I've used buses before in Sonar, mostly as effects sends, but not as extensively as I'm trying to now, but my problem is with a basic function I'm either not understanding or missing yet another something that has to be on, or checked... I have a piece with multiple vocals, I have mixed them to a level relationship that I like so I'm sending them to a bus I've labelled "Vocals" so I can maintain that relationship. The "Vocal" bus is then being routed to the "Master". But, when I have the "Vocal" bus volume down to infinity negative, and the "Master" bus is soloed, I still hear the vocal tracks through the master, so when I bring up the level on the "Vocal" bus I'm just adding it to what's going through the master. If I'm busing the tracks to the "Vocal" and busing the "Vocal" to the "Master", should the "Vocal" slider not control the level I hear via the Master bus? How are the individual tracks still going straight to the Master bus if I have them routed to a specific bus?
 
Also, I have an odd situation I can't figure out... one drum sound, a floor tom, is sounding through my "Bass" bus, though it is clearly being routed to the "Drum" bus... but only that one drum sound. No matter what bus I switch it to, it insists on going through the "Bass" bus... any thoughts?

A bus can be set Pre or Post fader. Check that setting first

If set to pre fader then no matter what channel change you make the sound will still come through your bus..

If it's set Post fader then when you reduce the level using the channel fader you will also reduce the level going to the bus. It will also increase the sound heard on your main bus because you add the channel sound and the bus sound. Usually busses are set pre fader.

. . . carry on

I'm just not getting it. If I'm routing all the vocals to the vocal bus, and I have that bus to infinity negative, or even muted... but I have the master bus soloed, why am I hearing the vocals through the master, no matter how I have the send set on the track, pre or post, on or off?

It leaves me wondering where you're monitoring. Could it be that you are monitoring through your audio device and not Sonar at all.

Your first problem sounds like a send or something is also routed.  No choice but to go through each track or channel and double check the routing and the sends.
 
The 2nd problem may be a SONAR bug.  Last night I added a send for a vocal effect  on a full project and I just happened to notice it was routed to my hardware output, not Master.  And I couldn't change it.  There was the hardware outputs available and creating a new buss, but not the list of SONAR outputs.  I switched to the metronome bus and used that and voilà, that send worked as expected.  I didn't check it again since I was actually working, not beta-testing.  But try deleting and adding another buss, or maybe just adding another buss and switching to that one.  We might have found a bug Cake should know about.  But I didn't document what was going on.
 
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If you didn't already check this, ensure you don't have vocal sends to effects (reverb or preview busses, for example) that would be ultimately routed to master.  Also, check for pre- post- fader setting to ensure you have control of the level with your fader.
 
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Thanks guys, this is what I was afraid, just something I didn't understand, and it wasn't directly answered but the conversation forced me to look at everything... what I didn't know before is that I have to route the "output" of a track, audio track in this case, to the bus, not just the bus send. I think that's what Mudgel is saying, kudo. Lesson learned.

"...what I didn't know before is that I have to route the "output" of a track, audio track in this case, to the bus, not just the bus send".   Just?    You should route the vocal tracks (audio) to the "Vocals Bus" - that is, as you say, make the Output of the Vocals tracks the "Vocals Bus" (instead of the Master).  If I understand your setup correctly, you should not have any "sends" going on aswell ...

Since the first issue is sussed out I will attempt to answer your second question..
 
On your drum instrument.....
YOur Floor Tom is sounding thru your Bass buss?
Again, Check your sends
most likely you have your routing a bit a skew.....
 
You may want to redo or make a new bass buss and use that to see if the floor tom comes thru...try with a different name on hte bass buss....
 
Just my 2 cents