The fix is simple and has been mentioned. Do not include your plug folder in a plug scan. I'll cover all that in a minute. I use both Sonar 32 and 64 so I have 32 and 64 bit plugs. I use Sonar 32 because it doesn't crash anywhere near as much as 64 and I still use some older DX plugs that I can't do without.
Anyway, I have NEVER had a problem with any version of Waves in Sonar. I've been a Waves customer about as long as I've been a Cakewalk/Sonar customer. I started with Waves when they had a HASP dongle driver that plugged into your printer port. I still have it and the Waves 3.0 plugs. LOL! Anyway, the only issues I've had with Waves are the following and I will address each fix.
1. GUI never working right in Sonar only: In Waves 5 or 6, you had to open a VST plugin 2 times in order to see it. You'd get an empty plug screen the first time you opened a Waves VST. You'd have to delete the plug from your FX bin and re-insert it. Then you'd see the GUI. This forced me to use the DX versions way more because they worked flawlessly.
2. Lagging GUI controls in Waves plugs when used in Sonar: In Waves 6 or 7, the fix was to just move whatever control you were messing with slowly. Trying to move too fast would make the control not move at all or just sort of bounce and wobble.
3. Waves leaving registry information behind that stops you from using updated versions: This one hit me pretty hard this week. I've been using Waves 9 for the longest time. I don't pay attention to their updates often because it's a pain in the @ss uninstalling and reinstalling them. I've had a crash in Wavelab while using version 9 that I never had before. I thought the latest might help me out. Needless to say, it didn't but I don't feel it was time wasted...errr...wait, yes I do.
I uninstalled, removed folders, deleted registry items and did everything correctly. The install went fine. Sonar X1 and X2 don't see the plugs at all and a message keeps popping up mentioning "Wave Shell 9.0" still being associated. Only Sonar does this. Every other program worked perfectly. I totally uninstall again, remove registry and folder items again. This time I go deeper into the registry. Sure enough, there were over 1000 entries showing 9.0 being locked into Sonar. Yep you guessed it, one at a time I'm sitting there deleting registry items.
Waves has as much registry related junk as Kontakt. Both companies should be shot for dumping that much into any registry and leaving their garbage behind upon uninstalling. You know something, the more I find out about what these companies do to our systems behind the scenes, the more I wish I could sue them for over-charging as well as corrupting my system. Is it that freakin' hard to create something that removes all the reg keys upon uninstalling? Who pays me for the time I spent (over an hour) removing this horsesh!t? Sorry to vent, it just makes me sick. I can't afford to lose an hour of time let alone 15 minutes with the work I do here.
Anyway, removing all references to Waves 9.0 fixed me up with all versions of Sonar. Now some 32 and 64 bit plug info for you if you're curious...
When using Sonar 32, I like to install all my VST's into my program files (86) Cakewalk Vstplugins folder. However, if you will be using 64 bit plugs in Sonar 64, it's not a good idea to do this. So I install any plugs that will have 64 bit brothers in another folder that will NOT be scanned by Sonar 64, This should totally stop any issues anyone may be having. 3rd party 32 bit plugs in a folder, all 64 bit plugs in your program files (64) Cake Vstplugins folder and you shouldn't have any issues running both versions. You just can't allow a plug directory to be scanned in both versions of Sonar.
-Danny