Magic Russ Posted October 8 Posted October 8 I was wondering if anyone knew of an app which would be able to tell me which VST instruments are in use in my Sonar projects? I know there was one a while ago which could list which effects were in which projects.
Steve Moddelmog Posted October 9 Posted October 9 https://adamczyk.com/miscellaneous-files/88-projectscope-exe-for-cakewalk-project-files 2
Steve Moddelmog Posted October 9 Posted October 9 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Steve Moddelmog said: https://adamczyk.com/miscellaneous-files/88-projectscope-exe-for-cakewalk-project-files You can use it to search within a project without opening it, or you can search your Cakewalk Projects folder to find, for example, all projects that use Kontakt. Unfortunately, it won't tell you what presets were used for each VST. Edited October 9 by Steve Moddelmog 1
Magic Russ Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 I've used projectscope before, but it does not do a good job of finding instruments. It only seems to find instruments if they are in the effects rack (either used as effects or set up in the old school method.
azslow3 Posted October 13 Posted October 13 1 hour ago, Magic Russ said: I've used projectscope before, but it does not do a good job of finding instruments. It only seems to find instruments if they are in the effects rack (either used as effects or set up in the old school method. I have just tried and it couldn't find Kontakt, at least it was not listed in plug-ins. While I am not going to re-create that tool, if you write what you really want and implementing that is relatively simple (for me), I may consider to write that. F.e. a command line tool which list all synths in specified project (can be saved into file, run from a batch script which search CWP files, etc.) is not a big problem. Project management with sophisticated GUI is problematic... 1
Magic Russ Posted October 13 Author Posted October 13 What I am looking for is something that will scan all files in my Cakewalk Projects/Sonar directory, and output a list of what instruments are used in each project. Nothing too complex.
azslow3 Posted October 13 Posted October 13 I will try... may be tomorrow, but that is not hard deadline 😏 1
azslow3 Posted October 14 Posted October 14 https://www.azslow.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=104 Command line tool, for one file. But example BAT to scan current directory included. The result can be redirected to file, f.e. cwpsynth_dir.bat > all_synth.txt 3 1
timboalogo Posted October 14 Posted October 14 (edited) On 10/14/2025 at 8:58 AM, azslow3 said: https://www.azslow.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=downfile&id=104 Command line tool, for one file. But example BAT to scan current directory included. The result can be redirected to file, f.e. cwpsynth_dir.bat > all_synth.txt Alexei you are a genius! Edited October 16 by timboalogo spelling
Magic Russ Posted October 15 Author Posted October 15 This works nicely. Now I realized I have a lot of tracks with Alchemy I am going to want to bounce in case I have problems installing it when I replace my current DAW machine. 1
Steve Moddelmog Posted October 16 Posted October 16 On 10/13/2025 at 1:32 PM, azslow3 said: I have just tried and it couldn't find Kontakt, at least it was not listed in plug-ins. While I am not going to re-create that tool, if you write what you really want and implementing that is relatively simple (for me), I may consider to write that. F.e. a command line tool which list all synths in specified project (can be saved into file, run from a batch script which search CWP files, etc.) is not a big problem. Project management with sophisticated GUI is problematic... I just used Projectscope to search for projects with Kontakt. It returned probably close to 100 projects. For the ones returned for at least the past 5 years, Kontakt was inserted via "Insert/Soft Synth." I couldn't say whether it wfound every instance of Kontakt, but it certainly seems like it based on the number of projects. Also, if I search, for example, "Kontakt 8," it just returns projects with Kontakt 8. One shortfall is that sorting by date sorts first by the first letter of the month name, so it's not remotely chronological.
azslow3 Posted October 16 Posted October 16 Note that in your screenshot there is a track "Kontakt 1 Main" and "Plug-Ins" list doesn't include Kontakt... So you have found tracks which mentioned Kontakt, not Kontakt in the synth list. Depending how someone defines track names that can be close to the same. Some users name tracks based on sound kind, not plug-in type. Also if the goal is find all synths, searching particular one doesn't help.
Magic Russ Posted October 16 Author Posted October 16 As another example, I had a few tracks using Abbey Road Drums and Scarbee Rick Bass where the tracks were simply named AR Drums and Bass, with no other Kontakt instruments. Project scope could not find those because it was searching by track names and not instruments names.
Steve Moddelmog Posted October 17 Posted October 17 23 hours ago, azslow3 said: Note that in your screenshot there is a track "Kontakt 1 Main" and "Plug-Ins" list doesn't include Kontakt... So you have found tracks which mentioned Kontakt, not Kontakt in the synth list. Depending how someone defines track names that can be close to the same. Some users name tracks based on sound kind, not plug-in type. Also if the goal is find all synths, searching particular one doesn't help. Ah, I see what you mean. I never change the names of the tracks when I insert a synth (I do change them when I record myself playing guitar, bass, etc.). So I can reliably use Projectscope to find all my projects with a particular synth in them. Without going into specifics of why, that's the main thing I use it for. So it works for me, but it's not going to do what others are looking for.
timboalogo Posted October 17 Posted October 17 My mother used to ask me "What do you want for free?" Thanks to Alexei! Maybe if you buy him a bottle of wine or maybe some cheese (https://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,107.msg121.html#msg121), he'll drop the price of cwpsynth.exe from free to $40!! 1
Magic Russ Posted October 24 Author Posted October 24 Is there any source code available for either of these two projects or at least documentation of the CWP format? I would love to be able to come up with something that could combine the features of both.
Bass Guitar Posted October 24 Posted October 24 (edited) @azslow3 is a genius and lifesaver for many of us. Now I have discovered his CWP2 song file converting script I don’t even need Sonar to open my CWP files. I can easily open them in S1. Or Reaper with his other file converter. I installed Splat with the intention of opening old projects and exporting them as midi and stems but now I don’t need to waste my time with doing that. I think it takes about 1 minute to convert them. Edited October 24 by Bass Guitar 1
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