So I've rebuilt my DAW to a Win7 64-bit situation. Reinstalling all my VSTs, I notice SONAR no longer recognizes certain VSTs as, er, themselves in a given project. So, even though I installed Absynth 3, my projects with Absynth 3 won't recognize and load.

Anyone have any tips on how to connect these orphans back up? I thought about changing the .dll filename to see if it needs to match (some of them are in different sub-paths), and I briefly read up about CLSIDs and wondered if that might be where the ID takes place for projects.

A couple of questions for you.

1.  What OS did you have before? 
2.  Have you installed both the 32 and 64-bit Native Instruments plugins?
3.  Have you checked the VST folder paths?  you may have to add some

It just looks in the paths for the plugins.  That is the most likely place to have to tweak things, from I understand from your post.

Some folks only installed 64-bit plugins from Native Instruments, which is fine, but if your old projects were using 32-bit ones, it will be looking for those and not the 64 bit ones.  

So, if that is the case, you may want to go back and install the 32-bit versions and add the VST folder paths to the Cakewalk Plugin Manager.  That should take care of that kind of an issue.

The above seems to be the most common kind of thing I have seen.

You could also choose to swap out any 32-bit plugin with its 64-bit equivalent, but you will have to adjust for that in terms of the sound.

Many people choose to leave projects created as 32-bit projects alone - by installing and using 32-bit X2 to work on those, to avoid altering the sound by swapping to 64-bit plugins and such.

If you want to sort of compare a 32-bit project's sound to its 64-bit version, I would:

1.  Create a new project folder - with perhaps an x64 at the end of the name, and copy all of the 32-bit project folder contents (audio folder and cwp file) to the new folder.
2.  Rename the new folder's CWP project file to match the new project folder's name.  This will keep you from confusing yourself.
3.  Open up the new x64 version of the project in x64 X2
4.  Swap out any 32-bit plugins with available 64-bit ones for the ones you have
5.  See how it sounds, tweak if needed
6.  Maybe export the new x64 version as WMA or wave
7.  Export the 32-bit version to WMA or wave
8.  Listen to both and decide which you like better

he above will guide you on how much you want to put into dealing with any older projects.  Obviously, new projects would most likely be created in 64-bit X2.

I hope the above is remotely close to helping you, 

Bob Bone

I'm installing 32-bit versions of things, mostly to keep some backwards compatibility with projects (a nominal failure so far).

I went from XPsp3 to W764.

So even though the plugins installed fine, to have it match up with older projects I have to replicate the folder structure within the VSTplugins folder? I assume in the 32-bit side of things.

I don't think you have to replicate folder structure for the plugins.

I think the paths are looked at like a giant 'pool' in terms of searching for any referenced plugin.  If it worked differently, I would think the whole VST Plugin Manager would work quite differently than it does.

And, I do not think individual plugin paths are stored at the synth-rack level for a project.

When running jobs on mainframe computer, we stick a whole bunch of libraries together and just tell the OS to run a program, and it will execute the first one with that name that it finds in our chain of libraries.

Not sure, though. I haven't brought much forward from 32-bit to 64-bit.  I would swap out any 32-bit plugin for a 64-bit one every time, if it was available.

Bob Bone

I've kept it all 32-bit. I got j-bridge but haven't wrapped anything yet until I get the system all hummed out.

I kept my old VST folder as a reference, just so I can peek in it and see how it was arranged. I noticed that certain plugs are named differently now, I wonder if that has something to do with it? If not, do I have to figure out how to hack the CLSID in order to make SONAR recognize that Absynth is indeed  Absynth (for example, I've got a slew of other ones that aren't recognizing as their self). 

I should note, all these plugins work as advertised when inserted into a new project, they just don't corollate to their older selves in older projects.

I don't think hacking anything here is a good idea.

Try the following:

1.  Create a new project folder, VST Test or something
2.  Copy the innards from one of your proejcts that is having this VST issue, into the new VST Test project folder
3.  Once there, rename the VST Test cwp file (the one you just pasted in) to the name of VST Test.cwp.  This will avoid later confusion as to what project came from where.
4.  Open the VST Test project, which should now be a cone of the old project.  This was all done to preserve your original project.
5.  Once in the project, swap out the existing plugins with either the same 32-bit ones or use 64-bit ones, assuming you are running in 64-bit mode.
6.  Make sure the midi and audio track assignments are all correctly pointing to the correct plugins and inputs.
7.  Give it a play and see what happens
8.  Tell me about your results

OK?

I will be back in 10-15 minutes

Bob Bone

I can confirm that directory locatation of a plug doesn't matter as long as the plugin gets scanned... which begs to ask if the OP did a scan after his rebuild? 

Is the AS .dll named the same as before?

Jim

Yah did scans. Plugin shows up in my menus and installs and runs fine, just doesn't seem to be recognized in an older project as that plugin. I've got it with several plugins: waves, NI (most but not all), and a slew of 3rd party freebs. Most of them are pretty easy to solve, the .dll is the whole plug so easy to solve. I copied over my vst folder from the old system so I can do comparisons and in some cases just copy the .dll over. But some of the bigger ones with more complicated installs (Kontakt I'm looking at you!) are more difficult. 

And that's just round one. Round two is the presets. So far Replace Synth doesn't do a good job of remembering what patch it was set at, so replacing the non-functioning DimPro with a working DimPro, for example, loses the patch it was set at. Grrrr...

Wicked - do you have the original version of Sonar on your system?  The 32-bit version you first used to record those projects?  If so, could you then note which plugins are using which presets?

And/Or - what would happen if you were to install the 32-bit version of X1 or X2, whichever you are using, and then open up one of the older projects there?

Maybe opening in 32-bit mode will open the plugins the way you want them to.

I'll check back mid-morning or so to see if you had a chance to check on the above - somewhere close to noon.

Bob Bone

Have you tried re-registering the plug ins ?

Regsvr32 etc ?

KR,
Jerry