Hi Guys! I am still using Sonar 4 PRoducer edition (old I know)
 
Anyway, I have recently got a brand new PC and installed all my music software onto the new pc
 
The trouble is I have installed all my old plugins and they work fine! However, I notice this time round, when I right click on an audio track and choose Audio Affects, the old plugins I used to have are not visible in the main window! Instead, I have to scroll across into the VST category and THEN choose the plugin
 
This wouldnt be a problem for me apart from the fact that when I try and load existing Sonar CWP files, (songs I have saved) Sonar states that I have missing plugins!! but they are NOT missing, they are simply under the VST heading!  So after playing around several times with the VST adapter to no avail, I thought I would come on here and ask the experts!
 
Is there anyway to force the plugins to go to the main menu like my old pc, so that sonar can find them? because currently under the VST menu, Sonar thinks they are missing!...I cant understand why SOME vsts are in the main menu, and SOME are put to the VST Category? especially when they are all in the same folder!
 
My current folder where all my vst's are stored is the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg folder
 
I tried to make another folder inside that folder and copied all the vst's inside there, but then after using the VST adapter again, I just ended up having TWO copies of each plugin, but STILL in the VST Category!
 
Please can somebody help me? As I cant load my old songs properly.
 
Thanks
 
 

It looks like you installed 64-bit Windows. I don't think Sonar 4 is compatible with 64-bit Windows. It might work, but no guarantees. 
 
In the current version of Sonar (not sure if its true for Sonar 4), when you right click the FX bin and select Audio Fx and at the top of the next menu is an option called Plug-In Layouts select the one called Default All Plug-ins. 
 
 
 

This is one off my peeves. when I moved from my old hp machine to my Core i7 a few years back, it became apparent that something is amiss. I have many plugs and a large collection of hardware and VST libraries.
 
Now for my biggest pet peeve - especially since we are after all, using a computer: There is no way to print out all the track inserts and plugs. Therefore, whenever I open a song (across the network I can grab the file fine) for the first time on the newer machine, I am forced to first open the song on the old machine and MANUALLY write down the plugs on each track, their settings  and  any and all midi assignments including the instrument, bank and patch number. Then open the song on the new machine, resave it to the new drive locations and then, manually reconstruct the tracks. It's a real pain.
 
Some of my work has several instances of EWQL inserted and just recovering the patch data for that alone is very time consuming to write down and reconstruct correctly. It is a huge waste of time. But I am sure someone else has come up with a magical way to do all that and maybe they'll chime in and state how well it works for them. 

Hi Guys! Thanks for the replies!
 
I managed to get to a point where the majority of plugins load up ok, EVEN though they are in the VST category!........I reached a point where the only plugins that were not loading up ok and warning me that they were missing were AMPLITUBE XGEAR and BASS AMP ROOM
 
So I created a seperate folder in the Steinberg folder called BASS and shoved BASS AMP ROOM DLL inside, did a vst adapter search, and bingo it now works!! So I am now just struggling with XGEAR........Its so annoying because I have installed everything correctly and yet for some reason my old templates think XGEAR is missing, so I have been going on my old px and saving the XGEAR presets and transporting them over, but that is gonna take a LONG time lol