Mixer confusion...

Well that sounds like its your doing not the mixer's. You have 2 mono tracks out putting to what? 

Trying to mix in Sonar's mixer is like playing the carnival game "Mole in the Hole". You bop one mole and another pops up...or in this case the meter levels goes down.

Okay thanks, I minimized the Pro Channel screen, deleted the Master, Preview, and Metronome busses. So now all I have showing is track 1, track 2, and the locked main out. This cleans it up nicely for me, as all I want is a simple mixer. The level meters in the Pro Channel box still confuse me as they don't seem to respond as I would expect. I can close up the box and not deal with them. All these level meters were confusing me and I was getting very low volume exported mixes. Now that they are all gone, I shouldn't have a problem anymore. Thanks again.

I have never found the level metres in Sonar something I "have to deal with". They are fairly logical IMHO. You have deleted all of your busses, and as a result you now have nowhere to apply any kind of master whole mix fx.
 
I suggest a little time with the user guide might clear things up:)

tenfoot
I have never found the level metres in Sonar something I "have to deal with". They are fairly logical IMHO. You have deleted all of your busses, and as a result you now have nowhere to apply any kind of master whole mix fx.
 
I suggest a little time with the user guide might clear things up:)

 Adding effects to the whole mix, wasn't what I wanted to do, I just wanted straight recordings. The main concern was the low level of the exported files.

Sonar's ( and all DAW's I've used) mixer looks and works about the same as any real mixing desk. I can understand you being overwelmed by a lot of extra controls but really, they are there for good reason. Plus, you are the one who puts them there. 
If I start a new project it's like blank. I have to add any tracks or Busses.  The only channel strips in the mixer are the Audio interface outputs which are by default at unity and can be ignored. I then have to add the Master buss and any effect busses. I can save this as a template for future use. The extra master outs for your audio interface are there to let you know your signal is being sent out to say, 1/2 or 3/4 etc. You certainly need to make sure they are not clipping, but in a properly set up signal chain they should show the same level as your Master Buss. I minimize them and push them out of view. 
 
Which by the way, the Master buss is super important. Sure you can adjust your main output without it but that's certainly not the way 99% of us roll. 
If your mixes are whimpy it's time to bone up on signal chain and how the sound travels from point a to point b. 1,000 of tutorials on the subject, start reading and watching videos. 
 
 

If you wanted to start completely clean. Ignore the start screen. Choose File>New. Then from the template pop up box,
-- blank project --
Completely empty, you don't even have to name it.

It's really quite simple:
 
All Tracks > Master buss > Interface/Main Outs
 
Make sure your Master Buss and Main Outs are set to 0dB

Your using a template that you don't like. Don't use it. Make your own like I said.
And what Kamikaze said is how you start. I don't use the start screen either. 
 
Once you make some custom tracks you save them as Track Templates. 
So it's fast to populate a blank project with your own stuff the way YOU want it. 
 
 

I don't use them either but they are part of the mixer default set up, and they must be dealt with. Either delete them or start fresh. Either way a time consuming road block.

You only need to set up a given template once.
 
Then it's there forever

That's what I was doing, using just what I needed and ignoring the rest, and that's where I got into trouble. The other level meters that I wasn't paying attention to, were lowering my output levels. I'd export a track and post it to SoundCloud, and it would be very quiet compared to other tracks on SoundCloud. It got so bad I could hardly hear my tracks...I had to do a complete search thru my audio chain to find the problem, and I did find it in Sonar's mixer. Once I corrected all the meters the volume came up......but I was shocked by how many meters were in the default chain.

Not to keep adding on, but...  the Metronome and Preview buses are not intended to ever be included in the signal chain, at least not by default.  As mentioned previously they serve very specific purposes, but routing your tracks' audio to or thru them is not one of those purposes.
 
You also mentioned a Pro Channel "Bus", but the Pro Channel is essentially a group of VST Plugins that can be applied to an audio track or bus.  There may be meters visible depending on which modules are included at the time, but if the entire Pro Channel strip is disabled (at the top) it also has no effect on the track and bus levels/meters.
 

"The other level meters that I wasn't paying attention to, were lowering my output levels."
 
This statement shows me you still need to understand the signal path.
Meters don't lower your level. The level fader or knob is what controls your levels. The meter just shows you the results. There need only be a Master buss. All the others for your audio interface default to unity. If they are showing a low level then you are sending a low level output. As said over and over here, the master buss and the audio interface output channels should all show the same level unless you turn something down.
 Those other strips , metronome and preview mean nothing and have no bearing on your master unless you somehow have changed a default.
Where did you start the project from? Which template did you use? Or did you use a sample project? 

Well I tried mastering a track in Audition and my results came out way better....
 
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=13450555&q=hi&newref=1
 
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