I know this has been discussed, but I am still puzzled.
 
I have 4 synths which have been frozen and then I ask to bounce to a "master" track. The result is so low in output I seriously thought I had done something wrong in the bounce...not selected audio or whatever. I had to widen the master track nearly to half the screen to even see the audio.
 
Now here is my puzzle. I exported all the tracks to a single file, opened it in Audacity, and although it was a little low, it was acceptable. I then Normalised it at -1dB and it was loud as.
 
Now there are a couple of _really_ hard drum kicks in there, where I have actually layered MIDI notes to make them jump. But in the mix they just go to the orange at that peak.  When all the audio was exported as a mix, they were nowhere near 0dB, but of course they were the limit to normalising.
 
So why is SONAR submarining my bounce?...so to speak.
 
Thanks for any help
 
 

Definitely seems to be an issue with the monitoring of levels. I can export something that is not even close to clipping from Pro Tools First and then import this to Sonar and get the clips straight away. Tested this in reverse also and seems to give the same results.
 
Actually ended up exporting stems from my last project just to mix to the level I needed in Pro Tools instead.

Thanks for the reply.
 
OK, cause guys were saying stuff about using all sorts of tricks like compression and such to avoid this problem. I will just keep on exporting as needed,  guess.

There should absolutely zero difference between the levels you're seeing on your master buss and the level of your bounce/export.
 
But this assumes that your basic project housekeeping is up to scratch:
 

1. Are all of your tracks routed (outputs) to your Master buss, either directly or via an intermediate buss?
2. Is your master bus fader set to 0dB?
3. What can you hear if you mute your master bus? If everything is routed correctly you should hear nothing
4. Instead of bouncing to a new track, do an export and import it back into your project so you can easily A/B between your export & the project (Route the imported export directly to your interface/Main Outs
5. What settings are checked in the Bounce/Export dialog box?

I agree with Bristol_Jonesey This is a routing issue, I believe.
There should be no difference between mix-downs and playback in project.
Something is not beeing sent where it should, or the AI / HW out fader is pulled down.
All the best.

Bristol_Jonesey
There should absolutely zero difference between the levels you're seeing on your master buss and the level of your bounce/export.
 
But this assumes that your basic project housekeeping is up to scratch:
 

1. Are all of your tracks routed (outputs) to your Master buss, either directly or via an intermediate buss
2. Is your master bus fader set to 0dB?
3. What can you hear if you mute your master bus? If everything is routed correctly you should hear nothing
4. Instead of bouncing to a new track, do an export and import it back into your project so you can easily A/B between your export & the project (Route the imported export directly to your interface/Main Outs
5. What settings are checked in the Bounce/Export dialog box?

First my latest, what I call ....developments.
 
OK. As best I can. New to this problem.
 
1. They were not all routed to the Master. Fixed
2. It is now.
3. If I mute the Master buss, I get silence.
4. I will try that as I had success with exporting. But I still want to suss this Bounce thing.
5. Bounce
Track :<27> New Track
Source Hardware Output:  Delta Ap 1/2
Source Cat: Entire Mix
Channel Format: Stereo
Dither: Triangular
All boxes that can be ticked are ticked: Not Audible Bounce or Live Input
 
Now the Export worked fine, although I doubt it was the same as I saw in SONAR regarding levels.
 
BUT...
Export settings (wish I could attach a screen print)
Source Cat: Entire Mix
Source Hware OP: Delta AP 1/2
Ch Format : Stereo 44.1 32bit Triangular
All ticked boxes except Audible Bounce and Live Input.
 
I have done a track to track bounce and AFAICS I got different results the 2 times I tried it...and I don't know why. The last one was set as I show above in settings. Some tracks worked, some didn't. So exporting, whether I then re-import or not, works for me.
 

Does anyone do regular freezes and mixdowns with full success? I am just getting it far too complex, problematical and failing and I am looking for other ways, like exporting and mastering/cutting in other programmes.
 
You can only tell me I have it "wrong" so much before I say "well it ain't me"...gotta do this...gotta do that...nup. This programme is supposed to serve me...not the other way around.

OldNick
Does anyone do regular freezes and mixdowns with full success? 

I do this all the time with no problems. 

It probably won't make much difference but you should only apply dither when you're reducing bit rate, like from 24 to 16.
 
Also, try using Main Outs instead of Entire Mix.

For every version of Sonar I have ever installed-- below is what the dialog box always looks like. So I assume it is the default. 
The only thing I ever change is the (32) 24 bit to 16 for CD burning. I have never had any issues other than a long time ago I used to use Select all. I now use Select none which seems to work all the time. I always get exactly what I was seeing and hearing in Sonar. 
 

 
I always export to a WAVE file and then master it in Wave Lab. From there it's  burned to a CD, converted to an MP3 and so on. 
Some people only have Sonar so will import the wave file back into either the original project or create a special "album" project. Everybody has there own way. Craig just posted a excellent example of yet another way to do this.