Hello all!
Great forum we have here.
 
I need to know if there is a way to do this:
 
1) I receive tracks to mix.
2) I want the faders all to be at zero when the input is -18.
3) I play the song once through.
4) Then in "Console" view, for each track I adjust the Gain dial at the top of the individual track so that the input readings at the bottom of the faders will be -18 dBFS.
5) Repeat for each track. (Ouch)
 
It's not hard, but it takes a lot of time, especially with a lot of tracks.
 
Is there an easier way to do this?
Does Sonar have a "Make it so, Number One" button to press?
 
Thanks ahead of time for your help,
Ray (aka Oluon)

Hi Ray,
I think there is no way around the normal gain staging process that you have described.
Believe it or not, I actually find that I move quicker in this initial gain staging process and save my ears for the mixing work by doing this visually with no sound.

Maybe I'm not understanding the question correctly, but the easiest way to "automatically" gain stage your entire project is to select all tracks, then Normalize to -18.
 
Since you're normalizing the peak value some tracks with a lot of dynamic range or a few stray spikes will likely need to be adjusted with your gain knob so that they're averaging that -18 level you're shooting for, but doing a mass normalize is still quicker than manually adjusting the gain setting for each track.

Thanks KingsMix and strekfus!
 
KingsMix: Save the ears; good idea.
stekfus: I didn't realize normalize could be used like that. I'll try it next time.

Yeah, by default normalize is set to 0db, but it allows you to define the peak level.

Create a Project Template.
This is what I do. I create a Project template (with icons, colored strips, exc).
I set the faders, gain knobs where you want, then save it as a template.
This alleviates the pressure of building from the ground up every single time. 
You can also create Track Templates to duplicate the tracks settings. FYI Gain is not saved in a track template.
 
I have multiple generic templates to choose from as there are so many variables.