i have composed with previous versions of Sonar using past version of synths by Native Instruments . the newer synths/plug-ins pretty much have all the old sounds/instruments plus newer ones . since i do not have the previous versions installed on my new computer . when i bring up an older Sonar file it of course cannot find the synth plug-in nor sound . it would be a great feature if i could see not just the name of the plug-in but also the name of the sound used by the plug-in so i could replace it with the newer version .
 
Example: i composed using Kontact 4.0 . now i have 5.5.2 and as mentioned 4.0 (which has a huge amount of files) is not installed on my new machine . Sonar tells me a track is using Kontact 4.0 which is helpful to a point . but if i could also recall the name of the sound/instrument . i could just go through and switch both the plug-in and the sound to the newer version . i would think somewhere in the Sonar file would be the name of the sound used besides just the plug-in name . after a couple of years go by it is difficult to recall which sounds were used where . still of course i loose any special settings for that instrument . but at least i would know what it was ...
 
thanx  

I can be wrong but I do not think that is possible, at least till you use Cakewalk preset system with meaningful names.
 
From DAW perspective, plug-in settings including instrument definition is a black box. What is written here is defined inside plug-in and it has no common structure.
 
On the other hand in case 5.5.2 can read saved by 4.0 structure (is it? I have no idea), some user definable auto replacement for plug-ins can work.

Steven,
Haven't found where Sonar can do this but...
One work around that I've found effective (and continue to do to this day) is to name at least one of my midi clips as the name of the patch I've used.
 
Also, the folder system  in Track View has a note section that is great for putting this type of information and any other info about the patch you want to carry over.

thanx Arlen . suppose i should have thought ahead and named the sound as you mentioned or else taken notes so i could reconstruct it . will do that in the future . still would be helpful if there were a way for the plug-in to be able to accept older settings . guess that might be more on the Native Instrument side of things .
 
@azslow3 . i would think one of the saved parameters would be the text name of the sound . looking at the .cwp file in Notepad there seems to be quite a lot of information stored about the plug-in and settings used ... thanx ...

Steve, 
When I get to "tinkering" around with a synth or sampler, I usually create a preset in the plugin section of Sonar. 
This might be helpful for rebuilds, not sure about older versions (well not too older a version).  You can always save the presets folder to disc for future reference.  Have done it in the past and it's saved my hide...LOL

Arlen
i know i can certainly adjust for the future . it's the past i am trying to reconstruct where i did not think to store that info separately from the Cakewalk file . still it would be a nice feature to have the information in the Cakewalk project .
~steve

I thought that some of the forum folks took it upon themselves to build some little but powerful utilities, and one of those I think created some sort of an inventory of what was used in a project.
 
Here is the link to the thread that contains descriptions for all of these user-built utilities and such, as well as the links to allow you to go and download them.
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3238243
 
There is at least one of those that might give you assistance with figuring out old presets or synths and such, to the best of my awareness.
 
I have always created such lists of what is contained within each project using Notepad/Word/Excel/Screen-shot and placing that information within a sub-folder for each project named Project Notes, and that approach has worked for me for well over 20 years.  (I was in technical support for eons, and we such folks try to leave trails of breadcrumbs via notes - albeit sometimes on napkins - to help us keep things running when things aren't running).
 
I hope one of those utilities helps you - while you are in there, I would encourage you to look at some of the other ones - you may find several powerful and helpful creations there. Those folks certainly have put in some quality time and created quality tools they then freely have chosen to give us - you can't really beat that.  Another reason I love these forums and the folk within :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Bob,
Thanks for that!
I didn't forget about them, but couldn't remember where they were (and haven't had the time to do the search).
Much appreciated!

thanx Robert for the info . will check into it ...