I will admit honestly that I did not know where to post this because I am using Sonar X3 but realize this may be a technique, midi, gear question..
Long story short, I have recently discovered that I have been recording EVERYTHING I ever did in the last 8 years way too hot and that's why my mixes SUCK. Kool. Now I'm recording at -18 to -12 for vocals , acoustic etc.....
Question is I use my new toy Trilian. I use EZ Drummer as well. These pre recorded awesome top notch samples are already blasting at -3 or even 0 when plugged into a track. Also when I use guitar rig, I almost cant' turn gain down on my RME Fireface 800 to get a "quiet enough track". Guitar rig just slams the gain meter. 
How will this effect my mixing levels or how do I handle/compensate for this during my recording/mixing process?

Turn down the gain knob at top of each track in console view/inspector.
 
Many soft synths are way too hot.

So I guess that's what I was wondering. Is that the simple/only solution. During mix simply turn down the gain knob. I assume many of these synths and samples have already been compressed etc. 

thank you!
 

notfadeaway...
So I guess that's what I was wondering. Is that the simple/only solution. During mix simply turn down the gain knob. I assume many of these synths and samples have already been compressed etc. 

 
Yessum.
 
Works for me.
 
Some people use the gain knob to balance all the tracks, so that the faders can stay around 0db.  That way the fader movements are more precise.
 
I don't always bother.
 
I always try for a static fader mix first, and in mono.
 
Just my way of working, though.

jb101
Turn down the gain knob at top of each track in console view/inspector.
 Many soft synths are way too hot.

 
Is there any way to save the 'preferred' gain settings for various soft synths? I occasionally get 'BLASTED' because I start previewing without turning it down. The other way (starting too soft) would be far preferable...

jb101
Turn down the gain knob at top of each track in console view/inspector.
 
Many soft synths are way too hot.

I second that.

Some soft synths need the gain turning way down, sometimes by -20 or more as they are way too hot.

I suppose this is better than them being too quiet and must be by design.

As a general rule I usually turn all the track gains down to -10 to start a new project.  If you end up with several tracks, your project tends to be way too hot, as you have obviously found out.  Superior Drummer alone can be pushing maximum master level before anything else is added.

I like to start my gain staging at the synth itself. You can turn Trilian way down. A lot of the presets have tons of effects on them as well which introduce a ton of gain. I usually begin by killing all of those pesky effects. 
 
Guitar Rig has gain sliders at the top. And of course all the amps have volume/master controls as well. Go right to the source and turn those mofo's down!