With about 6 tracks and various amounts of pro channel eq and compression turned ON, the overall mix sounds very different once it's a .wav file versus what I hear right before mixing it down in SONAR...this is kinda concerning...I didn't really adjust any mixdown settings, what I'm hearing is a heavier compression sound going in and out and a noticeable difference is some of the tracks levels versus what I hear right before mixdown....Any ideas what's going on?

Often it's about the export settings.
I usually choose "what you hear" for one setting.
Others will chime in with other reasons.

Do you have all tracks assigned to a "master bus",  and then you are selecting all tracks and exporting audio as "entire mix" using that same master bus ? The master bus should be directed to the soundcard output.

noynekker


Do you have all tracks assigned to a "master bus",  and then you are selecting all tracks and exporting audio as "entire mix" using that same master bus ? The master bus should be directed to the soundcard output.

that may be it....I didn't really assign anything but left the export options to 'entire mix', but I did use one bus for a delay returns thing...

1. Routing

As noynekker says, the outputs of all your tracks should go eventually to a Master Buss (which YOU hsave to insert), either directly or via their own sub-buss (Drums/Guitars/Vocals etc)

You are free to add as many busses as you want in Sonar

2. Export

Choose the correct export settings depending on what you want. For example, if you want the final export to be burned to a CD then you must use a bit depth of 16 and a sample rate of 44.1KHz If your recordings were made at 24bit (which I hope they were) then you'll also need to use one of the dithering options when you do your export. Choose "Main Outs" as your export source

3. Listening

How are you comparing your export to what you hear in Sonar? Are you trying to play it inside Windows Media Player or something similar?

Try this. Once your export is complete, insert a new track in your project and then re-import the export to this track. Route this track directly to your soundcard (NOT the Master Bus)

Now you should be able to easily A/B the 2. If you've done it all properly then they should sound identical. In fact if you invert the phase of the export the 2 tracks should (without getting too technical) more or less completely null with each other.

Bristol_Jonesey


1. Routing

As noynekker says, the outputs of all your tracks should go eventually to a Master Buss (which YOU hsave to insert), either directly or via their own sub-buss (Drums/Guitars/Vocals etc)

You are free to add as many busses as you want in Sonar

2. Export

Choose the correct export settings depending on what you want. For example, if you want the final export to be burned to a CD then you must use a bit depth of 16 and a sample rate of 44.1KHz If your recordings were made at 24bit (which I hope they were) then you'll also need to use one of the dithering options when you do your export. Choose "Main Outs" as your export source

3. Listening

How are you comparing your export to what you hear in Sonar? Are you trying to play it inside Windows Media Player or something similar?

Try this. Once your export is complete, insert a new track in your project and then re-import the export to this track. Route this track directly to your soundcard (NOT the Master Bus)

Now you should be able to easily A/B the 2. If you've done it all properly then they should sound identical. In fact if you invert the phase of the export the 2 tracks should (without getting too technical) more or less completely null with each other.

 
Wow, in 9 yrs of using Cakewalk/SONAR , I've never inserted a 'Master Buss' lol, but then again, I've never used a buss output like I did here....I always just assumed the fader labled 'Master' contained the final stereo output and when I mixdown, I never set anything because it's already set or seem to be...

Yes... the routing of the tracks is important. Be sure all the tracks are going to the master buss. It is possible to assign a track to skip the master and go directly to the sound card. 

I too select the  "WHAT YOU HEAR" option for exporting. 

A master bus should be default in every project, but it is possible to add additional sub-buses to handle various aspects of the project, and these are defaulted to output into the master unless changed. 


I guess the next question would be how are you listening to the wave that was exported?  
Is it in a different music player? 
Is it played back in Sonar? 
If in Sonar, did you create a new project for it or did you insert it into a track in the same project? 

Because..... if you insert it into the same project into a new track...AND that track is running to the master bus..... AND you have compression and other FX in that master..... the new track which already has the FX applied to the music is now getting treated AGAIN at the same level by the FX in the master..... hence you hear it as much more compressed and effected. 

You can route that single track direct to the sound card/interface and that should be a "what you hear" situation since it's skipping the master and it's FX. 


WHAT I DO: to check a mix..... I export the project with What You Hear and open it in a wave editor. The wave editor plays back through my Studio Monitors using a driver other than ASIO so it will play with SONAR open..... and the sound quality is exact. My editor is WavePad.

just a few thoughts.

take care of the whole mix level.
your problem sounds to me that you are simply mixing too loud inside sonar.
and when your export your project to a soundfile  Sonar tries to regulate the volume of the mix
that could be the reason for the pumping sound.
the summary

Sonar X2 has some ... glitches.  Sometimes on certain projects when you open it tracks/buses get reassigned.  When I hear a difference, I'll double-check that first.

if you're using soft synths the things you need to look out for are:
1) many synths (like z3ta+ 1&2 and massive) have online and offline render quality settings.  differences in these settings can affect timbre.
2) many lfos in synths are set to what some call a "free" non-tempo or beat sync'd mode.  the lfos will start at different positions whenever a note is hit. 

those are 2 biggies...