserted as an instrument track using "Insert soft synth" or I can drag and drop it from the "Plugins - Instruments" section of the browser.  It seems to work just fine, except that F1 won't bring up "Help" (which is a problem I have with most of the synths).  It never prompted me for a registration key or anything - the only ones that did that were DimPro and Z3ta.

I did uninstall X1 before installing X2 - could that make a difference?

>  I did uninstall X1 before installing X2

never uninstall the previous version of any program unless no other choice.

jm24


>  I did uninstall X1 before installing X2

never uninstall the previous version of any program unless no other choice.

I don't, usually.  But then again, sometimes I do.  It just depends...this time I did, and it has worked out just fine.
 
 

Hi all, thanks for the replies. To answer all the replies here... I think Pentagon registration carried forward from X1, since I do not believe it ever asked me (or I forgot I did this). After my re-install it DID run once without issues. The solution is to ALWAYS run X2 as administrator (it loaded a Pentagon track, no code required when I did this). I went so far as change the X2 shortcut's "Properties -> Compatibility" to "Always run as Administrator" just in case I forget to at some point. As far as X1 and X2 installed... they can be run independently; however, a warning will come up in X1 if loading a file saved with X2. The X2 specific features X1 cannot recognize. I am not sure if then saved if it will mess up the file for X2, so use this with caution if you try it. When I click to add a soft synth, there is a list of 5, divider, then "Beatscape" "Shared DXi" and "vstplugins"... I have Pentagon I also listed under "Shared DXi" and is the only one listed. As for the X2 audio engine suddenly crashing, I am not sure if this was also why (administrator), but will test it over time and see.

Ah, that old "Run as Administrator" thing.  It's such a habit for me in Win 7 that I forget about it.

It is interesting that your synth list has the "Shared DXi" heading - mine doesn't.   In the Plug-In Manager,  it does show up in the DXi category, though, along with TTS-1, Cyclone, GroovePlayer, PSYN II, and Roland GrooveSynth.  And they are grouped together in the insert synth list, there's just no heading describing them as DXis.

On the other hand, Pentagon I doesn't appear in the VST category in the Plug-In Manager, so maybe the VST version wasn't included in X2, or if it was, there's some trick to get it to appear.

The solution is to ALWAYS run X2 as administrator

No its not. Just the first time. 

Hmm.

Pentagon runs perfectly fine on my DAW, but on my other machine which is running X2, it's telling me the synth is not installed properly.

I just tried installing it again and the installation aborts with a "code 5"error, whatever the hell that is!