Why does bouncing give me gain??

Describe your bounce routine.
 
Also, is it an audio track or soft synth?

Mono track? Pan Laws?

I'd love the answer to this too because no one has ever been able to answer this for me.
 

Dreamer
It's audio. In general I check everything except: bus/mute solo, bus automation, bus effects.

Not enough information.
 
What are you selecting as Source Category & Channel Format?
 
Are you running more than one set of output pairs to your interface and also using Entire Mix?
You'll get an extra 6dB of gain for every additional pair when using Entire Mix.
For this reason I always use Main Outs

it is a routing choice.
simply bouncing does not inherently add gain.
 
it is being added by either a fader setting, an eq setting, an FX setting or voodoo.
 
i never discount voodoo.

I'm not getting it. Is it just choosing "Entire"Mix" as the source category that would cause this phenomenon? I did a test, did the bounce choosing "Main Outs" as my source category. I'm still getting gain. And it's always the same increase.....
 
Total increase in gain= 3dB

Check the bus track doesn't have any gain on the Trim control.

Trim set to -0-. Increase is read from Sonar meters. No looped audio.

This needs investigating fully.
 
I am getting NO difference when either bouncing or freezing.
 
Can you start with a blank project and insert a synth, say Dim Pro, load up a lead patch and any old midi groove
 
Play it through several times, make a note of the peak level in each case. They might vary slightly but any more than about 0.2dB would be a cause for concern
 
Then freeze the synth and measure again.
Unfreeze and bounce to track, measure again.
 
Also try the above 3 routines with the track fader set at different levels.
 

I've lived with this from Cakewalk 2.2 on up. Kind of accepted it but always wondered if it was some dumb thing I was doing. But I could never figure it out. Updated from a Delta/Omni i/o break-out box and sound-card, to a Scarlett 2i4. Same thing. Always gain on bounce. Perhaps somebody here will figure it out.

brundlefly
You haven't yet said what your target is - mono or stereo?

I thought I did? Well anyway to clarify its mono.
 
So...what you're suggesting is that in order to avoid  3dB gain I should bounce my mono track to a stereo?

If you want to stay mono, you either need to bounce track to track without going through a stereo bus, or set your Pan Law to -3dB center if the bounce source is a stereo bus.
 
 

The pan law used by SONAR is set in Preferences > Audio > Driver Settings. Google "Pan Law" to understand what the options are all about. Wikipedia has a good article.

OK I found it....it's Options, audio, general....stereo panning law.

Well that does it. This is one of those things that's just broke. None of those options work. 3dB gain still happens on mono to mono bounce.