fantini
I just happened to use the cd function in sonar last night for the first time after 11 years of cakewalk.  It certainly is a bit simplistic in it's format, but honestly I was pleased at what I heard on my old walkman.   

Which brings me to ask this question...why would anybody go about producing a CD at all?  Where would you sell it?  I grew up with vinyl, but I'm even convinced that even CD's probably have their best days behind them.  If you want to burn your own archive copies of your downloaded music, that's fine, but if you actually plan on selling (or even giving away) your music it just seems online distribution is the way to go.
 
 

ok, how about a digital album?   can we then use Sonar only?   When I purchased Sonar, I was under the assumption it was all I needed to make "release-ready" music!
 
Can you go into a bit further detail why Sonar is not good enough for mastering an album?  Also, what about a digital album only?

frankjcc
Sonar is not your program for this level of rendering to cd.  Wavelab is a professional program for that, though it is not cheap.  someone mentioned they are still using pyro, which I bought years ago, but I don't remember how it worked, It did allow for what you are trying to do if I recall correctly.

There's Wavelab Elements which is far cheaper and gets the job done nicely, but without a lot of the plugins and advanced features included in the full version.

SF_Green

frankjcc
Sonar is not your program for this level of rendering to cd.  Wavelab is a professional program for that, though it is not cheap.  someone mentioned they are still using pyro, which I bought years ago, but I don't remember how it worked, It did allow for what you are trying to do if I recall correctly.

There's Wavelab Elements which is far cheaper and gets the job done nicely, but without a lot of the plugins and advanced features included in the full version.

The limitation to 3 audio tracks is why I didn't mention that version.

I wouldn't use Sonar to create a CD master for duplication (I have Sound Forge, which comes with CD Architect), but I think you could if you want to. Just mix all your tracks and export each one as a separate wave file, import them back into Sonar (I would bring left and right separately into two mono tracks) in the correct order (leaving 2 seconds between tracks). Listen to the album for discrepancies in level and EQ. If you find outrageous peaks in a few places use a volume envelope to manually even those out. There are lots of online tutorials on how to "master," (there's a lot to it) and you can hang limiters and equalizers over the master bus to get your album sounding right (I'm assuming you have good monitors). Contact your duplicator for their requirements and export the file to whatever they recommend.
 
I'm not saying this is the best way to do this, but it should work, and if you've never done it before you will learn a lot. If you follow the link above to CD Architect you will see why a dedicated CD mastering application might be better.
 
Best of luck!

SONAR will produce CD-format sound files.  What it doesn't do so well is edit those songs and string them into a prefab Red-book CD.  SoundForge and Wavelab etc. are specialized stereo editing software for just those tasks.
 
Sony is always running specials on their cheap "studio" versions, including SoundForge.  You can pick it up for less than $50, probably this memorial day weekend, I expect (I did get a email about specials).  Even the studio version should come w/ CD Architect, a professional CD authoring tool.
 
I use to burn audio CDs on Pyro, but it has been a long time and there are several versions of it.  There is freeware out there too, but I'd be wary of it.  Who wants pop up adds when you are trying to sequence your songs into a masterpiece?
 
@

The problem is that whilst you can certainly burn a CD from Sonar, you cannot name tracks, insert track markers etc.
 
I import all of my finished songs (all of which are 32 bit exports) into an album/mastering project in Sonar, each on their own track and spread out along the timeline. I do all of my spacing in Sonar by nudging each track to an appropriate start time, adjusted for aesthetic appeal.
 
Then I do a 16 bit 44.1KHz export of the entire album
 
This is then opened in CD Architect where I insert track markers and insert such information as Track Title, Album Title, Artist Name etc, then burn the CD

forkol

fantini
I just happened to use the cd function in sonar last night for the first time after 11 years of cakewalk.  It certainly is a bit simplistic in it's format, but honestly I was pleased at what I heard on my old walkman.   

Which brings me to ask this question...why would anybody go about producing a CD at all?  Where would you sell it?  I grew up with vinyl, but I'm even convinced that even CD's probably have their best days behind them.  If you want to burn your own archive copies of your downloaded music, that's fine, but if you actually plan on selling (or even giving away) your music it just seems online distribution is the way to go.
 
 

I grew up on vinyl and I too think the CD has had their best days behind them, but in the last 15 years I (or my various different bands) have sold a number of them.  And personally I like having a CD of the music I'm listening to.  So why not have CDs in addition to downloads?

Bristol_Jonesey
The problem is that whilst you can certainly burn a CD from Sonar, you cannot name tracks, insert track markers etc.
 
I import all of my finished songs (all of which are 32 bit exports) into an album/mastering project in Sonar, each on their own track and spread out along the timeline. I do all of my spacing in Sonar by nudging each track to an appropriate start time, adjusted for aesthetic appeal.
 
Then I do a 16 bit 44.1KHz export of the entire album

Awesome.  That's exactly what I'm doing.  I'll give Architect a try.  Thanks for the info.

CDs are still important products for advertising - you are more likely to get a look/listen by sending out a CD than a link, for local/college radio or labels etc.
 
They are an important cash flow option for live shows.
 
If you don't need advertising or do live shows, you don't need CDs, except for your mum.
 
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