You can always use the Lame encoder - its free. 

There was a post a couple of years ago (!) saying how to set it up in Sonar.

Cheers,
Jerry

As far as I can remember the encoder works fine w/ Pyro.  However, I don't think it will work in SONAR - they are separate licences.  Or at least none of the SONAR versions I had could use the Pyro license.

@

Yeah, I actually set up LAME last night when I couldn't find my dang Pro Audio 9 disk. LAME was originally showing up in X2 for me from some other app I installed (maybe Vegas), but X2a seemed to have hosed the configuration. Here's the thread I used to set it up again, but there are probably others. http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1255631

In short, the answer is "No". 

You could, however, export from Sonar to a WAV file and then load that into pyro and convert it to an MP3. 

Many thanks to all for the advice guys.

Oh well, looks like I'll have to continue exporting waves from X2 and converting them in CDex.

You can still use MP3 in SONAR without paying for an encoder. Just use a free encoder like LAME. See this old forum topic...
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1255631

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

It's completely lame (pun intended) that Sonar doesn't offer an MP3 encoder out of the box. Sure, I can export to MP3 after the fact (which I do), but this is just silly. It's not like MP3 is some obscure audio format no one really uses. At this point it's THE ubiquitous final audio format at this point. Make a .wav for CD's/masters, but ultimately, the MP3 is what the band is uploading to iTunes or putting on their website, posting on Soundcloud, etc.

I'd rather get charged for the license as part of the cost of Sonar (and have that go up a few bucks) then get asked to upgrade every time I forget that Sonar doesn't offer this pretty basic feature stock. It's so odd to hear the "we have the best EQ of any DAW, best channel strip, best reverb, etc." for Cakewalk not to offer a basic feature like MP3 export.
It's time for Cakewalk to just suck it up, and change directions. MP3's aren't going anywhere, and if they really want to speed up my workflow: don't make me "pay to unlock" or go to a separate app to do an MP3 conversion. 


BTW, thanks for the repost on the LAME link. That's a great workaround for now.

StepD - the ProAudio 9 CD probably will not work in win7, contact tech support and they will send you a program to unlock the mp3 encoder. When I called about it a few months ago, it took minutes to get it sorted out.

As far as Pyro owners, I was under the impression that once you bought an mp3 license from CW, it was good for all their products forever. I would contact tech support and see if they will also supply the unlock program for SONAR.

Funkybot


It's completely lame (pun intended) that Sonar doesn't offer an MP3 encoder out of the box. Sure, I can export to MP3 after the fact (which I do), but this is just silly. It's not like MP3 is some obscure audio format no one really uses. At this point it's THE ubiquitous final audio format at this point. Make a .wav for CD's/masters, but ultimately, the MP3 is what the band is uploading to iTunes or putting on their website, posting on Soundcloud, etc.

I'd rather get charged for the license as part of the cost of Sonar (and have that go up a few bucks) then get asked to upgrade every time I forget that Sonar doesn't offer this pretty basic feature stock. It's so odd to hear the "we have the best EQ of any DAW, best channel strip, best reverb, etc." for Cakewalk not to offer a basic feature like MP3 export.
It's time for Cakewalk to just suck it up, and change directions. MP3's aren't going anywhere, and if they really want to speed up my workflow: don't make me "pay to unlock" or go to a separate app to do an MP3 conversion. 


BTW, thanks for the repost on the LAME link. That's a great workaround for now.

+1 This has always been my feeling as well. In my opinion Sonar is the best DAW out there. To not offer a basic feature like export to mp3 is indeed lame! Just how much more would this jack up the price of Sonar anyway?


I used the lame encoder a few times before. It was a long time ago when I first tried 64 bit. I like what Sonar does with it's mp3 export encoder. The ability to put in Tag information and the ability to adjust the overall quality is simple and great. 


You should not need to use a third party application for one of the most popular export formats out there!


If we are lucky it will be the next thing cakewalk gives away for free for being an X2 user. It will be interesting to see what they offer Jan 1st.

It is a small on-time charge that, for those that do not use mp3 or elect to product mp3 by some other method are not forced to pay when the purchasing SONAR. I though this discussion was exhausted years ago, guess not.