mixing problems, how many track can i have?

i have 4 guitar tracks going, one bass track, and a drum track. they all have compression on them individually and are all under 0.0 volume. when i listen to the song in sonar, there seems to be a slight distortion at times. i am thinking it is too loud even though everything is under 0.0. i know the goal is to have things under 0.0 but am thinking there is a limit still to how many tracks and the combined volume they have... any thoughts on how to mix better and get rid of this slight distortion? thanks ;)

Agree with linear phase, but also what I do is route everything to an aux track, put nothing on that aux track, and route that to the master. That aux track with no plugins is a good visual of what you are sending to the master

Think of each track as what it really is: a string of numbers. When you mix them - a process not coincidentally also referred to as "summing" - they are all added together to produce the final mix. This is how 4 tracks that are individually < 0dbFS can still add up to something in excess of 0db.

Adjust each of your 4 tracks' levels downward until you see at least 6db headroom at the master and proceed from there.

The more tracks you have, the lower each track should be. The sum or 10 tracks is more than the sum of 4 tracks at the same dB level

Cj