Bristol_Jonesey
The only time you dither is when going from a higher bit depth to a lower one, usually from 24 to 16
 
There is not a lot of difference between Entire Mix and Main Outs, but this comes with a warning:
 
If your interface has more than one set of Stereo Outputs and you explicitly set up a 2nd pair (or more), say for headphone monitoring, an extra 6dB will be added to the bounce (or export) for each additional pair.
 
Put another way, using Entire Mix will SUM all active outputs into the bounce which is usually undesirable.
 
Using Main Outs will only use a single stereo pair, maintaining the volume of your mix.
 
I only ever use Man Outs for bouncing/exporting.

Ok - got it on the dithering - that makes sense to set it to none since I am not changing the bit depth. I have a Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 interface - it has two headphone jacks, two stereo outputs for monitors, and 8 outputs (all TRS).
So solo the the two tracks, in track view, click on Tracks, the bounce to a track, choose Main Outs, Mono, dithering - none (I always keep the mix enable part that defaults - all checked except two of them cause I do a Fast bounce), then hit Ok. And that should bounce my two tracks down to one.
Sometimes, I can nail the processes in Sonar and then it's something so simple that I feel stupid once I get the answer.

The only caveat I can see relates to my comment about track panning and a Mono/Stereo bounce.
 
If the tracks aren't panned it makes no difference.
If they are, it will - choose Stereo

Bristol_Jonesey
The only caveat I can see relates to my comment about track panning and a Mono/Stereo bounce.
 
If the tracks aren't panned it makes no difference.
If they are, it will - choose Stereo

These are both mono tracks - since converting to my first DAW being Sonar Platinum last February - most of the time I use mono tracks so no panning on these two.
Thanks for the help - much appreciated. Once I get the vocals edited I can finally start the mixing process.

Unless you need to reduce track count for performance reasons, routing these two tracks to a bus will give you a tad more flexibility when you start mixing.  For example, you'll be able to tweak relative levels without rebouncing.
 
Just a thought.

BobF
Unless you need to reduce track count for performance reasons, routing these two tracks to a bus will give you a tad more flexibility when you start mixing.  For example, you'll be able to tweak relative levels without rebouncing.
 
Just a thought.

Good point. Really it was more about workflow for this project and my personal preferences - I detest having a ton of separate vocal tracks. Once it hit 7 different vocal tracks I had enough. I am bouncing the tracks together in such a way to be similar to how the song is performed live. I prefer to have all the screaming parts together, all the whispering parts together, all the melody together, all the harmony together, etc.

Sam4246

Bristol_Jonesey
Main Outs is best.
 

Got it. I am going to try this tonight for certain. What does the Main Outputs mean? Does it refer to the output set up on track view? Just curious. The dithering part - the menu always defaults to triangular so I just kept it there.

Curiously I don't have a 'main outs' in the bounce to track source category options. I have 'Tracks', 'Buses', 'Hardware Outputs' and 'Entire Mix'. Provided you select the two tracks prior to bouncing as you describe in your original post, either 'Hardware Outputs' or  'Entire Mix' will give you the result you are after.

same, let me ask you a question, are you low on resources or something ? (CPU taxing out?)
this is of course my opinion, but if your simply bouncing these 2 tracks together to group them, why not use automation or send them to a bus ?
unless of course your CPU is bogging down. I hardly if ever bounce to tracks anymore because computers have really become a lot better in the past 4 or 5 years, software as well. I find by automating and sending groups of tracks to buses Vs. bouncing to tracks is a much cleaner option, this way if something happens and you don't like the levels, you cant go back and change them unless of course you save the originals (which im sure you are) freeze them, archive them.
there are other reason why one wants to bounce to tracks though (sub mixes within a mix). just curious your motive.

jude77
This isn't exactly a bounce (I'm sure others will post soon and tell you how to do), but when I do what you're trying to do I simply drag one track onto the other and they both merge into one.
 
Good luck!

Doesn't it depend on the record mode. If it's "Blend old and new" they merge, if it  isn't, they don't?

chuckebaby
same, let me ask you a question, are you low on resources or something ? (CPU taxing out?)
this is of course my opinion, but if your simply bouncing these 2 tracks together to group them, why not use automation or send them to a bus ?
unless of course your CPU is bogging down. I hardly if ever bounce to tracks anymore because computers have really become a lot better in the past 4 or 5 years, software as well. I find by automating and sending groups of tracks to buses Vs. bouncing to tracks is a much cleaner option, this way if something happens and you don't like the levels, you cant go back and change them unless of course you save the originals (which im sure you are) freeze them, archive them.
there are other reason why one wants to bounce to tracks though (sub mixes within a mix). just curious your motive.

The two tracks are harmonies and one of them is perfect. The other track I have Melodyne in the effects bin and made the pitch edit corrections and it sounds great now. I wanted to be able to have them both on one track and with the Melodyne edits on the second one - but then not have Melodyne eating up CPU performance.

Kalle Rantaaho

jude77
This isn't exactly a bounce (I'm sure others will post soon and tell you how to do), but when I do what you're trying to do I simply drag one track onto the other and they both merge into one.
 
Good luck!

Doesn't it depend on the record mode. If it's "Blend old and new" they merge, if it  isn't, they don't?

Ironically, that is what I ended up doing last night.