dubdisciple
Can someone explain to me what the benefits of using the gain tool in this suite has over channel tools already in Sonar?
There are several advantages, but #1 is that you can place the gain control anywhere in your fx chain and automate it. For me, that means inserting it in front of a compressor so that I'm leveling a vocal before it hits the compressor. But you might also want to automate gain in front of, say, a reverb plugin.
Second-best advantage, for the Blue Cat plugin in particular, is that you can control multiple instances of the plugin from one automation lane. This is great for stacked vocals, either multi-tracked or harmonies. It supports, IIRC, 4 separate groups.
Because the relationship between master/slave pairs or groups can be inverted, it also lets you adjust a level on one track that simultaneously adjust the slave track(s) in the opposite direction. You could, for example, have one gain plugin turn volume up going into an effect, and a second gain plugin after the effect turning the volume back down by exactly the same amount.
The volume range is scalable, so you can use it for tiny adjustments or grand movements.