Best way to Finish a Project to CD

Hi Folks,
After slaving over a hot desk top (not mention man different musical instruments) for year(s) my project is almost complete, after a few still to do tune ups with Melodyne, i feel i have this cd ready for the process of mastering to 2 track and burning it to cd. This is a very open ended question and there will be many differing opinion's i'm sure... 
 
With what software (i was going to use pyro) and what is the process of taking my stereo wav. files from Sonar 8 organizing them, burning them to "Red Book Standard" also creating the "encoding" to have the album and song names appear on cd player displays.
 
Where my project is at:
I have mixed and mastered everything (many times, and i'm very happy with it now) within Sonar 8 PE. My mastering tools are plugged in on the main bus out. Basically i don't know where to go from here.
 
This is not a super-pro cd, and i like it that way. I've got it to a point where i want to get it to my band, and then off to listeners. So... any help, pointers, or advice on the process would be great.
 
Thank you,
Rob.
 
 
 
 
 

Sony's CD Architect is specifically designed for audio CDs and is very popular, but in truth almost any CD-burning software is capable of creating a Red Book disk. You may even already have something suitable that came bundled with your computer. If you already have Pyro, it'll do the job. If not, just run down to your local office supply store and see what's on sale.
 
I like CDA but I've also used Nero, which costs less and has the added benefit of being a general-purpose program that also does data CDs and DVDs. It'll even make DVD slide shows of your wedding photos with your own music behind them.
 
As Dan said, the first step is exporting your SONAR projects to 16-bit wave files. You can then simply select the waves from within your CD-burning software, enter their titles and burn. Unless otherwise specified, the software will automatically insert 2-second gaps between songs.
 
For myself, I insert an extra step between exporting and burning. I prefer to export 32-bit wave files at their original sample rate, and then import them into a separate SONAR project for assembling into an album.
 
My song files will have already been volume-maximized in their original projects, so all I need in the mastering project are just two effects: a high-pass filter for removing subsonics, and a brickwall limiter for safety. After sequencing the songs I export the whole shebang as one monster 16-bit wave file to be burned onto the CD.
 
The advantage of adding this intermediate step is that you can preview each transition in context and possibly re-sequence them based on compatible keys or tempos. Simple volume automation can be used to balance levels from song to song. Most important, you can creatively adjust the gaps between songs. For example:

• start the next song on what would have been the downbeat of the previous song
• insert longer gaps between extreme transitions, e.g. rocker to a ballad
• eliminate the gap altogether and crossfade songs

The downside is it's a bit more of a hassle to burn the CD because you have to manually insert indexes, but that's not a big deal.
 

My process is I mix down from Sonar to a 44.1/16 file. 
I use Wave Lab to Master= analyze the levels/ EQ etc and edit beginnings and endings.   
This step is to make each song balanced as an album. 
 
I then use Nero to burn and put songs in correct order. 
I have a few burning programs and for some reason I just like Nero. 
One thing I know is you cannot insert CD Text unless the gap is 2 seconds (or more?)
I leave Nero at 2 seconds and I just put the correct space I desire at the "end" of the song.
This reqires keeping your playlist order. If you change song order you have to edit the space again.
The reason for this is nobody will notice a few extra seconds at the end of a song, but they sure will at the beginging . Have you every done DJ work? you'll know what I'm talking about. I chop all beginings to a half second.
Wave Labs Montage editor is excellent for this too. You can drop all the songs into the montage and re arrange to hearts content. You drag songs to creat the space between songs and can listen imediatly.  
 
I use printable label CD's and burn at 24. 
I use an old Epson printer to print the labels which I do while the others are burning. 

Man! Thank all so much for all the help guys ! :) I will follow the great advice on getting this project to CD. BTW... I truly thank this forum and all you guys for helping me through this project, it has been such valuable information and I've learned so much. From start to finish, I've grown to love Sonar (After this project (a new core and memory boost) is done, i'm going to upgrade to the newest version) Wish me luck, as soon as i'm done i'll post a link to some of the tunes. I think the best part is being encouraged to take on every aspect of a project, from basic tracking, to mastering, i think it was Bitflipper who said it best in a past post (it was in reference to mastering) "If you don't try, you'll never learn" So this may be Jr. work, but next time i'm armed with all the knowledge of the first trial. Thanks so much, Rob.
Band: Lagshot
Genre: Hard Rock / Metal
Album name: III
 
Cheers,
Rob. 

You have a seven-piece metal band? Oh my.