MP3 encoding for Sonar

ORIGINAL: Skyline In The Office

Have you installed the profile as described in the earlier link posted by Craig Anderton (Sonar guru), this is essential, viz:

"However, you CAN add a profile for LAME so that it shows up as one of your export options. Here's what you do (this assumes you have LAME installed on your machine somewhere).

1. Insert the Sonar 4 distribution CD-ROM into your drive.
2. Don't autorun. Instead, explore the CD.
3. Open the folder called Utilities.
4. Open the folder External Encoder Profiles.
5. Double-click on any of the encoder options you want to add (e.g., LAME MP3 High Quality Stereo.reg).
6. You'll be asked if you want to add this information to the registry. Tremble in fear for a bit because you're adding something to the registry, then click on Yes. You'll be informed that it was added successfully.
7. Go Program Files > Cakewalk > Shared Utilities.
8. Double-click on the EncoderConfig.exe program.
9. In the "Friendly Name" field, select the Profile you want (e.g., LAME MP3 High Quality Stereo)
10. Under Path, enter the path to the LAME encoder folder installed on your computer in place of the default path.
11. Double-check that you've entered the correct path, then click on Save. This is important!! Otherwise Sonar won't be able to launch the encoder.
12. Click on Close to close the External Encoder Config.
13. Now, open Sonar. When you go to Export Audio, any of the profiles you configured will show up as an export option."

ORIGINAL: blackdogstudio

This was taken from another thread. It works for me (SONAR4PE)...


"If you don't wanna unlock(buy) the cakewalk mp3 encoder, you can invoke the Lame mp3 encoder directly from S4. With this you don't need to first export to wav and then encode to mp3. Remember that the Lame mp3 encoder is high quality, open source and free.

1. Download and install the lame encoder. Just search 'lame mp3 encoder download' in Google
2. Open Sonar 4 and go to Tools -> Cakewal Ext. Encoder Config.
3. In the Friendly Name Field write: Lame Mp3 Encoder
4. In the Extension field write: .mp3
5. In the Description field write whatever you want
6. In the Path field write the path where the Lame encoder is. That is where lame.exe and lame_enc.dll are, usually C:\Program Files\Lame
7. In the Command Line field write:
lame -b 192 -m j %I %O
8. Press Save button.
9. Uncheck Keep Wave File
10. dat'sit!

This will export to a 192Kbps, joint stereo mp3 file. If you want 128Kbps, replace 192 with 128 in the Command Line field. The next time you click on File->Export->Audio... in S4 you'll find 'Lame mp3 encoder' as a type of audio.

The Command Line field is where you specificate the options for the Lame encoder (lame.exe). The form is:
lame <options> <infile> <outfile>
where options can be among others:
-b : bitrate
-m : stereo mode
for more information go to the lame help. This procedure has been tested with LAME 3.94 and S4 Producer".