Backup project with lots of FX

[DM1]

Is there a future-proof way to backup a project that has lots of per-track and per-bus effects (or, for that matter, DXi's and VSTi's)?

My concern is that I may need to load a project in the future, but will have upgraded or switched my effects suite (for example, ditched Waves for UAD.) If I just backup the project as-is, Sonar will expect the exact same DX and VST effects to be installed when I try to reload the project later.

I know I can freeze individual tracks, so although it's time consuming, at least that's an option. But what about FX that are applied to buses? Those can't be "frozen", can they?

How does everyone else address this issue?

 

[Nick98338]

I use Sonar 4. I don't address this issue. I don't put myself in this situation. But, I guess, if I thought I might get into this kind of problem, I would write down what plugins I had used with the project and make sure that I had those plugins installed before attempting to opening the project. Not a big deal. Doesn't take long. Most plugins are just simple xxx.dll files. As long as I had a memo of some kind of what plugins were used, I would just put them in temporarilly. Take them out again, later.

 

[cawhite12]

Even if you go to UAD, keep your waves plugs installed so that you can keep those older projects the same. FX Plugs take next to no hard drive space. Synths, especially samplers, take up more room, so on those I would render them to wave files.

 

[DM1]

Thanks guys.

My concern was that I might not have access to the plugins in the future i.e. I sell Waves to pay for the UAD ... But I guess holding onto the plugins I used is a tradeoff I have to make.