charlyg
no midi....just guitar and vocals
When I do session stuff I ask for bus exports of instrument groups. That way I can adjust levels but not have a million tracks. I also don't like working with the original Sonar file because those are larger and everyone has their own way of setting things up and they can get corrupted. It's much easier/more preferable to me to have raw waves and start a new project. Then I record my parts, export those recordings as waves and send them back to the producercollaborator who can then drop them into their own project.
(*Note... this may not be your preference or the preference of the person you are asking to track over your stuff. Just saying how I do it).
To make this happen the project parameters must first be established between collaborators.
Since you seem to be the producer in this case you'd tell the artist to set up the project how you have it set up.
This would be...
Samplerate (eg: 48khz)
Bit Depth (eg: 24bit)
Tempo* (eg: 120bpm)
*Note if there is a variable Tempo Map (as in the tempo fluctuates throughout the project instead of following a steady click at a single tempo) this can make things tricky but can be easily worked around. The big problem is if the artist wants to use a click to record to as well as the backer tracks. In this case I would probably just ask the producer to use an Aux Track to record the Metronome bus output and include that in the files sent to me. The other way would be to send a stripped/blank version of the project that ONLY contains the tempo map (there is actually a trick where you can copy a tempo map to a new proect but I've never done that and don't recall the procedure). Otherwise if they are okay just recording to the instrument backing tracks it won't matter for audio because they'll just be sending back full waves performed to those tracks.
Once the project parameters are established the backer tracks/bus exports need to be exported. This can be a single stereo mix of the entire project as is or individual bus exports or every track exported or any combination in between.
I prefer to receive these bus exports in stereo waves...
All Drums (rough mix)
Bass
Guits (rhythm and/or leads separated)
Vox (main and background separated)
Extras (like piano or synths or samples preferably separated a little bit by type of sound but only one wave per sound... just enough to let me hear extra stuff so I can write/play around it)
Even if any or all those parts are MIDI it doesn't matter because they will all be exported as audio waves. It's perhaps best to set the levels of everything kind of sort of how it would sound in the final mix but nothing important too quiet to hear properly. That way I (or the artist) does not have to do too much of their own mixing. These tracks are just there and separated so they can adjust things as needed to track properly (like a headphone mix). Actually that's why I like this method because instead of a full stereo mixdown where I (or the artist) needs to ask for new mixdowns because "I want more BASS or VOX or whatever" I/they can set their own levels as needed and isolate parts.
Also if it's a part that is prewritten and the parts are to be performed exactly or reimagined then extra isolation should occur (like for a vocal harmony or multi layered guitar lead that's been composed via MIDI and the artist is intended to learn/perform those parts those parts should be separated into their own tracks/wave exports for study).
Once it's decided which parts need to be received and the mix levels are set (and all the appropriate parts are routed to busses or at least sub mixed to aux tracks where appropriate) then you export.
If you are exporting from busses (recommended) it can all be done in one go via the Export Dialog.
Set your Now Time to the very beginning of the project (otherwise your projects will go out of sync).
Select the busses you wish to export in the Track View Bus Pane or the Console View.
Click File > Export > Audio
The Export Audio Dialog will open.
In the Dialog select Busses (this should show all the busses you selected earlier and they will already be selected for export... if not close the window and go back and make sure they are selected).
Since you will be using the same Samplerate and Bit Depth make sure the export samplerate/bit depth matches the settings of your project and set your "Dithering" to "None" (because dithering only needs to occur when exporting to a lower bit depth).
For this type of bus export I would choose the Stereo setting. For something like a dry mono guitar track or vocal being sent to a producer I would choose Mono (because those are generally mono signals).
There are a bunch of checkboxes that by default will generally make sure all your effects and stuff are active and heard but of course go through those and make sure what you want is indeed selected (so track/bus FX and all that). Too much crap there to go into huge detail over.
Select an export location (I have a folder for this on my desktop for easy access to upload/move to external drives).
Name the files (the waves generate file names that reflect the track/bus name automatically that get tagged on to whatever you put in the file name box so I usually use descriptive names on the bus/tracks then in the file name I put something like the date and what the export is like "Sample" or "Final" or "Backer").
Then export.
Upload that to a file sharing service and send the link (I use Dropbox... Onedrive works... kind of lol).
On the receiving all the artist has to do is import the waves in their brand spanking new project (setup to the established parameters) with the Now Time set to 00:00:00 (the beginning of the project). Lots of ways to do that but File > Import > Audio works. They can also be imported from the Browser (Right Clicking on the files then selecting "Import at Now Time" is a good way to do this but drag and drop works but the files need to be jammed up to the start of the project which can be innacurate if one is not careful).
Once the files are in the project and on their own tracks the new tracks can be recorded in blank tracks then exported using essentially the same procedure...
EXCEPT when exporting the final tracks the tracks get selected in the Track view (not the busses... unless you want the busses), in the export window you select the "Tracks" option (again the selected tracks will appear as available for export) and depending on what the material is Mono may be prefarable and all effects disabled (when I send dry tracks I try to export so the peaks are mostly hovering around -12db and of course never clipping).
That all depends on the material and what the intent is.
So that may sound a little nutty and it's not quite as easy as just sending a CWB or a compressed Per Project Folder BUT, if the collaborators keep their projects and waves at the same settings it's fool proof. As in it doesn't matter if someone is using an older version of Sonar or doesn't have the same plugs/synths or even are using the same DAW. It's just raw audio going back and forth AND, for the person doing the tracking, having a bit of instrument separation for desirable tracking levels WITHOUT having to wrestle with a huge mix makes their end a lot easier. They can just set rough levels and jam out.
This also helps avoid project corruption between collaborators as well.
Definitely tons of ways to skin this cat though. Just thought maybe you'd appreciate the pure audio approach.
Cheers.