How do I compile a CD?

The best thing is to get CD Architect from SONY.  They have the studio version - fairly cheap.  All the tools but not the effects that come w/ the more expensive version.  And Sound Forge from SONY.  It is a stereo editor, which isn't as important as CDA but nice to have.
 
What I do to "compile"  a CD is export a mix of the songs w/in SONAR at the project rates - 44.1 and 24 bits and put it w/in the project itself.  If you have Sound Forge you can import it into there, top and tail (cut the beginning and end if necessary), make sure there are no overs (you can draw the loudest hits out and raise your overall level of the track).  You can also "master" in SF, tho you can do it in SONAR too.
 
Mastering comes from the old vinyl days when tape had more dynamics and frequency range.  So they had to make it fit using EQ and limiting.  Today it means (apparently) getting the hottest sound possible - if you look at many pro songs you'll see they look like a block w/ no dynamics.  For the home studio, esp. a newby, you merely want to raise the average level of you song.  I'd stick w/ a limiter (concerte limiter from Cake is good, as is Elephant from Voxengo) and a little eq.  The EQ is there as much to stamp the same eq signature on a CD, just as the limiter should get the songs to have the same loudness between them.  Once you have the high def songs sounding good, you export them as 44.1 16 bit wav files that CD players use and save that as a separate file -d on't overwrite your project mix file.
 
Then open CDA or another CD burning program.  Line up your songs, fade between them, etc. etc.  CDA and Pyro will insert the markers your CD player reads, and you can move them or manually insert more (or take them out).  YOu can fine tune vol w/in the programs and add another layer of effects like a limiter, compressor or EQ (tho you shouldn't need those it is nice to have just in case).  Then burn your CD and listen to it.  Rinse and repeat until you are happy.  It is best to check out your Cd on various systems - bookshelf speakers, cars, etc.
 
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 What I do to "compile"  a CD is export a mix of the songs w/in SONAR at the project rates - 44.1 and 24 bits and put it w/in the project itself.
 
AT, do I understand this as meaning that I bounce the mixed tracks to a stereo track within the SONAR project, and then export that new track as a .wav?

24 bit is what I use for projects.  So I export a copy at the project rate and save it w/in the project as a master mix.  As high quality as the project.  CD audio is 44.1 and 16 bits (tho CDs can play mp3s, too).  But Red Book audio for CDs is 16/44.1.  You can use SONAR, but I use Sound Forge and import the high def audio into it.  In SF you can also add info like what a computer reads, both CD and mp3 info such as Song/album/artist name and notes for SF (like version - vocals up 1, cut the chorus, etc.).  Once I've done whatever I need to the high def file I save it as a CD file as well as an mp3.
 
There are other free and cheap programs that do some or all of the above, and as gswitz suggests use SONAR to export a 16 bit, 44.1 kHz file that Windows media can burn.  Sound Forge is just a pro program that has a few extras thrown in that can help in a media "house" operation.  One slot in the properties section is for engineer.
 
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Lots of good points in this thread and i will add my redundancy because i feel it drives the point home to hear commonality.
 
Like the rest of the people here, I never compile my cds in Sonar.  I export my 44khz/16-bit wavs to a folder specifically for the cd.  I then use CD architect to compile and burn.  CD architect has the advantage of compiling to Redbook standards.  Of coure there are othgers that do as well, but CD Architect has worked for me for years and I have no incentive to change.

Optimus, I wish somebody answered you like this
 
1. select all tracks
2 export to audio
3. use mains out, if you want limiters, compressors and main mix to be and  save stereo track, you can use entire mix also, did not see difference.
4. use burn audio cd within sonar to burn.
 
 
For all other ways, bounce within sonar, would be nice to know how they do it, step by step.

Thank you all for your advice. It appears that everyone has their favourite CD burning software, which I will explore. However.....
 
My core question remains.
 
As it stands, I have my tracks mixed down and converted to a .wav and saved in their own folder. Where does the mastering happen?
My understanding of mastering, not withstanding the volume wars, is to get a consistent loudness and eq to the compilation. (Individual tracks that I have burnt to CD have always seemed to be way under the level of commercial CDs, and I'm not talking metal thrash or anything like that, just easy listening stuff).
So clearly, levels need to come up. This I understand is done during mastering.
 
I have no experience of the software recommended by you guys but I get the impression that there is mastering software, and there is burning software. Yes, no.....?
I have always been of the impression that the DAW can be used to master, even if only rudimentary. From there it is exported to CD burning software. Yes, no....?
 
So....do I import each track from my  proposed CD folder into the DAW or mastering software individually, in the order I want on one continuous track, and apply whatever manipulation that is required, to the entire track, or have I got this whole thing wrong? Yes, no....?
 
Now, if I am on the right track, this new master I just created, is sliced up into its individual songs and saved to a folder, and then burnt to CD. Yes, no....?
 
Sorry guys for being pedantic about this but I need a demo compilation soon, and my adhoc efforts at producing a consistent product are not good.

wavelab, soundfogre, even cd architect has some, very little basic mastering effects, but it more importantly lets you organize all the songs one after the other and set the seconds between songs, exc.
its a real professional set up by Sony music software.
 
sonar can also do some mastering, just import your finished mix in to sonar.
just make sure your mix that your importing(the wave file has levels low enough to be able to add some mastering to it with out burning it up(running the levels too hot.)
 

1. Export all your individual songs as 44.1KHz 32 bit
2. Import each of these into a blank project on separate tracks, spaced out along the timeline
3. Adjust the relative volumes of each to get a consistent volume (use the loudest as a reference)
4. Adjust the start times for each track to get the exact gap you want between songs by dragging each one left/right
5. Do whatever you need to do by way of mastering (EQ/Compression/Limiting). This could be done on your master buss if they were all mixed consistently, otherwise you'll have to do it on a track by track basis
6. Export from your mastering project as one long wav file at 44.1KHz, 16 bit
7. Import it into CD Architect, set the "New Track" marker for each song (first track MUST start at EXACTLY 2.00 seconds)
8. Burn CD

I did not read all the post, but will say this. There are some really decent priced Mastering Houses out there. Many will master sets of songs, rather than one per fee. My advise is to find some you are interested in, and contact them as many prefer different formats. In fact some will not even except 16 bit material. They will gladly explain to you how they prefer it formated. I recently reformatted this pc and do not have the links, but they are easy to find. Many contact me often at Reverbnation and other music sites etc...Just search it, and contact some of them. Many of them will also prefer that you do not do this or do that to the tracks, and that information will vary from house to house. Then actually putting together a CD of tunes can also vary depending on the genre, types of tunes included, climax point of the CD, loudness of the tunes involved, etc...There is also information about this topic. You don't want a jazz tune in the middle of a hard rock CD. Best to do some research with actual Mastering Houses before you go to all the trouble of trying to put them together and it being in the wrong format. Hope this helps, Free
 
 
Tip: Be sure to put your heap of cwp. files on an external drive for safe keeping. All mastering houses will except 24 bit wav files. If you have final mixes on them, good idea to save the best mixes as 24 or 32 bit wav files, and this can eat up some space. The external also allows you to free up space on your C drive. These files can be dragged over back and forth to Sonar cakewalk Projects, or opened with Sonar from either drive. Drag to lose all that hard work on a pc crash. Trust me, I have been through several of those.

I burned a track to a CD using WMP today and it wouldn't play on a friends home mini-hifi setup.  I tried it in my car and it wouldn't play there either. In the past I've burned to CD in MP3 format and they've always played fine in my car, but I used WAV this time to get higher quality, but as I said they won't play.  What am I doing wrong?
 
I searched to try and find exactly what file type I should be ending up with and this thread came up, but the posts above don't pin down the file type people are using, what should it be?  Commercial CDs say the tracks are cda files, or is that just what Windows interprets them as?  I'm confused.

True but the thread was revived to ask an unrelated question about data disc and audio CD hardware compatibility.