Bounce Softsynths to Audio Before Export?

I would. I usually bounce everything down and then do all my mix processing on the audio itself. For me, having all my tracks as audio makes it easier for me to manage and put together a mix, since it's apples to apples with everything being audio. I archive and hide all the MIDI at that point and only go back to it if there's an edit that requires retooling the MIDI. 
 
Also, if the project ever goes kablooey, you still have the raw audio tracks to rebuild the whole thing. 

Bristol,

Shouldn't all edits/changes musically be done before the mix process?
 
Thanks,
Adam

Bristol_Jonesey
I don't. I keep everything live & in Midi because I often like to go back and add/change parts. One concession i will make in a busy project is simply to freeze the synths - not the the tracks, the synths.This way I too will be working with purely audio tracks, and if I DO want to change something, then a quick unfreeze/edit/refreeze is a very quick workaround - and it's quicker than bouncing.

Same here, Colin.

The only other time I'll freeze (a synth, not track) is if it has random elements, e.g. a pad that changes randomly over time.

It's a matter of preference. Personally I like to separate the composition and mix processes for the sake of sanity. Not that I won't go back and add/edit after I've started mixing if it calls for it but for me it makes a clean workflow to be able to say "okay, the song is written, now I'm going to mix it." It helps organize my little brain.
 

jb101

aglewis723

Bristol_Jonesey
Not in my world......
 
In a perfect world maybe, but I never approach Sonar with a complete song in my head, so I compose/record/mix simultaneously

 
Shouldn't you compose/record, THEN mix?   Shouldn't the "song" musically be done before the mix?

A mix engineer may well re-record parts, or add parts, during the mix.
 
For example, sometimes I find, whilst mixing a song, that I cannot get a piano part to sit well with a guitar part.  Simply shifting one part up or down (using a different chord inversion) is enough to stop one masking the other.
 
If I re-amp a guitar part to sit better in the mix, it might then affect another part differently, so being able to edit a MIDI part becomes useful.

Even that stuff technically "should" be done in the tracking phase... it's still musical edits, no?  I could be wrong, or maybe there is no stinkin' rules, its music for God's sake :)

I always leave myself the ability to unfreeze and modify midi data, as well.
 
I have 32 GB of memory, so I never really run into problems, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Sir Paul McCartney used to hang on to song snippets and glue them together - such as Band On the Run. 
 
The piano ending to Layla was written and recorded and stuck on the end after the first part was done.
 
The best advice I can offer is to follow your own light, and try not to run out of batteries.
 
Bob Bone

aglewis723
 
Even that stuff technically "should" be done in the tracking phase... it's still musical edits, no?  I could be wrong, or maybe there is no stinkin' rules, its music for God's sake :)

You are indeed too focused on rules. Forget about them. Do whatever is necessary to get a good song. 
 
Obviously it also depends on how you record your music. When you are recording a band then you might record everything live in one go: then you will indeed mix when all recording is done. But even then you may discover something is missing or wrong during mixing and you may have to record another part anyway. I myself make music on my own so I record one track after another: in order to play and arrange and record a new track, the existing tracks HAVE to be mixed to a certain extent otherwise it may sometimes be impossible to do it well. So it all depends on the workflow for a specific project. But even then: forget about the rules: there aren't any (in this regard).

I'm with "...Wicked",  everything is audio at time of mix.  You have total control with EQing, Compressing, etc. that way.  And if you need to change something with a softsynth, you always keep the frozen synth track (or midi track) in an archive folder.  ; )

californiamusic
I'm with "...Wicked",  everything is audio at time of mix.  You have total control with EQing, Compressing, etc. that way.  And if you need to change something with a softsynth, you always keep the frozen synth track (or midi track) in an archive folder.  ; )

FWIW-this is exactly how I do it, audio only for mixing.

joden
But the point is - a "frozen track" IS audio. But it also has the HUGE advantage of one being able to easily edit a change or a make a  fix, change key etc etc, without the need to punch in record or go into arcane audio editing tools et al, which don't often work all that well and you are forced to go through another time-consuming and frustrating re-recording session, which takes even more away from the inspiration one started with
 
Just one tip though, by default Sonar disables the efx bin when a track is frozen. You do need to  re-enable it by right clicking on the bin

This is why I NEVER freeze tracks but I will ALWAYS freeze synths.
 
You freeze the synth, and you can choose exactly what you want to be frozen:
 

Cool