Ummm i dont know how many times ive tryed to install lame encoder with no success. Ive tryed everything mentioned. installing to c:\programfiles\cakewalk\shared  c:\programfiles(x86)\cakewalk\shared

C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\External audio Encoders\ Nothing happends no matter what i get that error message everyone mentioned. Error loading lame mp3 encoder file might not have encoded right

SONAR comes with a 30 day trial for it's mp3 encoder. You can either purchase the license or use an external encoder. SONAR provides a way to launch an external encoder via Tools > Cakewalk External Encoder Config or export a wav and then encode the mp3.

The SONAR 8 DVD includes several pre-defined profiles for various encoders. These profiles can be found in the \Utilities\External Encoder Profiles folder. You can use these profiles as a starting point when creating your own profiles. Simply double-click the appropriate .reg file to add the information to the Windows registry, then use the 'Cakewalk External Encoder Config' utility to specify the correct install path of the encoder.

Followed all steps and getting error.
1.Unable to Launch "Lame MP3 Encoder" Encoder
2.Warning: The External Encoder returned an error code. The File may not have encoded properly.
 
 
 

Or you can use Sonar MP3 Patch which adds all the necessary information into Sonar so you can export direct from there free of charge and fully legal.

See the link in my signature for more information.

Old thread alert!

All you have to do is buy Pro Audio 9 ...

All you have to do is follow my instructions in the post a few back, and you'll have an integrated MP3 encoder with all 44 options that Lame makes available. Click the link in my signature and use Sonar MP3 patch by Aaron.

Last I heard from Aaron was in about 2012. He'd been away for a while because he'd had a heart attack. I've tried all his contacts and haven't heard from him . I hope he's OK.
His utility is the best around and should be the go to for anyone who wants to have an MP3 encoder installed in Sonar any version.

Thanks, Mike. Don't know Aaron but I too hope he is well.

I haven't seen that. I've left messages there but obviously haven't been uploaded by the moderator there. Each message is evaluated for suitability. Perhaps my message was to personal.

Roger Mudgel. I hear you.
 
I'm gonna update to Platinum sooner or later.
 
Also, I went to softpedia and saw the reply Vern C mentions. It's good he's been active somewhere 3 months ago. And hope he's OK at present. 
 
He also wrote of plans (under Future Plans) for some extensive ID3 info encoding updates on his to-do list. See: http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/66927-aarons-sonar-mp3-patch-v564/ He says he's been waiting for some command line bug to be fixed in SONAR. He hasn't had much luck in getting X3 running well for him, according to what he wrote in the comment post at softpedia I linked to above. So, it makes me wonder if the thing he asserted to be a bug has been fixed, and if he still plans to make updates to his Patch.
 
Anyway, his patch is a good freeware for SONAR users who don't have the Cakewalk MP3 Encoder activated in SONAR.
 
Edit:
 
Oh yeah, the change log for his Patch reflects versions up to 5.6.5.0. I don't see a working download for any version pass 5.6.3.0. The download for the 5.6.4.0 version available via one of the links I posted above is for version 5.6.4.0, but the download link doesn't work for me. And according to the change log 5.6.4.0 and 5.6.5.0 were released in March 2012.

Thanks, mudgel for posting this!
 
Hey guys, I know this seems way too complicated, but don't give up, Lame happens to be an excellent encoder that produces very high quality output. It's just a little opaque, having been developed by nerdy Unix people (which I once was.) For most people, the settings you really need are actually pretty simple.
 
You should create a system restore point before  you starting copying files anywhere into the programs subtree. That way, if something gets munged up it's a quick restore to fix it. 
 
First, I downloaded the zip containing the 64 bit binary files. I then extracted all the files and dropped them in C:\Program Files\Lame. Once that was done, I set things up in the external encoding utility dialog:
 
For Path, I put C:\Program Files\Lame
 
For the Command Line, I have this:
 
lame -V0 --tt %T --tg "Rock" --tl "My Awesome Album Name" --ta "My Awesome Band Name" %I %O
 
The first thing to understand is that the %T, %I and %O names are placeholders for values that Sonar will provide when Lame runs. You can see the various attribute names and their meanings at the bottom of the external encoder dialog.

%T The song title from the the project info dialog
%I The name of the WAV file that Sonar generates when you export audio; this will be the input to Lame.
%O The name of the MP3 file that Lame will generate.
 
Next are the parameters to control the Lame encoding:
 
-V is the parameter that specifies the quality setting for Variable Bit Rate. It defaults to 4, and decimal values can be specified, like: 4.51
0 is the highest quality but produces bigger files. 9.999 provides the lowest quality with much smaller files.
 
Since file size matters very little to me, I use 0, the highest quality setting. 1 and 2 also produce very good output with somewhat smaller sizes. Experiment to see what balance you're happy with.
 
Next are the parameters that specify how to tag your music file with information useful to the user. You can specify the title, the artist name, the album name, you can even embed an image of your album art in the file. This data is used by music services and media players to show the user.
 
Note that these parameters start with two dashes "--". They won't work with one. Ask me how I know. The lame settings I use are:
 
--tt %T  - this tells Lame to use the title provided by Sonar. You can also just enter a literal name like, "My Awesome Song".
--tg "Rock" - this tags the genre as "Rock". This comes from a list in the help docs, or you can run Lame from the command line to get a list, like this:
 
lame --genre-list
 
--tl "My Awesome Album Name" - the album name. I change this a lot, obviously.
--ta "My Awesome Band Name"  - the name of the artist. I also change this as needed.
 
And that should produce a very good sounding MP3 tagged with useful information about your song. For most of us it's really all we need unless your sending the file to some service with very specific requirements. Whatever those may be, Lame can no doubt do them, it's really very capable.
 
I hope this helps you!

mudgel
That's a great resource but you know for most folks it's just as easy to pay $9.99 download a file, run it and it's all done for you. Especially since Cakewalk have upgraded to Lame v 3.99 during the Platinum cycle sometime.

Hey, ten bucks is ten bucks. :)

I have my share of problems with the external encoder utility. Sometimes when I select the lame entry in the list none of the fields change from what was selected before so I have to re-type everything all over again to prevent the wrong data from being written. Am I the only one to experience this?