So, over 2 decades of CW (CWPA6 first) and I just record myself with softsynths and live guitars and vocals. Bass I try to do with my midi controller, works out ok. Drums also, but sometimes midi stuff I edit. Then I record my guitars and vocals
reading some posts here i have noticed mention of mastering in " a certain other daw". My question is NOT about that daw.
 
I will continue with Sonar. Is there any advantage to have a daw that has this built in mastering apposed to what I have:
Which is, Sonar Plat _Sound Forge Pro 11, CD Architect and Ozone 8-with other izotope stuff and many, many plug ins 3rd party. Not mastering plugs though, well besides those mentioned already. Tons of fx 3rd party verbs and fx.
 
So, am I missing something? comparatively speaking? BTW, I only do CD's and things for friends and family, co workers, stuff like that.

I love mastering in Wave Lab as apposed to Sonar. And Sound Forge is the same as Wave lab. I have Sound Forge Studio that came with my Sony USB turntable and use it to transfer my old LP's. It a great program, I'm just more used to Wave Lab for detailed work.  Wave editors are made just for this task so are optimized for workflow when working on stereo files. A DAW is a multi track sequencer and optimized for that. They are clunky at wave editing.. to many hoops to jump through to do the same thing a wave editor does with one click.  
 
Most of Sonars tools are all available to me in Wave Lab anyhow and of course Steinbergs plug ins are hi quality.  Everything is just easier and faster. 
The big thing is the way I can quickly top and tail to the nano second, and  fade outs etc, and the big thing is to Normalize if needed and set the Average RMS level so all songs are the same loudness. I've yet to figure out how that can be done with Sonar. 
 
I often  work on batches ( albums) of songs and its important to me to have them all right there in the browser and flip around between the songs. For $100 Wave Lab Elements is by far my most beloved audio app... and ya, it's never crashed!  ever,, 
 
And CD burning just like you for friends and family , I use Nero because it always has worked. 
SOnar is my Multitrack, Wave Lab my 2 Track, Nero my lathe 

Thanks very Much........Appreciate the helpful input! For me, time to really learn Sound Forge Pro 11......

What I find usefull when learning any new software is to print off the keyboard shortcuts.