Sonar X2 - Major exporting volume issue

Hey, guys... newbie here. So, I've just recently started using SONAR X2 Producer Edition and I've run into a potentially crippling issue. All of my audio exports are extremely loud. Now, I know from reading on this and other forums that a lot of people want loudness. The problem is that it's overbearingly loud to the point where everything becomes muddy. I don't have this issue if I bounce a track (or several) to audio within Sonar - all the levels stay at where they're supposed to be. But as soon as I try mixing it down to export it - no matter what format or bit rate or sample rate I use - the entire mix is loud and muddy. I've even tested it on individual tracks and it's like SONAR's ignoring my volume faders and setting everything to +RIDICULOUS.0. I know this is vague, but what I'm aiming for is to have my exported audio sound like what it does when I play it back within SONAR and that's not happening. Anybody have any idea what I'm doing wrong?