I know that Sonar offers some kind of CD option. I saw it before, and it was some what primitive. Then there was some software from Cake on the Cakewalk website about converting to MP3s.
 
I had Nero 9 on my old system, do not want to install it on Win 8. I am looking at Nero 12 now but it has bad reviews. I do not need all the movie editing abilities.
 
How good/easy/reliable is CD making function of Sonar? Will it make reasonable CD and burn it? Will I be able to encode MP3 with sonar? At what bit?
 
Thank you very much.

The mp3 encoder will cost you $19 or so.  Cake makes that an option since many of us already have an encoder.  If you don't, you can pay the fee or find a free one.  Lots of choices if you do a search on this site about the free ones.

Don't know about the CD function.  I use CD architect.  SOny The cheap version of thier Sound Forge may include it. Good stuff.  Cake's pyro has the same functions, but is rather ... inelegant.

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Don't bother with SONAR's built-in CD-burning option, except for quick test burns. CD Architect is probably the most commonly-used utility in these parts, although just about any CD-burning application can do the job. I used Nero for years before finally getting frustrated by its bugs and crashes and moving to CDA myself.

Sonar pyro audio creator is good for burning CDs and MP3 CDs and much more reasonably priced than Nero. It also will let you use many of your VST plug-ins. 

My problem with Nero was that it had its own plug ins and Sonar would include them on a list, but when you click on one, it would crash Sonar to a point of restarting computer. Took me couple of days to figure out what was going on, then I had to manually exclude those plug ins. I do not want to deal with it again. But Nero is on sell for $35. I used to pay $70 with discount. It also has image editing software.

I will look in to CD Arch., thanks for the suggestion. What is Sonar Pyro? is it sold on Cake store? Thanks.

I use Nero 12 for burning my CD's, and have had no problems with it. (Win 7 Pro)
I wonder if the bad reviews are for using it to do other things, rather than simply burning audio CD's.
. . . I've found it reliable for doing only that.

Another vote for CD Architect here - it's a brilliant piece of software that does exactly what you expect

I use Nero Burning ROM.  I have the full Nero suite, as you can't just buy the one module.  Nero Burning ROM will let you write the song titles to disc (use the Disk at Once option, NOT Track at Once) and the ISRC code and protection option.   I also burn at 8X so that the audio CD's will be compatible and play on most audio CD players.  Older players won't play CD's burned at higher speeds, they will have "skip" problems or even some will not play at all.  When you are burning CD's for clients (as I do) to sell you have to give them a product that will work and not have buyers coming back complaining about the CD's not playing or skipping.

I had a demo of the Sony Architect and wasn't impressed.  I don't need all the audio processing options, as I do that before I make the final mix copy.  The price was another block.

I can not remember if Nero was converting to MP3. I was using Wave Lab for that. Now my Wave Lab is 5 and not compatable with Win. 8. I might be but I have upgrade disk which would require to install WL 2 first which is old. So- will Nero MP3 wav file? How about CD Arch? Thanks.

This does not make sense. According to sys specs for Pyro (Cakewalk Audio Creator), it only supports 32 bit up to Win. 7. http://www.cakewalk.com/products/audiocreator/feature.aspx/pyro-Audio-Creator-System-Requirements

To add MP3 incoding to Somar X2, I have to pay $20. Really? http://www.store.cakewalk.com/b2cus/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=10-CWMA1.00-10E