No offence, but I write software for a living, and have for about 30 years.... it very well could be a bug. It may not be, but there are innumerable reasons why one or a few users may see a bug that no one else sees. Corner cases like that are not at all unusual and are uncovered daily when dealing with any commercial software with a sizable user base. Ironically at this very moment I'm looking at a bug in a gps tracking device's firmware that is plain as day in the debug trace but that the manufacturer swears they have not seen with any of their other customers. And this is about the 5th bug along those same lines I've found in their stuff (and this is a very successful commercial device). Besides which I was agreeing with the OP who had the same or similar issue seemingly.
 
 
At any rate I have a work around for this project so I'm not at all bothered... my only intention was to pass along the workaround to the OP.

No offence, but I write software for a living, and have for about 30 years...

No offence, but if it was a bug, everyone would see it and we don't. This fact will tell you that its not a bug and its user error
 
Cj

Have you tried unchecking "fast bounce"?
 
I have noticed that from time to time, some plugins/instruments sometimes just don't render the same when using fast bounce.
 
 

CJaysMusic

No offence, but I write software for a living, and have for about 30 years...

No offence, but if it was a bug, everyone would see it and we don't. This fact will tell you that its not a bug and its user error

Cj

Mmmm, great... sage advice. Who knew it was really all so easy and straight forward... all that time wasted getting a computer science degree and years of writing code!!!

js516
Have you tried unchecking "fast bounce"?

I have noticed that from time to time, some plugins/instruments sometimes just don't render the same when using fast bounce.

Thanks for the suggestion, I did try that when I first ran into it that but saw no difference. I did also check that my track/bus routings were all correct and they were so.... who knows. I just know it can't be a bug, apparently.
 

Chrisby can you post a step by step sequence of exactly what you do when you export? Leave nothing out. 
 
But first I assume you are routing all audio through your master buss and if so what are the meter readings there? 

CJaysMusic

No offence, but I write software for a living, and have for about 30 years...

No offence, but if it was a bug, everyone would see it and we don't. This fact will tell you that its not a bug and its user error

CJ, chrisby's absolutely correct about bugs that can only be reproduced under specific and/or unusual conditions. Think about the genuine bugs we've seen over the years. Every one of them initially escaped the notice of the programmers, the QA people, and the beta testers. Many were not seen by the first thousand users, either. It's even not unusual for a bug to show up years after a product is deemed "stable", or to affect only 1 out of 50,000 users. It does happen.
 
That said, it's also human nature to assume a bug when you have no better explanation. We routinely see bug claims on these forums that turn out to be user error, and that happens more often than the discovery of actual bugs. That, chrisby, is the basis for CJ's skepticism. Either of you could be correct, but if we were placing bets I'd side with CJ even though his logic is flawed.
 
As stated by several responders, the most likely explanation for the OP's issue is a routing problem. In short, what you're hearing is not what you're exporting.
 
Why do we all presume this explanation? Because we've all made dumb routing mistakes and sat there scratching our heads wondering what was wrong. I've taken 6dB off the master to lower the monitoring volume during overdubs and forgotten to reset it, not noticing the difference until I looked at the exported file. I've inadvertently routed a track or bus directly to the main outs - once only discovering the error after I put a fadeout on the master bus and the tambourine kept on playing. 
 
Junkyard, the first thing I do when troubleshooting this kind of problem is to mute the master bus and verify that everything goes silent. If it doesn't, then something's not going through that bus. If it does, then the next-most-likely problem would be export options. Make sure all the "mix enable" options are checked so that automations are respected, and that "Entire Mix" is selected as the source.
 
 
 
 

bitflipper
 
That said, it's also human nature to assume a bug when you have no better explanation. We routinely see bug claims on these forums that turn out to be user error, and that happens more often than the discovery of actual bugs. That, chrisby, is the basis for CJ's skepticism. Either of you could be correct, but if we were placing bets I'd side with CJ even though his logic is flawed.
 
 

I don't think you'll find anywhere in any of my posts where I assume it's a bug. I have basically (and consistently) said exactly what you've just said which is that it could be a bug or it could be an improper setting. I specifically stated things that way because I don't have enough information, or familiarity with the application to make a judgement.
 
That said, I've also previously pointed out that I rechecked my routing and it was correct. So as it stands now -
 
1) it's not a routing problem
2) the meters at the master bus show peaks apparently limited at -.2db
3) the resulting wav file using the default export "full mix" settings (as well as the few settings permutations I tried) shows peaks apparently limited at -12db
4) simply switching to exporting bus / "master bus" gives correct/expected results
 
Bug or no bug, honestly I don't care. I deal with bugs of all sorts daily that have to be resolved... this one doesn't as far as I'm concerned. I was only trying to give the OP a workaround that worked for me.
 
Now... back to real work....

John
Chrisby can you post a step by step sequence of exactly what you do when you export? Leave nothing out. 
 
But first I assume you are routing all audio through your master buss and if so what are the meter readings there? 

Sorry, thanks for the offer to help but as above it's really not all worth pursuing further I don't think. If you are really interested though let me know and I'll send you screenshots of the track routing settings, the master bus wav renderings, the resulting file export wav file renderings, and the export settings - that will pretty much sum everything up I think. 

js516
Have you tried unchecking "fast bounce"?
 
I have noticed that from time to time, some plugins/instruments sometimes just don't render the same when using fast bounce.

I doubt this is the answer to the OP's issue, but remember if you're using external hardware (including something like the Duende or UA plug-ins), all bets are off for fast bounce.

I don't have export problems but I don't use the usual method. Prior to mastering, I often bounce multiple mixes into individual Sonar tracks using Bounce to Track(s) so I can A/B them (with exclusive solo). Sometimes I combine different parts (e.g., the intro from one mix but solo from another).
 
After I have a track that's exactly what I want, I drag it to its final destination.