Been using audio creator forever but have seen a few negative things about the software and the fact that it has not been updated in Forever. I was just curious are there other audio creator type products out there (that you all use) that I can use my isotope mastering software in?

Hi. Do you just need a DAW for using iZotope to do mastering in? Do not know if you have other Cakewalk products, but could this be of interest?
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/Music-Creator
All the best.

Of course there is this, if you want more
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions
 
 

Ha. Ya, I have Platinum, but for some reason (bound in I don't know why I've always done it that way) I have just always used audio creator for creating final wave and also MP3. I don't see to recall being able to get the MP3's to work coming out of platinum but I haven't tried yet.

Thank you for your suggestion pointing to the obvious. As I think more about it Platinum is perfectly suited for the job.

berlymahn
Ha. Ya, I have Platinum, but for some reason (bound in I don't know why I've always done it that way) I have just always used audio creator for creating final wave and also MP3. I don't see to recall being able to get the MP3's to work coming out of platinum but I haven't tried yet.

Thank you for your suggestion pointing to the obvious. As I think more about it Platinum is perfectly suited for the job.

Sonar doesn't ship with an mp3 encoder (licensing thing). You either have to buy the Cakewalk mp3 encoder tool or download the free LAME mp3 encoder and install it.
 
Just in case you try to export as mp3 and can't... that's why.
 
Cheers.

I do all my mastering in Sonar.
I have a totally unique set up as far as how the dock is set up, views, exc.
I take advantage of screensets to have 10 different views.
 
a few of them listed below:
 
View 1- Jumbo track view= The track being mastered takes up the whole screen.
View 2- Jumbo master track= The master track/master bus gets as large as possible (large metering)
View 3- Analyzing= spectrum + Dorrough meters are pinned in place. 
View 4- Plug ins= Main track plug ins are pinned.
 
Those are the 4 main one I use.
Pinning VST plug ins is very useful because when switching the screen set, all those plug ins are open.
you don't need to start clicking everything again.
 
View2 is also key because I like to compare meters in Sonar and Dorrough.
opening up the master bus track as large as it can go will stretch Sonars master bus meter long so you can see the details on the meter.
 
Mastering is about watching levels and using ears.
Sonar is more than capable of that.

There's also some Mastering templates that got included a while back (created by Dan Gonzalez?).
 
As for the plugin window I really wish there was a binding to open/close it and a navigatable list within it that lists all plugins in a project (sorted by track/bus). It would also be nice if you could use the arrow keys to move around the list. Like up/down to navigate through the tracks/busses with plugins on them, right to enter the sub menu list of a track/bus, left to go back to the track/bus list and Enter to load the desired plug into the window (instead of having it switch as you scroll because that might get buggy... but if not maybe that would be better). All that would make bringing up the plug GUIs MUCH easier/faster than it currently is.
 
I never liked having a ton of open plugs and having to hunt through them so the VST Window Recycling features was really a nice improvement for me... but yeah, you still have to hunt through the project and click on the insert you want which is a pain.
 
In the meantime if I want to keep multiple plugs open I load them into the Multi Dock and navigate using the Tabs. For larger plugs unfortunately (like GR5, TH2, etc) that get cut off when the Dock is docked to the bottom I either have to temporarily yank the plug out of the dock to do the tweaks OR float and expand the MultiDock.
 
Meh... just rambling.
 
Cheers, Chuck.

Wow. Thanks guys. I gotta get view smart!

chuckebaby
I do all my mastering in Sonar.
I have a totally unique set up as far as how the dock is set up, views, exc.
I take advantage of screensets to have 10 different views.

You're not alone! I'm in the final stages of my album "Neo-" and I thought I'd master in [a different program]. But it turned out I just couldn't get the results I wanted, so I went back to my projects in SONAR and re-mixed then - this time, with the mastering processers in the master bus. Normally that's something I never do. However, I'm happier with the results. 
 
SONAR is thisclose to being a solid mastering program. I keep letting Cakewalk know that if they ever want to go in that direction, I'm just a phone call/email away...I think I'm the only person involved with Cakewalk who's mastered hundreds of tracks for dozens artists, so I can definitely give some ideas about what's needed.