I've got Sonar X2 Producer. I just need to know how to get the Master Output to be visible on my track view so that I can draw in a fadeout.
This may be something obvious but I've looked through the online manual and I've got Garrigus' X2 manual and can't seem to find it. I know there's a button or tab on the bottom that you can press to show or hide buses. The problem is that the Master is not visible in most of my songs. This must be very simple, but for the life of me I'm baffled.

shift+b shows and hides the busses. You will probably have a master bus routed to your audio interface. You can draw volume envelopes on busses.

Type 'I' on keyboard and the inspector will show with master output visible
(might be the master fader is covered by the track properties tabs then....just click on 'track').
 
good luck

I always interpreted it that the main outs were just a graphical representation of the connection to the output device. They have a master volume control that can be automated but the output itself is not displayed in the track view since by the time things leave the master outs--they are logically out of Sonar and into your interface. If you want to display a combined total output you could route everything to a single track and work with it in track view.

Thumbs up on the master bus!
There has to be a master bus where all audio is assigned out. The master bus out is then set to the outputs of your interface. You can draw envelopes and so on the Master bus track lane. There is no lane just for the output.

None of the above seem to be working. Pressing shift + b will show or hide busses on the bottom of the screen, but it doesn't show the Master bus. I can toggle with the Inspector on the side of the track view. But I can't think of a simple way of getting the Master bus visible on the track view.
 
Let me try to explain again. On the track view you can expand a track to show the volume level, and can fade in and fade out individual tracks. I want to do the same thing with the master output. All of the tracks output to tracks 1 & 2 of my Edirol UA-101. At the bottom of the track view you can flip on and off various busses. However, on one of my song files I have a Master output bus which represents everything going out of Sonar. I don't know how it got there. I can fade out using the volume automation drawing thing like on the individual tracks. However, on all my hundreds of other song files the Master Bus doesn't appear in the track screen.
 
The Master Bus is visible in the console view, where you can move the volume up and down. I just want the Master Bus to show up on the track view so that I can draw the volume fade out.
 
I haven't tried slartabartfast's suggestion because creating a new bus isn't the same as the Master bus. If the Master bus exists in the console view, why wouldn't it exist in the track view?

There is a difference between a Master Bus and the Mains Strip on the Console View. It is easy enough to create a Master bus for a project. Create a stereo bus, right click on the bus and check "Set as default." From there on out any new tracks and buses will route to that bus. Any existing tracks and buses need to be manually routed to the Master Bus. The Master Bus should be the only track or bus pointing to the main audio interface output. The default normal template is setup with Master, Metronome and Preview buses.

I imagine there must be some difference between how I created my one file with a Master Output and how I normally create my other files (most of my files have been transferred from earlier versions of Cakewalk products), because in this one file I have the Master, Metronome and Preview busses. All the others don't.
 
I'll try to do what scook suggests, but I still find it amazing that a Master bus wouldn't be a default in all files in the track view.
 
Wish me luck.

Okay, this is bizarre. I created a Master bus like scook described. But once I set all the instrument tracks to the Master the Master bus disappears in the track view. It exists in the console view. Anyone have an explanation? Toggling the busses to be visible and invisible in track view doesn't recover the Master bus. It is supposed to be visible according to the Track Manager, but it isn't.
 
Is there some place under some menu where you can make this bus visible?

When SONAR starts a new project, unless a specific template is loaded, SONAR loads the normal.cwt project template file. The normal.cwt has changed between versions of SONAR. Moreover, it is possible to customize the normal template. The location of the project templates is defined in Preferences > File > Folder Locations Templates.
 
A Master Bus (or any bus) is not a requirement for SONAR to work. It is recommended to use a Master Bus and a Master Bus is part of the the default project template (normal.cwt) for some time.
 
If a project was created with template that lacked a Master Bus, SONAR will not create the bus automatically, after the fact. It is a simple matter to add a Master Bus to existing projects. Going forward make sure to select a project template that contains a Master bus.