I think cakewalks internal encoder function sucks! Maybe it is not the encoder maybe it is the process of mixing and converting at the same time. I was having problems all the way back when I first joined this forum. No solution was found for the low quality of my mp3 compared to other mp3s
I first thought it was my limited mixing abilities and using Sonar 7. Then I discovered that exporting to wav and then burning to CD provided a better sounding export. I could then rip that CD and have an mp3 that sounded just as good as other mp3s.
So now I ruled out a lack of knowledge or doing something wrong and looked to the export function of audio itself within Sonar. I don't know how it works with everyone else, but on my system If I export from Sonar with any other format then Wav it does not sound as good. If I apply dither in the export and change the format it sounds even worse. It is chunkified and broken up.
My audio always sounds the best when exported using the Wav microsoft export. I don't know why that is. I have run extensive tests using different sample rates, bit depths, and dither algorithms. In my personal experience exporting with another format outside of wav does not work well inside of Sonar. For the life of me I don't know why that is. I have tried everything to resolve it. I have run very extensive tests
My solution was to export in wave and find another program to convert the file to any format I need. I first purchased pyro for this. It was a much older version then the one they have now. At the time it did not work well. When I started using Sound forge I was amazed at how well it did format conversions. So now this is no longer an issue. I thought that if Sound forge could convert better maybe it could master better. All the plugins that are found in cakewalk work withing sound forge except the pro channel modules. Sound forge works great for mastering as well.
my go to platform for mastering now is either sound forge and Ozone 5 or Sonar X2 and Ozone 5. It all depends on what audio formats I will need.