Something about actually selecting all the tracks involved?
 
One of the things that are particular about render in Sonar as I recall.
You don't select track on track number(I think it is) - and it won't become part of render.
 
So you listen to mix, all is fine, but render and forgot a track - that is lost.
This all from memory.

Yeah this is either a selection or a routing problem.
 
Make sure that
 

• ALL of your tracks output to a "sub-buss" (e.g. guitars, drums, keys, vocals)
• ALL of your sub-busses are routed to the Master Buss (which YOU have to create)
• Route the Master Buss to your Soundcard (far right in Cowboys pictures)
• Before Exporting, either Select All (Ctrl + a) or Select None (Ctrl + Shift + a)

If this doesn't work then let us know as something else is going on
 

I notice if you export individual busses but not the master bus. Then anything not assigned to a submix bus will not be audible.

This is because of the way Sonar routes audio
For example, if you are not outputting to the master bus but your soundcard output. It will be audible but not in the render path.

A good way to manage this is colour code your busses. Then make your tracks follow the bus colour for what you assign them to. Once you get into the habit if indeed setup a template like this then the confusion will be reduced a lot and easier to understand.

Good tip Aaron.
 
Any track not routed to a bus will not be colour coded and obvious to spot

what preset do you use on the export-audio? (i would select the "what your hear"preset..
 
 
martin

Thank you for the input, you guys are so knowledgeable!  I'm going to study your comments - but I think I'm onto something in that my patching was fx*ed up - I went into console view and I had my tracks muted because the buses were sounding anyway - so I unmuted them and made sure they were patched to the buses and - there they are - pretty stupid, huh - but it is confusing in Sonar in that the buses will sound in the sonar environment even if you have your original tracks muted - they sound in the buses - but when you mix down they're not there - it seems to me that what you hear in the sonar environment should be what you will hear in mix (and I tried the mix "what you hear" option, and that didn't do it - it seems to be the default anyway) - but I am grateful to you all for your insights it's a huge help in learning my way around here - if anyone is reading this far - does anyone have an opinion about whether they like to have their tracks in pre or post when they send them to a bus?  I'm trying both ways now - thanks again.

It just depends on whether I need a static amount of effect or one that changes after track automation. Pre being the option for a fixed sound.
 

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've used Pre.
 
Use Post unless you have a good reason not to.

On a hardware console, the "pre" (fader) setting is most often used to create a monitor mix. You don't want the send level (i.e. someone's monitor mix) to change just because YOU want to lower the fader/level of that track on the main outputs.

This situation is pretty rare in a DAW so, as Bristol Jonesey pointed out, you end up almost never using "pre".

rir1
but it is confusing in Sonar in that the buses will sound in the sonar environment even if you have your original tracks muted - they sound in the buses - but when you mix down they're not there - it seems to me that what you hear in the sonar environment should be what you will hear in mix (and I tried the mix "what you hear" option, and that didn't do it - it seems to be the default anyway) - but I am grateful to you all for your insights it's a huge help in learning my way around here - if anyone is reading this far - does anyone have an opinion about whether they like to have their tracks in pre or post when they send them to a bus?  I'm trying both ways now - thanks again.

There is a setting to alter pre send muting behavior.
LinkPFsendmute=1 can be set in aud.ini so you never experience that again, using pre sends.
You reach this from within Sonar environment, in some dialog.
 
Coming from Sonar 4 I was used also to never get anything from muted tracks.
 
Fade in an intro or fade out an outro can be cool using prefader sends to reverb.