Does Sonar roadmap include VST3?

I know this is a controversial subject, so let me be completely precise. I know Sonar doesn't currently support VST3, and I am not criticizing CW for it. I'm not arguing for VST3 to be included, I'm just wondering the following:
 
Does the future Sonar roadmap include VST3 support? If so, what version?
 
Up until recently I didn't care about VST3 at all, but with Vienna Ensemble Pro, the multiple midi ports per plugin instance is a big advantage for my setup (huge orchestral templates on multiple slaves). I was hoping to know if I should wait for Sonar VST3 support, or explore other alternatives. Thanks!

Past comments from CW suggest that no, there are no plans to support VST3 unless things change that make it a necessity.

At this time, most other DAW vendors are similarly ignoring VST3, and the only plugin vendor I know of that offers VST3-only versions is Yamaha, due to its affiliation with Steinberg. And IMO they are making a big strategic mistake in doing so.

I can see why multipe MIDI ports would be advantageous in your scenario, but unfortunately (for you), those in a similar situation constitute a very small minority with zero clout. (Unless you can get somebody like Danny Elfman to insist on it, but he's not a SONAR user AFAIK.)

Out of curiosity, what is the advantage of driving a single instance of a sample player from multiple ports versus just using multiple instances? Slightly reduced memory requirements, obviously, but that savings would be miniscule compared to the RAM needs of those big libraries.

Thanks for the responses. I had a feeling VST3 wasn't a high priority. I did see the previous posts from Noel, but those were several months old and in present tense. I was just curious if it would ever support VST3.

Out of curiosity, what is the advantage of driving a single instance of a sample player from multiple ports versus just using multiple instances? Slightly reduced memory requirements, obviously, but that savings would be miniscule compared to the RAM needs of those big libraries.

Good question. The disadvantages of multiple instances of VE Pro is that they create additional network traffic. GigE can only support so many streams before getting dropouts. So, a bunch of instruments in a single instance uses 1/50 the bandwidth of the same number of instruments in 50 instances.

I'm not sure why you would want Sonar to support this since you're already using Vienna Ensemble? Doesn't that take care of hosting everything you want, and on multiple machines? Can you elaborate?

I still need a sequencer. The typical way for VE Pro to work is to open a plugin in Sonar, which then connects to a remote VE instance. All midi from Sonar then gets forwarded to the remote instances, and audio is fed back over GigE to Sonar. It's my perfect setup, except for the one port per instance problem, which is limiting how many audio streams I can transfer and more importantly how many instruments I can load before network bandwidth is saturated.

Oh well. I've tried VE Pro combined with Midi over Lan, but I can't it to work when VE Pro is connected to a plugin (the remote instance seems to ignore all MoL traffic). However, MoL works with VE Pro standalone, but I cannot connect standalone on a remote machine to Sonar. :(

I wonder if VE Pro works over Infiniband.

I've heard  discussions about possible extensions to the VST2 standard to support this, but it sounds like speculation. Has anyone else heard anything?

wintaper


I have the waves vocal rider. In Sonar, sidechaining doesn't work - apparently it is implemented as a VST3 plugin feature.

Are there any VST plugins that do support sidechaining in Sonar? Seems only the Sonitus (DX) effects do.

-Dan

There's some of the TC Powercore plugs that do but I've never used them in sidechain mode so can't vouch for their worth.

I realize I'm part of a small market, but I recently switched to Cubase for scoring just so I could use the VST3 version of VE Pro. I really want to stick with Sonar because I prefer the workflow and I've already discovered 2 confirmed bugs in Cubase that are driving me crazy. However, I definitely need my plugins to support multiple ports, which only VST3 currently provides. What a pisser.