guitarmandanp

i recorded a track in sonar 8.5.3 using pentagon1 soft synth. started auditioning other patches using pentagon1 on pre-recorded track. volumes on most patches had to be way turned down as i went - all of a sudden i experienced a sort of crash/drop-out and from thereafter all patches dropped in volume and i have to jack them to max to get nominal volume. this affects all pre-recorded and newly recorded synth tracks
thing is the meters go in the red even w/ this lower volume
also the octaves sometimes don't line up w/ my m-audio keyrig 25 controller i.e. to match the octave i performed a part i have to manually move the octave up/down in the track itself
a hell of a predicament and a mixing nightmare
do i have to re-install sonar? will i then lose my vst plug presets etc?
any help much appreciated