You might read about gain staging as this is the common name for what you are asking about.
Some VST effects model being over-driven as well as being driven in a more typical manner. This means that when you run hot into the VST you get the over-driven sound. Some VSTs really don't distort on being over-driven until you clip. If the VST is in the FX Bin in the pro-channel, you should see the pro-channel clip light flicker red when you clip a VST. For when you are over-driving a plugin, your ears are the best judge.
Input Gain on your Pre Amp and Interface Input Gain on your Pre Amp and Interface give you your initial signal. Whatever changes these make to the signal are permanent. For example, if you over-drive your pre-amp before you reach Sonar, you can't undo it in Sonar. For this reason, people usually try to record fairly cleanly and dirty things up in Sonar. This gives you the flexibility to undo things you don't like.
Effect Send LevelEffect Send is a place you can impact gain going to a bus. You can then also use the bus gain nob to further adjust the gain.
Input Gain on the TrackEvery track has an input gain nob. This nob cannot be automated for some reason. I use the input gain nob fairly regularly. For example, if I've got a track sounding the way I want but there are a few momentary clips during playback, I might turn the input gain down a few DB to compensate.
Clips have separate input gainYou can adjust the gain on a specific clip. If you split a clip at zero crossings, you can then adjust the gain of the clip (or normalize the clip to make the gain adjustment more permanent).
Odd transient peak reductionIf there are just one or two large spikes in level on an otherwise consistent track, you can split the clip around those peaks using snap to zero crossings so you don't get a click. Then use normalize or clip gain to reduce the relative level of that odd transient to be more in-line with the rest of the track. This basically helps you be a very good manual limiter.
FX Chain ControlsIf you have an FX Chain in the Pro Channel, you have gain staging built in. You have a slider for the gain coming into the chain and another for the gain coming out. These sliders should not distort the signal (unless you clip the signal). They only adjust the heat of the signal into the VSTs or into the subsequent signal chain.
Tube PC ModuleThe Tube Pro Channel Module has an Output nob. If you keep the drive all the way down, you can use the output nob on the tube module to adjust gain staging or general track volume. Unlike the Gain nob on the track, this nob can be automated. Sometimes, when I want to reduce the volume for a track in the mix without moving all the fader automation or using off-set mode, I might use this nob to make slight tweaks.
NormalizationSometimes I record for hours at once while a band plays through all the songs they know, and then I go back and mix those songs. When one song is significantly quieter than the others, I may want to use the normalize function.
Process > Apply FX > Normalize. I do not normalize to 0 very often. I usually normalize to -3 or so depending on the track. This leaves headroom when going into the VSTs.
Visually identifying peaks for nudging tracks or other workSometimes you just want to see the wave form more clearly. You don't actually need to change the track gain, you just want to see a particular transient very clearly. An example situation is that if you used two DAWs that were clock sync'd to record a performance and then moved all the tracks to a single DAW and wanted to line them up. You might pick a particular drum beat, zoom WAAAAY in and then adjust the tracks to align perfectly. For this purpose, it's useful to know that you can go into track view, put the tracks side by side, Set the Edit Filter to Clips and then in the gray bar between the track headers and the wave form views click and drag up. This will make the wave form get bigger so you can see it better. Drag down to make it smaller. Double click to reset it to default.
This link shows the order of events in Cakewalk X3
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=Mixing.07.html ** I have never used Channel Tools to adjust gain staging. Channel Tools does have meters than can give you a picture of your levels at a particular point in the signal chain, but I would shy away from the mid/side gain nobs on the plugin and use some other method to actually adjust the gain.
post edited by gswitz - 2014/11/09 06:48:01