Workflow for very long live recordings (huge WAVs)

I see there have been many threads over the years about the best way to deal with very large WAV files, such as can come from recording long concerts with a continuous WAV file.  In the past, I have recorded mainly in stereo, and it was pretty easy to manage that in Audacity.  Audacity has a nice feature where you can label the individual songs (time ranges), and then do a single "Export Multiple" command to put each of the songs out as a separate WAV or MP3.  That was a very fast workflow.  But I am moving beyond Audacity to get higher quality effects, the benefits of mixing automation, and the ability to handle more than 2-track recording efficiently.  I expect to do a lot of 4-channel live recordings and some 8-channel live recordings in the next year, so I am looking for the best workflow in Sonar.
 
Many people have been concerned about the speed and hassle of those gigabyte-sized WAVs.  I did a 4-track recording last week, so my first shot at this process was to break the songs into separate WAVs using Audacity, then create a separate Sonar project for each song.  This isn't as bad as it sounds because I ended up with two templates (one for instrumentals and one for songs that had a singer.)  And I could just clone each project file, keep the tracks intact, but delete the old clips and drop in new clips into each track.  If there wasn't some special processing for a song, it took about 5 minutes to edit each song after I got the templates set up.  But still this is a lot of work, and will get much worse with 8 tracks.
 
So now I am headed a different direction.  I should mention that I have some large network-attached storage (NAS) boxes, and that's where I want all the finished projects to reside.  Ideally, I'd like to do the editing from start to finish on the NAS.  That sort-of worked out on the above project because each file wasn't too large.  But that really isn't the right answer if I'm going to process the full program at once in SONAR.  It turns out I had an Intel SSD drive on another machine, where it wasn't really needed, so my first step was to recommission that SSD drive to my Sonar machine.  While the NAS will still be the permanent home, I will do all the editing from the SSD.  That is pretty easy to accomplish because I can do a batch upload to the SSD before I start the project, and I have a replication program that will automatically copy any projects on the SSD to their permanent home on the NAS each night.
 
This seems to make it very practical to handle the big WAVs in Sonar.  Setting up the project takes a little time to read the WAVs into Sonar, but after that, everything seems just as fast as with smaller files.  One quirk is that if you drag and drop a big WAV to (what you think is) measure 1, it actually ends up way off to the right in measure 5000 or something, but it isn't hard to get the WAVs all moved over to the left.  From there, it is the normal process of selecting compression, EQ, reverb, or whatever.  There is a feature in Sonar to link multiple clips together for selection purposes.  This is a must-do.  And then when you use the split tool, each of the split sections retains that linked relationship, which is nice.
 
So I envision setting up the effects for the entire concert, and then doing any tweaking required for each song.  When a song is sounding good, just select that clip and File-Export-Audio.  With the SSD, a 4 minute song exports in under 10 seconds on my system.
 
I haven't checked, but I expect this will not be bad for storage space.  Doing it this way, I think the AUDIO folder should just have one copy of my WAVs. And as a practical matter, I have mostly given up on the idea of using 96 KHz.  I will do 44.1 at 24 bits I think, or maybe just stick with 16 bits.  That will keep the file sizes down.
 
I'm thinking this is the fastest workflow for this kind of project.  Any other ideas out there?

Thanks so much for those tips.  It is really helpful.  I was thinking the same thing about the importance of 24 bits, but you solidified that for me.  Often I am playing in these concerts, so I have to go with mic placement and recording levels, which are really just guesses based on the sound pressure as the group warms up.  I have to set it conservatively, of course, because if I clip in the recording, all is lost.  24 bits should give me a little more safety factor there.
 
I can't envision doing 30+ tracks in the next few years, so I am comfortable that performance will work out OK with 8 or 12 tracks.
 
This means that I really don't get close-in mics on anything except vocals or instrumental solos (with a clip on wireless mic).  I know that isn't how a top notch live recording is produced, but I actually get pretty good results with area coverage, sometimes using EQ rather aggressively to make up for the smaller number of mics.
 
I should point out these are mostly instrumental groups (jazz bands, concert bands, etc.) so the stage is relatively quiet.

Do it a few times and see what you learn. Using a separate project for tunes or groups of tunes makes it easier to go back and make changes. Bouncing everything out of one project is more efficient.

I've used recording units like the ice with great success. I've loved the akai dps and Tascam 2488. Handy tools!

forum.cakewalk.com/m/tm.aspx?m=2852986

In this thread I detail how I recently made such a recording.

When I'm doing live recording, I rarely launch Sonar unless I need a click-track for the band. Even then, the Tascam can provide a click or even drums and it is much quieter than my quietest laptop.
 
Personally, I think you've got a good plan here.
 
For me, I have really grown over time. I have been able to use the Tascam to automate faders in Sonar (and Sonar to automate faders in the Tascam). You can do all kinds of things, so let your imagination flow as you consider how you might use whatever you buy. The Tascam and the Akai I own both had faders so I can use them for the live mixing console. FX like compression and EQ too. Without this feature, there are lots of cases where I could not have put my gear between the mics and the mains. :-)