Perhaps someone can help me.
 
When I upgraded to X3 I lost my old LAME encoder.
 
I tried to download it again but it came in a .gz file, and so I tried to download 7zip. I think it made a general mess of my machine, and certainly didn't work, so I did a system restore and went to the Cakewalk store to give them the 10 bucks for the Cakewalk version.
 
Then I went into that special place where only Cakewalk can envision.
 
I put my (known good) password and the Cakewalk Store rejected it. So twice I asked for a new password and both times it is rejected. The last time I wanted to buy on the Cake Store I had to call tech support and wait 45 minutes for them to reset the password.
 
I would gladly give 10 bucks to get back the two hours of frustration.
 
Anyway, I need to mix to mp3 and still have no encoder.
 
Does anyone have specific instructions on how to get the LAME encoder for X3, or, alternatively, how to get the Cakewalk Store to quit playing around and let me purchase it?
 
Thanks
 

PM your email address.

If you had bought it previously then no need to do that again. Can you check your hard drive for it? Though I suspect gswitz has sorted you out.

mudgel
If you had bought it previously then no need to do that again. Can you check your hard drive for it? Though I suspect gswitz has sorted you out.

Hey thanks for the concern.
 
My point is that I never did license the Cake version, because until now it was easy to use the LAME open source encoder that is offered for free.  It was free, legitimate, and worked just fine. But with X3 I am having problems. I don't know if its me, or if Cakewalk decided to block the third party encoder.
 
I don't mind paying for what I get, but paying Cake 10 bucks after the couple of thousand I have paid them over the years, for a free software, somehow rubbed me wrong. But now I am more desperate.
 
I think my problem with getting into the Cake Store is that I am temporarily out of the US, and I am a US customer. I believe they track my internet location.
 
I seem to remember a free format converter program, so I might look for it and use it to convert a WAV to MP3 if my back gets to the wall.
 
BTW, I sent the PM to gswitz.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/TUTORIAL-Getting-LAME-MP3-Encoder-to-Work-With-SONAR-m1255631.aspx
 
This link has directions for exporting straight from Sonar into Lame, but I don't do it that way. I export waves and then drag them over a batch file for lame encoding.

OK
 
I have a solution, in case anyone reads this thread.
 
I did searches for format converters and ended up downloading AVC Any Vidio Converter free edition.
 
It is a general purpose converter that will take videos and audio files and spin them out to another format. Its a handy thing to have anyway.
 
It works fine, as far as I can tell. You can set the MP3 to whatever bitrate you want.
 
I export the finished X3 project to a WAV file, then convert in AVC. It would be nice to have a more streamlined approach, but I only mix once in a while, so no big deal.
 
If you install it be careful not to accept the other "free" stuff during installation. It wanted to give me some kind of anti-virus program or something like that, but I said no and everything worked out fine.
 
The only nuisance is that when you convert it will take you to their webpage and offer for you to upgrade to the Pro version. Kind of like Celemony does on the Melodyne built into X3. 
 
Don't forget to install as administrator.
 
If this thing burps, I will mention it as a post to this thread.

The nice thing to do when you get a good solution is to go back to the header of your original post and add the word <SOLVED> so that people don't spend time reading it.
 
Also, check out the different sounds of converters. I have a Gold Version of Media Monkey which doesn't do nearly as well with the MP3s as Lame.

OK
 
I finally broke down and spent the 10 bucks to buy the Cake MP3 encoder.
 
Back when I started this tread my cakewalk store password was not working, so I gave up on buying it. I finally got my password for the Cakewalk store to function correctly (after a good amount of time on support), so I splurged and spent the $10.
 
I can report a positive review of the encoder.  Works fine. It is especially nice that it lets you put in the ID3 data. Smooth as a baby's butt.
 
I can't really say if the sound quality is better than others but I am assured it is good sounding by people with better ears than me.