Preserve existing SonitusFX user presets on installation of Sonar

[JazzP]

I have observed this behavior before with other Cakewalk versions, but now it happened again when I installed Sonar 2024.11 for the first time next to an existing installation of CbB:

The SonitusFX plugin preset files (FxCompressorDX.ini etc.) in the Shared Plugins folder (C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Plugins) are being overwritten by the default files when SonitusFX is being installed by another, thus loosing all saved user presets (not wanted!).

The installation of Sonar did not let me choose a different folder as it was apparently already fixed as default location by CbB. I was prepared for this and had backed up the files before, but it is still annoying. So please fix that the Cakewalk Sonar installer preserves SonitusFX .ini files with a newer date found in the Shared Plugins folder.

Edited December 8 by JazzP

[David Baay]

- Give custom presets custom names.

- Define your own content  folder location that Cakewalk doesn’t write to. 

[JazzP]

On 12/9/2024 at 4:06 PM, David Baay said:

- Give custom presets custom names.

- Define your own content  folder location that Cakewalk doesn’t write to. 

I am not sure how this will solve the overwrite issue as not all these options apply to the Sonitus:FX plugins.

- Give custom preset custom names: Sonitus:FX plugins are DirectX, and the internal preset option stores the presets in an .ini file (the one that is being overwritten). So if I give it a custom name, it is stored in the same file as the factory presets.

There is that Other cakewalk preset button thing in the toolbar, but that one is horrible to work with, and I have no idea where those are stored (not in Content folder, not in AppData etc. Maybe in the register?)

- Define your own content folder: the plugins are installed by default in the Shared Plugins folder, of which the location is determined during the first Cakewalk installation on a pc. Afterwards, this folder is being used by all other Cakewalk products, and there is no way to influence this.

Maybe you can elaborate on your suggestions on how to exactly apply them to this scenario?

Edited December 10 by JazzP

[David Baay]

3 hours ago, JazzP said:

Maybe you can elaborate on your suggestions on how to exactly apply them to this scenario?

Sorry, I dId not realize Sonitus preset storage worked that way. I was just throwing out options that will address the overwrite issue in most cases.

[sjoens]

  

On 12/8/2024 at 5:34 AM, JazzP said:

I was prepared for this and had backed up the files before

 

AFAIK Sonitus FX are part of the main program and will overwrite existing files.

Once you create a preset you can add it to the list by clicking Presets > Add Preset or Preset Manager... type a name and choose what list it goes in and it will be added to the INI file and show up in the dropdown list.

Now you can either save a backup of the INI file to replace the updated one or...

In the Preset Manager you can Export presets to their own INI file that won't (or shouldn't be) overwritten during an update (if they are then save them somewhere else).  After an update you can Import them back into the list.

Click the ? or Help button for more info.

 

Edited December 14 by sjoens

[JazzP]

On 12/10/2024 at 10:22 PM, sjoens said:

  

 

AFAIK Sonitus FX are part of the main program and will overwrite existing files.

Once you create a preset you can add it to the list by clicking Presets > Add Preset or Preset Manager... type a name and choose what list it goes in and it will be added to the INI file and show up in the dropdown list.

Now you can either save a backup of the INI file to replace the updated one or...

In the Preset Manager you can Export presets to their own INI file that won't (or shouldn't be) overwritten during an update.  (If they are then save them somewhere else.)  After an update you can Import them back into the list.

Click the ? or Help button for more info.

 

That's indeed how the presets in the ini file and the preset manager works. However, if you are not aware of this, and have not backed up your presets using the Export before you update or install another Cakewalk product, there is still the risk of losing your custom data; in my opinion that is not acceptable.
I learned about the Sonitus:FX presets being overwritten the hard way durin a Sonar upgrade which included new versions of the Sonitus:FX plugins....

Edited December 11 by JazzP

[sjoens]

So I'm curious what happens when a preset is saved in the header panel as I don't see physical evidence anywhere and they aren't saved in the INI file.  These seem to disappear during an update as I've lost all I saved that way.

[Amberwolf]

User-created presets in the header are saved in the registry here for SonitusFX Multiband Compressor (for example):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\ActiveMovie\Presets\{C54E2D70-F9CA-11D2-8C30-00805FE9FC03}

Other presets for other plugins are stored in the other keys in that same subsection

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\ActiveMovie\Presets\

 

There might be other locations they are saved in as well, but that's where I find them when I do a search (Ctrl-F) in the registry for any of my user-created-preset names.   

 

I haven't tried to use the "presets" dropdown in the Sonitus plugins themselves since first using them way way back when, until seeing this thread, because nothing I saved in the presets up top where every other plugin and synth I use saves user-presets ever showed up in the presets button/dropdown inside the Sonitus UIs, and since I only cared whether I could save my user-created presets I didn't have a use for it's Preset Manager / export / import functions, as they apparently only worked for built-in presets, which I could get back just by reinstalling it.  (I never save over any existing preset in a plugin/synth, because I might want to re-use that starting point again sometime ). 

 

I know that sometime ago I had a "preset manager" (written by a SONAR user? can't remember, but it wasn't an official Cakewalk product; it's not the one in the Cakewalk Plugin Manager, etc)) that would backup the registry entries for plugins and synths, and I think it also handled other custom settings within SONAR (maybe keybindings, INI files, etc?), but for whatever reason I started backing all those up manually at some point and have just continued that over time.  

 

[sjoens]

1 hour ago, Amberwolf said:

User-created presets in the header are saved in the registry here...

For some reason that wasn't working yesterday but the plugin name was shown for each list.  Today it's working but there's no plugin name on the Sonitus lists like there is for every other plugin. 

Seems there's also a preset list for each version of Sonar, and the universal one you referenced.