Ok, one thing I can rule out is hearin the same thing X times in a session, 'cause this was a direct "Here's how my mix sounds" then "Yikes, that's how it sounds as a .wav" immediately one after the other, direct comparison. And it wasn't a very long mixing session, partially because the project isn't done, this was an intermediate "Here's how it sounds so far" mix. This machine only has one soundcard, which is the one I record and monitor through (M-Audio Omni Studio) so that rules that out.
The volume issue is that I had good levels (w/the master fader, master volume nice and loud but not clipping) in Sonar, but when I played the same thing back as a .wav it was noticably quieter, monitors set to the same volume and like I said, smaller sounding, as in, didn't seem as three dimentional, kind of like it lost some midrange, but the highs and lows were still there.
I did listen to the wav in different programs, and maybe i should try loading the wav in Sonar itself and see how it sounds there, as in one wav program is sounded less good and in one it sounded like total crap (I tried winamp and WMP, are most popular music-playing programs in XP possibly just not that great at reproducing music accurately?) I'll try that next time I'm at my DAW. And it's not just that it's "too quiet" it's that it's quieter than it was when I was mixing it. This is listening to the .wav immediately after having it exported to .wav from listening to the mix in Sonar. In other words, I'm concerned w/o significant mastering the final mix will sound weak, even though I seemed to be doing a good job of getting good levels when actually mixing it. I think otherwise the mix was mostly intact, and it sounded a bit harsher but that may have just been the wav programs, so I'll definitely try openning the .wav in Sonar itself next time.
I'll try that stuff out and get back to you, thanks for the suggestions so far.
