Sonar Platinum HP Envy 7.
This is a novice and basic question about mastering - I have never mastered before but I have watched a great deal of tutorials. However, the forum members on here almost always provide the best insights.
Ok, production is complete, mixing is complete, referencing is complete.
Where do I begin mastering?
Do I master from the Master bus on my mix?
Or do I mixdown my project to a wav file, then import that wav file as a new project back to Sonar and begin mastering on the Master bus in the new project?
The only reason I could think of to master the second way is so I don't have a lot of plugins using CPU resources as I would if I master from the mix.
The forum members have been an invaluable resource of knowledge since I began learning Sonar 9 months ago. Your feedback is definitely appreciated!

mix down to a wav file and then import it back in to sonar.
leave yourself some headroom, I typically leave between -6dB to -9dB.
others are different. this guy Jeff here is a wizard in my opinion. he turned me on to the K system.
its worth doing a search and checking it out.
 
Everyone does this differently but are all trying to achieve the same goal.
So here goes...
I use 1 stereo track in Sonar feed to a master bus (unless im mixing stems, that's a whole other thread right there)
I feed my master bus to a second bus for my metering plug ins, (Durrough, Waves Meter, exc)
This is because in order for those plug ins to get an accurate reading, with out having to play with my tracks pre/post they are better off on a separate bus.
I have plug ins on both the track bus and the master bus, however the master bus is typically only 1 or 2 plug ins.
 
I can not stress how important it is to not push the levels on your main mixdown (pre master)
it will leave you with no headroom and even worse, when you try to push it, you end up with distortion and not the good kind tape used to produce, the crap kind that ruins your mixes. makes them sound like you placed a microphone next to a cranked boombox. to explain it simply: sounds as if you have your car stereo on high volume even when your dial is on 2 ( a low volume). its hard to keep up now a days in the loudness wars. everyone wants a full blown over the top sound and its easy to get sucked in to it. Don't. because your simply robbing dynamics from your final product.

I know it may sound like a weird way to master but when I am working on an album project, I import the tracks I want to master all into the same project, Song 1=track1, Song 2=track 2. This allows me to mute and unmute tracks to compare the overall loudness of the entire project. I then touch up which ones need some love and then I export them all in to a folder where they can be accessed and burned to CD. It takes no time at all and saves all those drink coasters that you end up with trying to get the whole album balanced. This is the quick and dirty way I do it. BTW, all tracks are routed to the Master Bus and the limiter is the last in the chain. Good luck!

When I first started with computer DAW (Sonar 7) I would mixdown to a file within Sonar and then use the tools (VST's) included with Sonar to "master".  I later purchased Ozone 5 for "mastering" and haven't looked back since.  I get excellent comments from clients including several that say my mastered mixes sound like they come out of a commercial studio in Nashville (I do primarily traditional country).
 
I can't say I didn't learn along the way, especially from friend (and client) Jimmy Peppers.  Jimmy is a "retired" Nashville songwriter, producer and at one time was George Jones' band manager and sang harmony with him.  Jimmy has produced several sessions at the revered Bradley's Barn.  He is a student of producer Billy Sherill.  Early in the game Jimmy would help me mix or do whatever to a track and he would say "Billy would do it "this way". 

Sidroe
I know it may sound like a weird way to master but when I am working on an album project, I import the tracks I want to master all into the same project, Song 1=track1, Song 2=track 2. This allows me to mute and unmute tracks to compare the overall loudness of the entire project. I then touch up which ones need some love and then I export them all in to a folder where they can be accessed and burned to CD. It takes no time at all and saves all those drink coasters that you end up with trying to get the whole album balanced. This is the quick and dirty way I do it. BTW, all tracks are routed to the Master Bus and the limiter is the last in the chain. Good luck!

Holy crap! That does make sense - so you can get all the songs to remain at the same level. Nice.
Oh yeah - all the tutorials I have watched always say to have the limiter last in the chain.

chuckebaby
mix down to a wav file and then import it back in to sonar.
leave yourself some headroom, I typically leave between -6dB to -9dB.

Got it - do NOT try to get the mix crazy loud so you don't get it distorted during mastering. Now leaving between -6dB to -9dB ---do you mean keep the mix in between those two markers on the Master bus or just minus those amounts from the max level possible?

Also what is the K system?

I usually do something like @Sidroe - I have a project named "Mastering_48k" that I bring my pre-master tracks into, that is, I make a mixdown of whole song (with -6db to -10db level) and then bring that pre-master into the "Mastering_48k" project.
 
On that master bus, I keep, in this order:
1.Fabfilter's excellent Pro-Q2 to cut off everything below 20khz (sweet 5th order cut-off slope)
2.Waves SSL channel (turned on or off depending on the song)
3.Izotope 7
 
Plenty of tuts for Izotope 5 or 7 out there, just try Youtube to start.  I use it to:
 
Check the stereo information - solid center, good stereo width.
Multi-band compression
More EQing
Limiting - I usually set a ceiling of -0.5db and then boost signal 6db to 8db.
Previewing how the song will sound if exported to mp3, flac, etc.
 
I'm sure that instead of Izotope's all in one, Sonar has all of those steps in different plugins and they all sound great. I might still recommend watching Izotope vids just for the very concise descriptions of what each thing does for the process.
 
When uploading to Soundcloud, I always upload the entire uncompressed wav (16-bit, 44.1khz) because they turn mp3s into absolute mush with awful artifacts.
 
 

I export to Wave then master using a Wave editor ( Wave Lab Elements) 
Best $90 I ever spent. 
It comes with some pretty good tools and both Wave Lab and Sonar share most of their plug ins so I get the best of both worlds. 
The most important tool for albums is the global analyser. It reports the songs average RMS level, no guess work involved.   

I don't even know where to start...in the days of vinyl, mastering was an incredibly complex process due to the physical constraints of the medium. That's no longer the case. If you search on:
 
"Craig Anderton" mastering
 
You'll find a bunch of my articles. I've mastered hundreds of tracks, even won an award, but I do less and less as part of the mastering process with every passing year...although much of that depends on what kind of mix I get. 
 
My motto: "There are at least 20 valid ways to master a piece of music. The right way is the one that amplifies the artist's vision."
 
 

Sam4246

chuckebaby
mix down to a wav file and then import it back in to sonar.
leave yourself some headroom, I typically leave between -6dB to -9dB.

Got it - do NOT try to get the mix crazy loud so you don't get it distorted during mastering. Now leaving between -6dB to -9dB ---do you mean keep the mix in between those two markers on the Master bus or just minus those amounts from the max level possible?

Also what is the K system?

Here are a couple of links to the K system.  They're well worth your time.  Good luck!!
http://www.meterplugs.com/kmeter
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-Metering-m382352.aspx