Hi guys,
Exporting a  (30 track) song from Sonar X3 Studio into a 2 track wave "master" file appears to cause rather large tonal changes in my mix.  I'm exporting from Sonar using 32 bit, no dither, 64 bit engine, no fast bounce.  
I open the file with Ozone 7, and upon first listen, even with all the Ozone modules off, the treble is accentuated quite a bit.  Other changes include added crispness, less warmth, cymbals stand out like mad after export, the song seems to no longer have the "glue" that held it together. Have to re-mix to get things in balance. 
Is this common ?   Is it the export function of Sonar that causes the tonal changes, or the way Ozone is presenting the information? I've never really considered how the "output engines" of Sonar might affect the sound...   do other DAWs "sound" different than Sonar ?    Do other DAWs also affect how a mix sounds when it's exported?
Thanks much,

I've never experienced anything you describe. Having used SONAR for thirteen years, have you had this
issue all the time?
In my experience, the export is exactly what I hear in SONAR. I don't know how standalone Ozone 7 creates the audio. How come you expect it's about SONAR, my first suspect would be Ozone.
How did you test this four-five years ago, before Ozone 7?

No DAW modifies the mix on a 32-bit wave export. It should sound exactly the same.
 
Differences may be heard if you play back the exported file through other software, which may have some DSP enabled such as EQ or bass enhancement. To see if that's the problem, import the file back into the SONAR project and route it to the main outs rather than to the master bus, to avoid any processing. The export should sound exactly like the project mix.
 
If it doesn't, then it may be a routing issue. Make sure all your tracks are routed through the master bus by muting it and verifying that everything goes silent.

bitflipper
No DAW modifies the mix on a 32-bit wave export. It should sound exactly the same.
 
Differences may be heard if you play back the exported file through other software, which may have some DSP enabled such as EQ or bass enhancement. To see if that's the problem, import the file back into the SONAR project and route it to the main outs rather than to the master bus, to avoid any processing. The export should sound exactly like the project mix.
 
If it doesn't, then it may be a routing issue. Make sure all your tracks are routed through the master bus by muting it and verifying that everything goes silent.

Right !   good idea, will try

Kalle Rantaaho
I've never experienced anything you describe. Having used SONAR for thirteen years, have you had this
issue all the time?
In my experience, the export is exactly what I hear in SONAR. I don't know how standalone Ozone 7 creates the audio. How come you expect it's about SONAR, my first suspect would be Ozone.
How did you test this four-five years ago, before Ozone 7?

I'm relatively new to the music production game...  been at it more seriously maybe a year or so.  you might not think so, but there it is....  perhaps not the brightest bulb on the tree...   and yes, I was wondering if Ozone was the thing...

Sorry, I misread your membership info :o/

If no plugins or eq etc are in use then DAWs may output very slightly different audio files due to differences in things like how they round up or down when doing their sums or minor differences in how they handle dithering, but the difference is - or should be - so slight it's barely noticable to ears if noticable at all.

The sonic characteristics of modern DAWs mostly come down to plugins, different eq processing algorithms or modelling, dither mathematics and so on, not any noticeable inbuilt differences in the results produced by the audio engines themselves when presented with a simple unprocessed audio track.

Pick a DAW you can afford that runs on your hardware and operating system of choice and has an interface and workflow that suits you. No-one is going to be able to spot from the finished product whether you used Sonar, Pro Tools, Logic, Live, Cubase, S1 or some other DAW. The people who insist you must use Pro Tools "because it's the best sounding which is why the pros use it" are indulging in the same kind of magical thinking that persuades "audiophiles" they need to place a few little wooden discs around the room or swap their amplifier's volume knob for a wooden one to "make the mids smoother and the treble warmer".*

In reality Pro Tools became a near industry-standard because it could handle high track counts and the HD system's hardware and software combinations were created by Avid to ensure they would "pretty much just work" back when computers had a lot less power and were more crash-prone than they are today (no studio wants to run the risk that a computer crash means a great performance never made it to disk).

And once tens of thousands have been invested in a system and the users know it backwards, changing to a different system carries the costs not only of maybe replacing that hardware but the time to learn the new setup and optimise everything.

In the world of commercial studios time very much equals money so the incentive is always to stick with what you have and know and only make changes cautiously and for very good reasons.

*I kid you not. Both these "hi-fi enhancers" exist or at least they did recently. And will set you back several hundreds of dollars, pounds or euros should you believe their creator's claims.

Kalle Rantaaho
I've never experienced anything you describe. Having used SONAR for thirteen years, have you had this
issue all the time?
In my experience, the export is exactly what I hear in SONAR. I don't know how standalone Ozone 7 creates the audio. How come you expect it's about SONAR, my first suspect would be Ozone.
How did you test this four-five years ago, before Ozone 7?

Hi, just curious...  what software are you using for mastering ?

bitflipper
No DAW modifies the mix on a 32-bit wave export. It should sound exactly the same.
 
Differences may be heard if you play back the exported file through other software, which may have some DSP enabled such as EQ or bass enhancement. To see if that's the problem, import the file back into the SONAR project and route it to the main outs rather than to the master bus, to avoid any processing. The export should sound exactly like the project mix.
 
If it doesn't, then it may be a routing issue. Make sure all your tracks are routed through the master bus by muting it and verifying that everything goes silent.

OK, did import the master 2 track back into Sonar, and voila !    it sounds the same as my project tracks mixed in Sonar.  Then I imported exact same master 2 track into Ozone 7, and it sounds decidedly different!  brighter.  cymbals are jumping out of the mix.  and this is with the Ozone master bypass engaged.   aaaaargh !   what a dufus...  just been kinda going along with the process, just having faith in OZone, not using my ears as I should.  At least I know what to troubleshoot now...  what a waste of time!  aaaargh.  Have to look much more closely at Ozone, see what's going on there. I just got Ozone 7 around Christmas time, so it's something I'm not up to speed on yet either. 
Thanks for the tips!
 
BTW...  anyone else having this issue with Ozone ?    What software are you guys using for mastering ?

If I understand correctly, you use Ozone standalone. Is everything normal if you insert it as a plugin in the  project?
 
What kind of audio settings does the standalone version have? Have you checked it uses the same interface (instead of possibly SONAR using an external interface and Ozone using the integrated sound chip) or if anything in the basic settings is different?