As I've never done a Sonar version upgrade before I am curious as to how my X1 projects will be handled by X2. Should I anticipate having to finish out current projects in X1 to avoid a huge hassle or do newer versions generally handle old projects reasonably well? Just want to be prepared for what's coming. Cheers.

X2 will read your X1 projects just fine. You might want to save them under a different name just in case. FWIW, every version of SONAR read older file formats, even formats that predate SONAR.

There will be no hassle as long as you stay with the same 32 or 64bit sonar. If you go from sonar X1 32 to X2 64bit, you need to make sure all plugins are 64bit ready

I'm wondering what it's gonna do with takes mostly considering the new lanes. But generally effects, settings, automation will load without too many bork outs?

Layers will be moved to take lanes (according to the webinar). That may be one reason you will want to save X2 opened projects under a different name. Just in case you need to reopen a project in X1.

Hi, CJay. I've been 64 bit from top to bottom from the start so that should be good. Unless X1 64 came with any 32 bit plugs the only 32 bit software I own is the Gen16 Z-Pack... which supposedly works but I haven't tried it yet. I don't even have a ton of projects at this point but I didn't want to build up a pile of tunes and then have to spend hours trying to jam them all into X2. Cheers.

@scook... Ah good. Yeesh, maybe I should finish watching the webinar. I've been playing and pausing it all afternoon. lol

X2 will load all X1 projects just fine and generally saved X2 files will also open in X1 minus the new features.
For example if you save an X2 file with duplicate PC modules X1 will load only one instance. As other said, unless you plan on going back and forth between X1 and X2 for some reason such as sharing with a non X1 user, its generally good to save the X2 version under a new name.
If you do plan on going back and forth avoid using X2 specific features and you should be fine.

Thanks, Noel. Good to know. Should be no problem for me then. Just want to keep working in X1 and then once I'm ready toss it into X2 without any wackiness. I really don't see a scenario where I'd need to do the opposite. Cheers.

I see this has gotten a lot of views in a short time. Really guys, although MY immediate concerns are resolved I think a lot of us new to Sonar (and modern DAWS in general) would like to hear your tales of past upgrades and some of the pitfalls we should watch out for. So yanno... go nuts. :-)