Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is a software interface that brings software synthesizers and audio effect plugins to digital audio workstations (DAW).

There are thousands of free and commercial plugins available on the market, and they can be utilized inside SONAR.

To load a new VST into SONAR, the VST scanner needs to be pointed at the parent folder, which contain(s) the individual VST .dll/.vst3 file(s).

To add any 3rd party VST to SONAR, please do the following:

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > File - VST Settings.

2. Under VST Scan Folder(s), click the Add button to open the 'Browse for Folder' dialog box.

3. Choose the folder you want to add, and click OK.

4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add any additional folders you might want to scan.

Now, whenever you open the 'Plugin Browser' or 'Add FX Dialog' in a Track FX Bin, you should see your new VST plugin.

The following paths are commonly used for 3rd party VST installers. You may want to preemptively add these to SONAR:

32-Bit:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST2
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Vstplugins

64-Bit:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Vstplugins

By Default SONAR will have the following VST2.4 paths:

32-Bit:
[Steamlibrary]common\Cakewalk\Vstplugins
[Steamlibrary]common\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\Internal

64-Bit:
[Steamlibrary]common\Cakewalk\x64\Vstplugins
[Steamlibrary]common\Cakewalk\x64\Shared Utilities\Internal

By default SONAR will have the following VST3 paths set:

32-Bit:
[SteamLibrary]common\Cakewalk\VST3
Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3

64-Bit:
[SteamLibrary]common\Cakewalk\x64\VST3
Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Almost all VST3 plugins will be found with these paths. Though you can add more if you wish.

Some 3rd Party VST Plugins require Administrator Privileges to activate/register. A guide on running Steam, and by extension SONAR, can be found here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5688-ifhz-2170

If you are only seeing the VST3 versions of a plugin, but you would like the VST2.4 option as well:
1. Go to Edit > Preferences > File - VST Settings.
2. Uncheck the option 'Hide Related VST2 Plugins'

If you would like to prevent SONAR from loading VST3 plugins in older projects that originally had VST:
1. Go to Edit > Preferences > File - VST Settings.
2. Uncheck the option 'Replace if Possible on Project Load'

Sometimes you'll need to reset your plugin library to pick up missing plugins:
1. Go to Edit > Preferences > File - VST Settings.
2. Click the [Reset] button.