noynekker
 
Exporting and Importing into a new project seems like trying to start the painting all over again
 

Yes, that is very good advice …..I've done that enough times to know that that approach can be a real time waster .  
On the other side of the coin , that would be a good approach when a person wants to build up their own library of loops and song segments they have rolled from scratch 
The advantage of going there would be once a little time away from the song has passed , they no longer have to reference what they were trying to do in the song ..
That frees them up to make some very radical or creative musical decisions they may not have thought to try out or experiment with .
 
it's all good , 
Kenny

I always start with drums and bass and work from there. BTW, here's a tip for you! If you're working on a track with a drummer and some latin percussion, I have found that unless there is a break in the song for the percussion instruments you may as well dump any shaker sounds if there is a lot of hihat. I have yet to be on a recording date that shakers didn't get dumped because they either get lost in the mix or it confuses the way you hear the hihat. Just one less instrument to deal with. When I say shakers, I am referring to the egg shaped, maracas can cut thru the mix pretty good and tube shakers SOMETIMES work better but those eggs get lost really quick in a dense mix.

The "save as" works great for me. Sonar copies only the audio files I am actually using into the new project audio folder. Then I just delete all of the fx inserts, etc. Sometimes I will actually delete all of the tracks and then import the audio files onto blank tracks. 
 
I don't have any qualms with starting over like that. As long as I still have the previous mix in another project, I'm happy to start another one, or two versions. 
 
 

Sidroe
If you're working on a track with a drummer and some latin percussion, I have found that unless there is a break in the song for the percussion instruments you may as well dump any shaker sounds if there is a lot of hihat.

Have you considered panning the shaker to the opposite side relative to the hats? I mean, you can get some really cool syncopations going between those two cats. 

I always copy my selected takes into a new project after freezing any MIDI. In principle I try not to use effects, automation, panning, sends, etc. during the tracking stage. As somebody said, if your takes don't sound OK like that, you probably need to retrack. I've done that many times and Anderton is right, it nearly always sounds better.
 
Then in the "new" project there is nothing playing in hidden tracks, no weirdness lurking in track lanes, no MIDI instruments that disappear because they aren't in the latest version of Komplete, nothing that disappears into labyrinths of routing, and so on. If you hit a wall later, it's easy to go back to the clean version if you save it.
 
Works for me, anyway.

 
The complexities that are involved in creating a satisfying mix of a musical performance be it a song , a mix for release or any other purpose the mix is gonna serve can have a staggering amount of decisions that need to be made during each and every step of the process 
 
For myself personally , I choose not to ascribe to the self limiting concept of Right or Wrong . 
 
An alternative  mental concept that opens doors and has no hint of limitation for me is , 
 
What is an effective production workflow value ? Is this production value something that already exists ? 
Who here on the Cakewalk forum (or anyplace else ) is putting it out there for people to learn ? 
Can I learn how to do it ?  Will this new information serve the music I'm looking to express and capture ?  
 
The flip side of the coin involves a lot of humility and self honesty …. 
 
What am I doing now that I could be doing a lot better ? Am I doing it this way because I am just being lazy ? 
Has holding on to an older production workflow that may have worked in the past given me the results I am looking to accomplish today in my music  ?
Can I accept that this way no longer works for me and be OK with it ?
Can I give myself a break and accept that it is time to open myself up to learn new ways of doing things?
 
For the sake of brevity, I will stop there with the soul searching and questions   
 
By going there, my primary goal is to create the spark that Ignites my Creativity and guides that creative energy into a positive flow and movement of energy .
A positive movement of energy always brings new growth with it .
A negative movement of energy will also bring new growth .(once the lesson it came to bring has been learned and overcome .) 
A secondary benefit of the new growth and flow is that it brings with it the transmutation and availability of all the negative energy that was once put on hold in limbo while trying to maintain the status quo of non movement and stagnation ….
 
This energy that was once dormant has now become unlocked and available to use . 
 
Feel free to question my Ideas and concepts .
I can assure you that this indeed does apply to music production , mixing and many other art forms and creative pursuits people engage in for that matter .
 
Absolute creative expression ,  even in it's most basic elemental form knows no boundaries   unless we choose to put them there 
 
 
Kenny