Feature Request:Plug in locator instead of Plug in Stand-in

Hi all.
 
Have just made the leap to 64 bit Windows7 with Sonar 8.5 and a MOTU PCI 424 based system and everything is working pretty well. However, I believe the actual transition to 64 bit could be made a lot smoother and less confusing with regard to plug ins with a hopefully simple to implement feature.
 
Heres the beef:
 
Essentially, and to summarise for those who havent yet delved into 64bitland, not all plug ins work in S64. 32bit VST based effects and instruments can be used with bitbridge, but 32bit DX plugs do not work. Thankfully cakewalk have ported most of their plugs to either 64bit or VST so as we can all continue using them. This is great, but in the case of my most frequently used plug, RXP player, which has been ported to VST for use in S64, that means that Sonar recognises it as a new plug in. Any older projects that references the DXi version of the plug in will not load the plug, and its rexs. Which means all old projects have to be run in 32bit. This is fine if you never go back. But I need to, a lot! And this forces me to keep a 32bit installation side be side, which, is a learning curve to say the least. (Thanks to this forum, BTW, No way I could of done it without this place!!!)
 
I reckon all this could be avoided with the implementation of a system that, if I am not mistaken, I think is already buried somewhere deep in Sonar - the choice of selecting a replacement for a plug in that cannot be found. At some point, I'm pretty sure I was given the option to select which instance of a plug in I wished to load. In my case I inserted a Guitar Rig 4, and I was confronted with a choice of two different instances of the plug in. What would be fantastic, and would alleviate the need for me to keep one foot in 32 bit land, is if we were offered this option every time Sonar did not recognise a plug in. For instance, on loading a project, where it did not recognise refrences to RXP player DXi, if we could select an alternative instance of it (the Vsti incarnation of the RXP player), it could save a lot of hassle and provide much greater backward compatibilty.
 
With this, I could actually move to 64 bit once and for all. As it stands, and very frustratingly, I cannot load anything I 've done in the past, because Sonar wont recognise one of its own native plug ins, that actually works fine in a 64 bit environment.
 
Sure, I could just request that this is fixed, and that Sonar would just know that Dxi RXP references can be replaced with VST RXPs, but I'm pretty sure that with more and more people moving to 64, this is going to become more frequent with different plugs that are out of Cakewalks control. & Unless I'm totally mistaken I'm pretty sure I've seen this sort of a plug in selector somewhere along the line. Surely It wouldnt be too complex, to just let us have an option to invoke it at our discretion?
 
Am i mad or has anyone else seen this option? Is there any way to "force it"? If not, is this feature do-able? Real shame if not, as this is literally the only thing that is holding me back, as all of my other plugs play nice!
 
I know, I know, the  immediate reaction will be - Old projects - Sonar 32 bit, New ones -  64 bit, but sadly I havent got that luxury. I have to work in old projects all the time - so essentially, I doubt I will ever be able to go truly 64, which is a shame as I am so close I can smell the extra RAM.
 
Hopefully one of you will tell me I'm a dumb-ass and that that feature IS already there, and I've just missed it. Heres hoping!!!!!
 
Cheers　

+5

When you open a SONAR project in safe mode (by holding the shift key while double clicking the file name) aren't you asked aboout which plugin to load?

Also when the plugin is ot availoable there is a place holder setup whcih allows you to choose the pligin. Am I wrong or have I misunderstood something?

I've not had to use the feature so I wasn't totally familiar with the exact way it works. Sorry it doesn't provide a solution.


I'll do a little more digging.

kp


I may be slightly misunderstanding you, but the problem I could see is that the data stored for the old plug-in's state wouldn't match the new plug-in's requirements, so you'd either have to bin it (in which case, you may as well do the work manually) or risk corrupting the project/crashing SONAR if you try to load the wrong plug-in data (that said, if you try to load a mismatched fxb/fxp, SONAR knows and stops it, but I don't know if that same kind of mechanism would work with data in the project).

That might not always be the case though - I don't know if 32/64 bit versions of the same plug-in save their state in the same format.

That could very well be the case if you tried to load a different plug-in altogether - but all I want to do is load RXP player. Sonar doesnt recognise that the 32bit DXi version of RXP is the same plug in as 32bit VSTi RXP player - and surely they ARE the same plugin?
 
Also, the fact that I am asked to choose between NI Guitar Rig 4 32bit and 64bit when loading a project that has references to guitar rig4, suggests to me that as long as the plug-in is indeed  the same - there shouldn't be any problems. Otherwise why would such an option exist in the first place?
 
Dont get me wrong - I havent dreamt this up myself & I am not proposing to write in this feature from scratch - it already exists! We're just not allowed to access it.

kp


They may well not be because of one is VST and one is DX and the internal storage format for the settings may necessarily be different.

Equally, they may well be the same :-)

Hopoefully, the latter.
 
Thanks for the help anyways!
 
:)