ULTRABRA
@ston: re the quick grouing, thanks for the tip.  That actually would work if I only had soft synth in a piece.   I do mainly, but sometimes there are some audio tracks in there too -- if I understood quick grouping right, it only adjusts faders of same type (meaning pressing ctrl+fader of a soft synth track would move all soft synth tracks simaltaneously, but not any audio tracks).

I *think* you can quick-group any set of faders you like, but I'd need to double check as I've been out of the DAW loop for some time now (about 7 1/2 months!)

AFAIK "simple" soft synth tracks are counted as audio tracks. The distinction is mainly between midi and audio tracks. I've always been able to adjust things this way anyway, and I use softsynths and audio together all the time.
If you have a lot of automation it can get tricky though as you would basically have to move all the automation lanes and all tracks without automation. This is something that always gets a little messy for me too but that I've kinda taken as "the way it is" in DAWs. I suppose you could use offset mode too, in your situation. Hit "o", quick group all tracks and increase the faders (maxed at +6dB I think, but for every track so that should add up nicely).