Hi there
 
I have just installed SONAR Home Studio for a friend who is getting into recording. Any ideas on how to activate the mp3 encoder? All I can find on the site is links telling me I need to do it in the Cakewalk Store, but searches for it in the Store come up blank. I thought it was supposed to be free now anyway. What do I need to do?

Try this link:
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/mp3
 
Keep in mind that you should own the product that you are activating mp3 (I believe)
 
 
Syphus

I think it is now included in the Sonar update and just will work automatically after you update. But Home Studio has not been updated so it is not available yet. 
I use Gold Wave to batch process to MP3. Audacity and Wavosaur also have free mp3 conversion. 
I want all my songs stored as high quality WAVE files anyhow, so it's just as easy to batch convert as to re export as an MP3 directly. 

Thanks. Why is it so difficult to find a link to that page on the Cakewalk site?

Fortunately,  I still had the email they sent me to inform that it was now free due to the patent running out.
 
I have had trouble finding it also in the past . . .
 
Syphus

I would contact CW about this. Normally one could just purchase a license and be done with it. Now that no longer applies. However the method used was a program that wrote to the registry. That program should still work if CW is willing to send to you.  

I too use Goldwave (and audio editor) to convert to MP3 when needed.  I have the "Lame" MP3 encoder installed, that I downloaded via the Goldwave site.  
The Lame MP3 encoder can be downloaded here:
http://lame.sourceforge.net/