I'm looking for some good restoration software. I have a great performance on my x1 producer recorded on a cassette 4trk. It's a little noisy, over compressed and lacks lows and highs.  Good luck right ! lol. Just wondered what's out there. I haven't looked in a decade.
 
thanks.

IZotope RX. Pretty pricey but it's the real deal.

Izotope RX3 is generally recommended as the best tool for the job. There's an advanced version that's very expensive, and a basic version that does fine for most applications. You can also get either one in a bundle for a bigger discount, for example sometimes with the popular Ozone mastering tool.
 
At plugindiscounts.com (or a similar site) you can usually find a slightly better deal than through Izotope themselves.
 
Alternatives exist from Waves and Sonnox. The latter is quite pricey and requires an iLok. Other than that I don't know much about it except the Sonnox fx in general are considered very good. The Waves ones are probably the cheapest for a full suite (provided you get them during a sale) but also a little dated. Probably the most noteworthy one is Z-Noise, which has more advanced noise filtering than the older ones.
 
A free alternative you could try is Audacity, a free open source based DAW that supposedly has some pretty decent noise reduction. I haven't tried it and have heard mixed reports. Then again, you can't go much cheaper than free so probably worth ago.
 
These things mostly focus on noise reduction. For tonal quality and dynamic expansion you already have tools available in Sonar.

iZotope RX is the top-of-the-line.
 
There's also the lower cost Acon Digital Restoration Suite, which is also an additional 10% off if you go through the DigiFreq Deals page...
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/deals.asp#acon
 
Scott

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Sony Sound Forge includes a really nice noise-reduction plug-in. It's been around awhile, but it's a venerable tool. It's perfect for vinyl and tape - plus you get a full up audio editor in the bargain. Perfect if you don't want to go the full-boat with Izotope RX3. Demos are available.

I have a great performance on my x1 producer recorded on a cassette 4trk. It's a little noisy, over compressed and lacks lows and highs

 
As far as it being over compressed, that cannot be undone. Some might thing an expander might undo this, but it wont. It doesn't work like that. Once the loaf of bread is baked, you cannot take out any flour from the bread. Same goes for compression that is already rendered into the audio file.
 
As far as it lacking lows and highs, an EQ can maybe fix it, But remember you cannot add what is not already there. So if there is nothing under 60hZ ,an EQ will not magically make your song have frequencies under 60hZ
 
As far as the noise, like many said above, the RX3 is the bomb, but pricey, but Waves X and/or Z Noise is good also and cheaper.
 
CJ

I agree with CJ - You can't undo compression. 
 
I have Izotope RX3. LOVE what this thing can do. I've cleaned up numerous tape and vinyl  recordings. Once I learned how to use the different modules and to be patient, the thing works like a charm!

I've had some good results using expansion on compressed single instruments, like hihats or snare bottoms. I have never tried with a full mix, I guess I can see why it would be problematic.

And I'll second that of all the Wave editors I've messed with Sony Sound forge would be another good pick for cleaning up tracks. I don't own it but my band mate bought a USB turntable that included Sony and I was blown away at how good a job it did of recording and rendering the albums into pretty nice sounding Waves. And best of all it did it in an idiot proof one button approach so that's why I was skeptical at first.  It even chopped each song into a separate track automatically and works the same for tapes. 
 
I use Wave lab Elements ($90)  for this stuff , but if you don't feel like spending money then try Wavosaur (free) or the demo of GoldenWave.( $60)  
You'll be able to optimize, normallize, EQ and even simple noise reduction. Just easier to work in a wave editing environment than in Sonar with stereo tracks. Most Wave editors will have access to your Sonar Plug in library too.  When done you can batch process into MP3's too. 

I have RX3 and love it. Though, if you're looking for a less-expensive alternative to remove background noise, you might consider ReaFIR, which comes as part of the ReaPlugs suite:
 
http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/
 
It's free!