Save it as a wave file, but if you want to make a CD, just use 16 bite. If you want to master down to a CD, there is a very good program that will space your songs and make the level of volume all the same. It is called  Cyberlink DVD Gold. I have burned many with this program, and they come out perfect.

Of all of the suggestions/comments so far in this thread, I would caution very strongly against the previous post (#33).

There are so many things that could be said, I'll but just let it go. Suffice to say, do not follow this advice. Most here do not need the warning, but to those looking for help, do not do this at home.

Later
Albert

A truly beautiful wave form, Herb. The peaks are at their maximum, with points, not shaved off tops, plus evidence of dynamic movement. Truly a work of art.

In all of my final wave forms, I have places where the wave comes up to maybe half the height for as long as half a minute or more, and in the loudest sections the peaks will only come up to 3/4 of the distance of full height. But this is done on purpose, as I have signed out of the loudness war. This is one of the reasons I never use normalize functions, nor do I touch the brick wall limiter options. Of course, most of the music I work with is of a more classical genre, but even in the rock or blues stuff there are low points and no full height peaks.

I guess I just don't subscribe to the "louder is better" hype, and I make no excuses. I do listen to music at a high volume level, I just allow the amp built into my radio/cd player, or the 100 watt per channel amp in the studio to acheive that volume.

Not looking to start the volume war/argument up again, just expressing an opinion. And, as with all subjects where opinion comes into the discussion, there is no real right or wrong, just differences of opinion. As Pepe LePue says, "Viva le difference"

Later
Albert 

Thanks Al... that's the type of wave I try to shoot for... sometimes it is a bit more compressed but I will go back in if it's too bad and "turn some things down" to acceptable levels.


James... I don't automatically say grab some audio FX compressor.... but I do normalize just about everything. Either in the tracks and or in the final editor.  I've never had one person comment that my mixes are "compressed" sounding.  You do have to be careful and use judgment when applying any effect to music.

I had the old version of Wavepad... after my computer restore... I could not find the original install file so I had to obtain it again.... I like the new and improved version even better.  I also have Audacity but prefer the ease of Wavepad... it's a superb MP3 converter as well.

Lighten up guys, it's only rock'n'roll!  I did not think I was saying anything so controversial as to elicit such derisive responses to my comments; I shall reply in kind! 
 
First of all, once you save (and close) a file you cannot undo many things like cut, paste, delete, etc so if you're smart, you save the original tracks (documents, pictures, whatever.) and experiment with copies.  "Do not do this at home"?  I'm pretty sure you can't hurt yourself so don't let such negative remarks stifle your creativity; try everything and see what happens.  I agree that using the track Fx is a good way to do things and I
use them all the time.  But once you have them set the way you like and you mixdown or export audio, don't you end up with the same thing?
 
As for music, it's (usually) better if you can actually hear it.  Seriously, I am in complete agreement that there is entirely too much emphasis on loud instead of good sound these days and that is not my objective.  I use a lot of vintage, retro equipment to get an authentic, organic sort of sound.  Ok, I'm a cheapskate who uses any old junk that still works and judging from the gear lists that I see posted on some other threads, I am doing this on a shoestring budget so I would be happy with results that would fool a casual listener with department store audio equipment.
 
To recap: my original problem was that if I record a simple acoustic guitar track, for example, being careful to keep the levels well below clipping, the recorded sound quality is superb but not very loud.  I raise the volume as far as possible using various controls (track, main, normalize) without clipping.  (My waveforms aren't quite as uniforn as Post #35 but they're not much worse.  It's a bit hard to tell because I can stretch the display
scales to make it look better or worse.  Maybe the seemingly small differences are actually significant.)  Then I export to .wav, burn to cd, put it in my stereo and find that the volume is literally half that of any commercial cd I have of similar music.  That is not right.  That is not because I am a hoity-toity audiophile who refuses to raise the track
volume because it might cause a millionth of a percent THD (never mind the nonlinearites introduced by cranking the volume knob to 100% not to mention signal-to-noise ratio or what happens when you forget to turn it down again before putting a normal cd in ...).  It is becasue my software/hardware is not using the full capacity it should have.  If my old
cassette played back half the volume it recorded and I posted that on a forum and got replies like "that's what volume controls are for", I would not consider them very intelligent.  I would hope for suggestions like "try a new tape" or "clean the heads".  I expected such insight from some Home Studio gurus... but I digress...  So I had assumed that the 3db louder process would be the same.  I finally tried it anyway and was suprised to find it made the volume louder without clipping like all the other methods
did.  I can hardly hear any audible difference, if any at all, in the sound quality and I have good headphones and it's easy to hear any distorion on a classical guitar track.  What does that function do differently than the others?  After experimenting some more, I have to assume it is applying some compression but there is no explanation in the Help file and apparently no way of adjusting the parameters.  It does seem to do it "gently" and the result does not sound "squished".  So say what you will, it worked like a charm on some of my tracks.  If nothing else, it proved that the low volume originates with my HS tracks and not somewhere else in the whole system like the cd burner.
 
I recently purchased Wavelab Studio for cd mastering and obtained even better results using its Loudness (not Level) Normalize process.  That process does use compression and allows you to adjust the settings.  I avoid compression on acoustic tracks because it changes the sound, but Wavelab can do it very subtly and and I have been able to achieve a reasonable volume with very little loss of sound quality.
 
"Forget about your laundry, forget about your job. Just crank up the volume and yank off the knob."--Wierd Al

 When one spends hours writing, arranging, tracking , editing  and mixing a project. Why would they let it be mastered with any less care ? Mastering is a totally different art form  and requires a totally different skill set  than the previous tasks.  It requires the proper acoustically designed  room, talented mastering ears, and equipment. All of these are out of the price range and abilities of  the majority of home based studios. Even the big guys use mastering houses. If you want to sell the product it has to compete with the best. As said in a previous post  If the material is just for you and your friends and family or for ideas, master it at home. 
     FYI  Abbey Road Studios offers mastering via  transfer  of media over the internet and  their prices seem reasonable . They have their own transfer guidelines and instructions. They will also give suggestions on how best to prepare your mix to be mastered. They can master to many mediums. They say they use the same gear and mastering engineers that they use as if you were in house with them. I have not sent any material to them yet but I plan to. Check them out . website can be found by searching Abbey Road Studios. Great Web site. They have a live web cam of  the  zebra crossing and lots of pictures inside the  studios , control rooms and mastering suite .with gear lists for each. There is also an online shop.

Please note: I do not work for or have any connections or associations with Abbey Road Studios, I just thought the on line mastering idea was a great affordable option to be offered by such a famous studio with their facilities, talent, equipment and history.  I  also like looking at the studio pictures while I day dream.

if you hear the effect, you've done too much

 
I have found that to be very true.  I have probably been trying to do too much at once and over-compensating.  Subtle corrections can have a large effect on the finished product.  I have been following a somewhat similar process to what you describe and using Wavelab for "mastering" for a while now and with practice and perserverance have produced excellent results.