optimus
 
 
After exporting each song to .wav, do I then import each song into a continuous stereo track with spaces between the songs for mastering? Is this continuous stereo track then treated to mastering, sliced into its' component songs, then burnt to CD?
 

That method is actually recommended in a pretty old sound on sound article about the topic of mastering in DAW apps. The reason they give for suggesting that you paste your songs together as one continuous track is that it enables you to better judge the actual transition (especially volume levels) between the songs in one continuous listening experience, as it is difficult to compare that aspect of the songs if you are listening to each alone. You can see if you need to adjust volumes and apply fades in real time as they will end up on the CD.

Thank you all for your advice. It appears that everyone has their favourite CD burning software, which I will explore. However.....
 
My core question remains.
 
As it stands, I have my tracks mixed down and converted to a .wav and saved in their own folder. Where does the mastering happen?
My understanding of mastering, not withstanding the volume wars, is to get a consistent loudness and eq to the compilation. (Individual tracks that I have burnt to CD have always seemed to be way under the level of commercial CDs, and I'm not talking metal thrash or anything like that, just easy listening stuff).
So clearly, levels need to come up. This I understand is done during mastering.
 
I have no experience of the software recommended by you guys but I get the impression that there is mastering software, and there is burning software. Yes, no.....?
I have always been of the impression that the DAW can be used to master, even if only rudimentary. From there it is exported to CD burning software. Yes, no....?
 
So....do I import each track from my  proposed CD folder into the DAW or mastering software individually, in the order I want on one continuous track, and apply whatever manipulation that is required, to the entire track, or have I got this whole thing wrong? Yes, no....?
 
Now, if I am on the right track, this new master I just created, is sliced up into its individual songs and saved to a folder, and then burnt to CD. Yes, no....?
 
Sorry guys for being pedantic about this but I need a demo compilation soon, and my adhoc efforts at producing a consistent product are not good.

I use Wave Lab for Mastering and then Nero for burning. Wave lab is a Wave editing program so yes that is what I call "Mastering" software, This is better suited than a DAW to fine tune a wave file to a finished product ready for distribution as a CD or MP3. 
 
Burning software might have some  basic "mastering" tools too.
 
But software like wave lab takes the guesswork out of things like loudness. 
 
 I just export each song individually and then use Wave Lab to even things out. It has a few tools you use to compare each song so I've never had an issue with songs sounding different. I then load them into a player ( Win Amp) and listen to the whole album for spacing etc. It will always take a small bit of fine tuning depending on how fussy you are. 
 
 I will add that a lot depends on if the album was recorded in a similar manner or if it's a bunch of dogs breakfast takes from over the last 10 years. So easy to make an album from one session than from many. 

wavelab, soundfogre, even cd architect has some, very little basic mastering effects, but it more importantly lets you organize all the songs one after the other and set the seconds between songs, exc.
its a real professional set up by Sony music software.
 
sonar can also do some mastering, just import your finished mix in to sonar.
just make sure your mix that your importing(the wave file has levels low enough to be able to add some mastering to it with out burning it up(running the levels too hot.)
 

You might want to take glance at the iZotope Mastering Guide for some ideas. It is written around using iZotope Ozone but you can apply the principles with whatever tools your have. Of course, there are quite a few videos/books on the subject of mixing and mastering too. Any audio editor can be used to finalize your mixes. Whether one works on individual tracks or imports them all into a single project is a matter of preference; just like the selection of CD burning software.

1. Export all your individual songs as 44.1KHz 32 bit
2. Import each of these into a blank project on separate tracks, spaced out along the timeline
3. Adjust the relative volumes of each to get a consistent volume (use the loudest as a reference)
4. Adjust the start times for each track to get the exact gap you want between songs by dragging each one left/right
5. Do whatever you need to do by way of mastering (EQ/Compression/Limiting). This could be done on your master buss if they were all mixed consistently, otherwise you'll have to do it on a track by track basis
6. Export from your mastering project as one long wav file at 44.1KHz, 16 bit
7. Import it into CD Architect, set the "New Track" marker for each song (first track MUST start at EXACTLY 2.00 seconds)
8. Burn CD

Many thanks to all. Much to try out here.
 
Bristol. I think you have iterated what I was looking for.
Scook. Thanks for the link. 

I did not read all the post, but will say this. There are some really decent priced Mastering Houses out there. Many will master sets of songs, rather than one per fee. My advise is to find some you are interested in, and contact them as many prefer different formats. In fact some will not even except 16 bit material. They will gladly explain to you how they prefer it formated. I recently reformatted this pc and do not have the links, but they are easy to find. Many contact me often at Reverbnation and other music sites etc...Just search it, and contact some of them. Many of them will also prefer that you do not do this or do that to the tracks, and that information will vary from house to house. Then actually putting together a CD of tunes can also vary depending on the genre, types of tunes included, climax point of the CD, loudness of the tunes involved, etc...There is also information about this topic. You don't want a jazz tune in the middle of a hard rock CD. Best to do some research with actual Mastering Houses before you go to all the trouble of trying to put them together and it being in the wrong format. Hope this helps, Free
 
 
Tip: Be sure to put your heap of cwp. files on an external drive for safe keeping. All mastering houses will except 24 bit wav files. If you have final mixes on them, good idea to save the best mixes as 24 or 32 bit wav files, and this can eat up some space. The external also allows you to free up space on your C drive. These files can be dragged over back and forth to Sonar cakewalk Projects, or opened with Sonar from either drive. Drag to lose all that hard work on a pc crash. Trust me, I have been through several of those.

If its that important, go to the pros. Try Discmakers. They do mastering and replication. www.discmakers.com

I burned a track to a CD using WMP today and it wouldn't play on a friends home mini-hifi setup.  I tried it in my car and it wouldn't play there either. In the past I've burned to CD in MP3 format and they've always played fine in my car, but I used WAV this time to get higher quality, but as I said they won't play.  What am I doing wrong?
 
I searched to try and find exactly what file type I should be ending up with and this thread came up, but the posts above don't pin down the file type people are using, what should it be?  Commercial CDs say the tracks are cda files, or is that just what Windows interprets them as?  I'm confused.