you can activate the prochannel bus compressor (change the default one to pc4k) on the fantom output with treashold full clockwise (this won't compress the sound), boost the output level and activate the echo input. Should not add any perceptible latency and plenty of potential level.

 
That's a really good idea, thank you.  :) 

I'm sorry, I seem to have missed what you're going through. Are you using the analog side of the Fantom or the Midi side? Both? If you're using the analog side, you do have input through the preamps and thus the -20db pad. If you're using the Midi side, the velocity and gain will control your volume. Your signal chain can be controller-keyboard into VS 700 via ????, through a mixer?, USB? etc. This will determine what your inputs in Sonar are. So, it's important to list your signal chain from controller to interface, inputs and outputs in Sonar, and what you're playing back-listening through.

There are no -20dB pads on the Fantom.  The mic pre section contains just the eight analog inputs. 
 
Also, if you set up the Fantom as an analog synth (i.e. an audio track w/input set to Stereo VS-700 Fantom VS, selecting patches via separate MIDI track), the gain control on the Fantom audio track does nothing.  Of course, the volume fader works and can boost the signal as much as 6dB.  But a mixer isn't supposed to be an amplifier, and even though the Fantom sounds very clean...it really should have more gain (and ipso facto a higher SNR) before getting into Sonar. 
 
Why do I even care, if it sounds okay anyway?  Because I wouldn't be "me" if I didn't.  :) 
 
Setting velocity to 127 is also unacceptable, as that destroys any possibility for dynamics.  Same for CC11 and CC7.  Note, however, even with volume at 127, expression at 127, and really stomping on the keys...I'm still only peaking at about -5dB on a basic piano patch.  Call me crazy, but that seems out of whack to me.  That should be burying the needle (so to speak).  Am I wrong?
 
I think the idea of using the ProChannel compressor to boost the signal will work fine for me, however, when I need it.  And it was correct that if you add more and more voices to the Fantom, the lower gain will actually work out fine in the final mix.  But often I may use just one or two voices in a project, and if I need those voices to shine then I have the choice of somehow amplifying them after the fact, or lowering everything else in the mix to match.  Both choices are perfectly workable, but neither are ideal. 
 
I expect nothing less than total sonic utopia (especially for the clams this stuff cost).  :)

Once more, what's your hookup, routing, inputs and outputs consist of. It matters.

Once more, what's your hookup, routing, inputs and outputs consist of. It matters.

 
Respectfully, no, it doesn't matter.  You know I'm talking about the Fantom VS, built into the VS-700R, right?  There is no routing, outside of Sonar.  The input is MIDI.  The output is an audio track in Sonar.  No hookup, no pre-amps, no pads, no wires, etc.  Here's how I usually set up the Fantom:
 
MIDI Controller -> MIDI Track in Sonar -> Fantom VS -> Audio Track in Sonar.  
 
I can also set it up as:
 
MIDI Controller -> Instrument Track -> Fantom VS Editor. 
 
I find it a little easier to load patches via MIDI and use the Fantom as a hardware synth.   But either way, there's still no "routing" to speak of, unless you want to know my whole system layout (which is irrelevant--everything else works beautifully).
 
What is your output peaking at from the Fantom with, for instance, the first piano patch ("So True..."), MIDI CC7 and CC11 at max, full velocity, output fader at unity, hitting a middle C (just one note)? 
 
Mine's peaking at about -11.  If I bang out a full chord I can get up to -5.0.  If I mash the keys horribly, I can get up to about -2.0.  But obviously, that's not how I prefer to play.  ;) 
 
I do appreciate your willingness to help.

I give up. good luck with that.

Four years later, and I'm still astounded by this bewildering display of simultaneous ineptitude and arrogance.  What a twit.