3db quieter?

Nondestructive - use a clip gain or volume envelop
Destructive - from the menu "Process > Apply Effect > Gain"

Welcome to the forum. We recently had this conversation here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2815478

Rocky

ro-ca-, you will benefit dearly by watching some you tube videos on x2.
I can only imagine this jump has been a mile wide.
I used pro audio 9 back in early 2000.
so much has changed since then.

but scook is correct.

even though the option isn't 3db quieter any more.
its in normalize, use the drop down to select it from one of the presets.
 
the point I think he was getting to was non-destructive editing is now the future of all man kind.
back in these early days we did a lot of destructive editing hu ?
it was great, all or nothing back then, you had one chance to make it right using a computer with 256 mb in RAM  lol
 
we did it to save on resources and because a lot of were doing it.
now with ram and computers have so much power we can do things like write an envelope to tell sonar to make it quieter 3 db, this way we can go back and fix it if we found it was too low.
 
heres some good vids to get you up to date from cakewalks homepage called cake tv:
http://www.cakewalk.com/CakeTV/SONARU.aspx
 
3 different levels of experience.
 
I cant even fathom what your going through here. 
 

Process/Apply Effects/Gain... there are presets for .05db to 6db cut or boost.

Only use the process audio if the recorded clip is "Cleanly" too loud.  If it's clipped, record it again at lower levels. You can always bring a clean low level signal up, but you can not reduce a clipped signal to a clean level. 

Shoot for a nice full track filling (90% or slightly more) audio signal on the peaks. That ensures head room and that is a signal you can work with.  This would require NO processing to adjust levels other than enveloping in the final mix.

I use envelopes extensively rather than processing the audio levels using gain...either up or down. 

I have been known to use Normalize on a track. It does processing of the audio and brings the top peak to whatever maximum level you set it to.... and it amplifies everything else accordingly. I use this on tracks that may be a little low and need a boost without hitting the compressors. Then I envelope it as needed.  This typically occurs on low level acoustic tracks such as my mandolin, and on acoustic guitar picking tracks.