Duplicate track - volume differences

[Joe_Southern]

I have most recent CW version. I started out with Sonar 100 years ago (:

I have multiple tracks with short Guitar parts. They each have 3 effects - IK Amplitube 5, sonitus compressor( used as a limiter) and Sonitus gate. Most tracks have these adjusted slightly differently.

Because I have multiple tracks set up like that it started to affect the performance,  I'd take a track - duplicate it (so my original track is left pure). I then apply the effects and have them deleted from my copy. I then archive (A) my original track.

It's worked fine, or seems to, until..... one track won't work. It comes across at a substantially lower volume.  I believe now It's something in the duplication process.

Immediately after the duplicate track - if I solo both of them - the original is higher volume than the copy. In fact I can't really get the copy's volume to match the original.

I've duplicated the track several times and it's the same result. At first, I had thought it was something in the apply effects, but as I said, it's something in the duplication process.

I just have it duplicate, including events, not linked to original. Nothing special.

I've gone into each VST on the original and duplicate track and the settings are the same - volumes set the same. It's weird.

I've noticed too after closer examination that my other tracks I duplicated have 'slight' volume variations. This one track though constantly has a much lower volume.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.  I've also tried bouncing to a track - the duplicate and it didn't work. I did bounce the original and while the sine wave is lower - volume seems similar.

Any ideas as to why a duplicated track doesn't sound like the original?

[sjoens]

I'm unable to duplicate this issue using "Duplicate Track". Check your hardware outputs if they are different.

Also try drag-copying (Ctrl+drag) the clip to a new track.

[treesha]

No I never have figured out why those slight variations happen when duplicating a track, but since the variations are really slight I just go with it. If you get any insights I am interested in what you find out. 

[Joe_Southern]

It goes from -18db to -39db on the duplicated track. So, in this case it's not a slight drop. I guess it seems that duplicating a track should give an exact copy.

I tried the drag-copy, but I had to first copy the track via duplicate track as I have effects on it. Then, deleted the clips and dragged the ones from the original down. Same result. So something in the track duplication process? Hardware outputs remained the same. Wave forms seem identical - it's when it's played is the issue.

I tried a different track set up with same effects and it duplicated fine or close enough that I didn't notice a difference. So, must be related to this particular track. My concern is that if I just work around here I'll run into a similar issue later with a different track.

[John Vere]

The audio is stored as a wave file in the audio folder. You can open the folder and drag and drop it to a new track. It will be identical. 
But in my many years of using Sonar and Cakewalk I’ve never had any difference between an original or a copy of any audio or midi tracks. And I think I’ve used every method of duplication available.
 

Bounce to track with the boxes checked is the only one I can think of that prints effects to the new track. 

Most other methods just make a new copy of the tracks original data. The effects and the level settings are not part of the audio data stored in the audio folder. So there should be no difference unless you’re rendering your tracks first. Or bouncing.