When I exported my song on Home Studio the wave file had more than 2 minutes of silence added to the end of it...the song doesn't end after it's done. I think using "automation" caused this...the blue automation lines run far past where the tracks end. I tried to delete the portion of these lines after the tracks by selecting them and using "Cut" but it wouldn't delete them.
How can you make Home Studio know the song is over? I don't find anything in "help" that explains this.

This happened to me once and i found out there was a marker flag at the 'end' of the song. When I deleted the marker the problem went away. I don't know if that is the same thing happening with your song but I guess it's worth checking.

It sounds like you are highlighting the track numbers to select the tracks you want to mix down/export. Try highlighting the individual clips instead. This should do the trick....

Rob

Also, use the track manager to make sure there aren't any hidden tracks you may have forgotten about. If these tracks are not archived, or if they run past the end of your song, when you use the "select all" function, these tracks get selected also, even if they are muted/hidden.......You get the track manager by hitting the "M" key on your keyboard.....

...and FWIW i always export a finished mix as 32 bit/48khz stereo wav and reimport to a new project to master, at which point you can trim the excess fat...or i sometimes use audacity, if i need to export as mp3, like to soundclick for example. i know some people use the master buss to master but i prefer the clarity of a new project, even if i then have to remix the original...

It's possible to do that, however if the project extends with audio tracks in the mix, then as a result of that you're unnecessarily increasing the size of the project. Sometimes the culprit is not that obvioius. Once I spent half an hour trying to figure out why the project was so long and there was one archived track (which was hidden) which was causing that.

i guess my workflow is such that it isn't an issue, but if you track, mix and master in the one screen then it'd be a problem...with hdd being so cheap these days, and file-trimming options so plentiful, it's onlyt a minor inconvenience, though?

I keep having this problem also. I have no hidden or archived files,no markers or flags out toward the end. As King Wille mentioned have dotted lines from some envolopes going out to the end. Could that be the culprit?
When I export the file I Edit - Select - None before I File - Export - Audio, I get dead space at the end of the song.

Exporting selected tracks works but, selecting tracks with alot of clips can be time consuming and exporting to a master to be trimmed seems like an extra step.
I have a couple of questions that might help me understand this issue.
Is there a way to select all the clips in a track without clicking on each one?
What does the dotted line at the end (and sometimes in the middle) of an envolope mean?

Enjoy
McJoe

The reason you're getting dotted lines is because you haven't editted that portion of the envelope, so Sonar writes it like that all the way to the end of the project, this means that your project extends to the end of the dotted lines. If you worked on MIDI you might have accidentally left one event out there. This is enough to extend the project up to that point. If you have MIDI tracks, select all the MIDI tracks and open the event view, take a look at the bottom, if you see events with start time going beyond the point you think the project should end, then you need to remove those.

What I always do is create Start Export and End Export markers in all my projects. Then when I'm ready to export I do Crtl-A (select all tracks), go to the marker view and click Start Export, then Shift-click End Export. Now if you Export Audio you just get the selected part of the timeline

It sounds like you are highlighting the track numbers to select the tracks you want to mix down/export. Try highlighting the individual clips instead. This should do the trick....

Maybe so, but that's not the best technique especially if you've done a lot of cutting and pasting of audio tracks, you may miss some clips. I usually select the tracks or press CTRL A and select all the tracks and then export. That's not the problem. If he's getting a lot of silence at the end of his piece, he has a track that has some sort of event out beyond the end of the music and he needs to remove it.