I am looking for a mastering software. I was using my mates studio for mastering and he has Adobe Audition 3.  Adobe stuff is very heavy on the pocket. Any alternative ideas out there?

SONAR X1.

X1pro does a nice job on mastering,but I find Sony SoundForge 8 much easier,
and very inexpensive,and yes I love the adobe products,abit pricey after buying all the plugins,
and programs availible from cakewalk,z3ta,rapture,dmpro and extra libaries,notion3,amplitude,guitar rig,
all the pro channel toys,so after all that it nice to just get down to a easy mastering program like sound forge.
(SF8 won't read 64bit files ,but your rendering to 16bit anyways.just render before you import.
 
gvh

IMO, Sonar X1 Producer is not only good enough - it's absolutely amazing for mastering.

Personally, I studied music so I'm neither a mixing- nor a mastering-engineer, but when budgets are low and I'm asked to do both for a piece of music, I use a reference track (for e.g. something out of Two Steps From Hell or whatever track/style compares to what I composed) and get a sound just as good as the pro's. It might take me longer of course, but the end result is what counts.

My point is - even someone like me who just has a basic idea of these fields, can get an amazing sound from X1. I'm pretty sure you have more experience than I do with mixing and mastering so you'd definitely get even better results.

So if I were you, instead of spending money on other applications, I would invest in some time spent fiddling around with what Sonar can do :)

Thanks guys. I agree X1 is a great mastering tool. I also think that sounds differ on different software. Adobe Audition 3 has a very subtle multiband compressor, but then again so has X1.

if you are seeking a third party package.... Ozone does it for me. 

However, all the tools needed to properly master a song are in Sonar. 

That said.... lots of folks do prefer to use Ozone.... me among them. 

I prefer Sonar X1 for mastering..   X2 is going to be even better!

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2643931


or this is the best mastering vst suite around: http://www.sonalksis.com/mastering.htm

Audition does indeed have a really good multiband compressor, licensed from iZotope. Sadly, it only works within Audition and can't be used in SONAR. Audition can also convert to just about any file format, and its MP3 encoding is the best. It has great editing and diagnostic features (my favorites are the amplitude statistics).

However, a third-party application isn't really necessary for mastering. SONAR + Ozone is all you need to get rolling. 

I agree with bitflipper....I was strictly an AUD 3 guy...it has some very nice ..editing and Mastering tools....really deep surgical stuff, of which I return to for different tasks.  

But due to AUD 3's limited MIDI capabilities...I went to Sonar X1 Pro and have been super satisfied with it!! (rarely looking back)

Mastering is using the right tools (in the right order and that changes per the needs of each song) and Sonar has the tools and the capability
to add 3d party plugins (like Ozone).

Study up on the steps to master ...there are plenty of "experts" on the subject! Use your ears and compare to your favorite commercial tracks.
Good luck

Thank you fella's, I think I am ready to be Brian Wilson now. Now what did you say that talent software was called?