Exporting and Burning Audio

Wassup Cake Fam!!!  Ya boy is having a small problem.  I've got my final mix together for my project.  I've imported my 16 stereo tracks each on separate tracks into a project for mastering the entire project for audio cd burning.  My problem is getting all 16 tracks to export and keep their original time length.  I can get all 16 to export to the audio Cd Burner screen, but all tracks are the same length, and that's not how I made them.  In my project, drag the gray bar across the number line to the length of the longest track>I click on each track so that they are highlighted>file>export audio>select track in source category, 16 bit depth 44100 sample rate, and all tracks will appear after export in Audio CD Burner.

I assume all 16 tracks are separate songs right? 

If you burn them to a CD that way, you will get a CD with one track that contains all 16 tracks as one song playing over each other. Not good. 

What you should do is once you've mastered the tracks, then you need to export each of the tracks to a separate WAV file. When you export the files, select Tracks as the Source Category and it will create a separate WAV file for each track. Then open Sonar and select Utilities-Burn to CD. Then add the 16 WAV files using the ADD button and selecting the files from the folders you saved them to. (You can select multiple files by holding down CTRL while selecting the WAV files. Then make sure you have them in the order you want them and click Burn to CD. Then you should get a CD with 16 separate songs. 

you have to do them one at a time to acheive different lengths.  click each clip and export

Thanks a mill for the input...so it sounds like I cant export all 16 songs from diff tracks simultaneously.   I guess I have to export each track separately after I move the gray shaded line to length of that particular track, while having that track highlighted by clicking on the track number, one by one?

click the clip itself to select exactly the length of the clip (right hand side of the track view window).

so it sounds like I cant export all 16 songs from diff tracks simultaneously.

You obviously didn't read my post. 

Seems like extra trouble to me, and the end result is going to be a CD album with generic 2-second gaps between songs. You really want to be able to adjust those gaps for best continuity, e.g. setting a gap equal to one measure of the previous song. You may even want to blend the ending of one song into the start of the next song with no gap at all, a technique that works well if the adjacent songs are in compatible keys.

Here's an alternate method. First, export each song to 32-bit wave files, each mastered in their original projects. Like you, I load these into a fresh project for mastering (be sure to un-check the "copy files to audio folder" option). I arrange them on a single track, in the order they'll appear on the CD, adjusting the gaps between each song the way I want to hear them. If necessary, use a volume envelope to make small adjustments so they're all at compatible levels to one another. Since they're already mastered, they'll all be pretty close already.

Throw a HPF onto the track to filter out subsonics. Now you're ready to export the whole CD project as one big 16-bit file. After exporting, I like to pull up the master file in Windows Media Player, sit back and listen to the whole thing, or at least the transitions between songs. In this way you can audition the CD exactly as it will sound when finished and burned, but without actually burning a disk.

Because all the songs are in one large file, you'll use your CD-burning software to indicate where each one starts. When you burn a CD, it's always one big file even if you started with 16 individual wave files - that's just how CDs work. The "tracks" on a CD are an illusion; what the CD really has is one data file and a separate list of time offsets for each song. All CD-burning applications (except SONAR) allow you insert those indexes before burning, and to save them for future re-use as you go through multiple test iterations.

I think you'll find that this method is a little faster than exporting each song separately, with the added advantage of giving you more creative flexibility in sequencing your album.

Good wisdom everyone, think I'll try to burn everything as one large 32 bit file...I just need some audio burning software that will allow editing for  the burning process!  Which audio software will be the easiest to work with?  I'm not into trends or the latest and greatest, however, I do wish to be able to breeze through this task of mastering without the more technical headaches...it's tough enough just getting a good mix, then getting thru the final editing touches, then the 50 cd pack i've went thru from trial and error to get my songs sounding half way good...Im just a lil frustrated and ready to go with a final master as quickly as possibe. 

CD Architect is the standard for creating audio CDs.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
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P.S.  I might've under estimated number of cd's I've gone through.  I've prolly gone through at least 150 CD's!

These days I avoid the CD part until all is 100% proofed. It all goes on a USB stick now. Almost all playback devices have a USB port. 
USB sticks seem to play songs in the order they were imported. 
But I am in the habit of adding the track numbers before the title now. 

01-Mud on the Ceiling
02-Toe Jam 

I use Wave Lab to master, Nero to burn.