I installed MP3 patch a few weeks back...it works great. As does Pyro. Why Cakewalk hasn't upgraded and updated that I will never understand.

Cakewalk has updated the encoder used in Sonar Platinum. It now supports all the Lame functions that I'm aware of.

I use Gold Wave. I has an excellent batch encoder so I can convert a whole album or recording session. It's free to try but well worth the $50 to buy a lifetime licence. 
http://www.goldwave.com/release.php
 
Certaily easier than fussing with installing an encoder. And it uses LAME. 

Clearly you haven't tried Aaron's mp3 patch. And it's free and uses lame which is also free.

i have two programs for this,
 
WAVELAB
 
CDEX
 
 
cdex is free, and works great.

FreeRIP.
http://www.freerip.com/download.php
Standalone. Will handle (almost) all of your ripping and converting needs. Free! I have been using it for years and love it. 

The downside of Sonar for these tasks is that there is no scripting for batch conversion.

In Sounforge I can go through a file of many hours of audio, set markers for regions, do an export, convert to MP3 and rename functions all in one script that I can save for future reuse.

Mediahuman Audio Converter , is what i use.

I've used sound forge for years - but it's a rather expensive solution for just making MP3's.
 
Learning the command line for lame is well worth it. I know the command line scares a lot of people (and many don't even know it exists) but it is very powerful. Also - I know this is taboo for many, but if you use iTunes you have a free converter right there.
 

fre:ac https://www.freac.org/
 
Has a really good implementation of Lame, and all the settings are available for tweaking, though the presets are just fine for most things. Also is a very good CD Ripper, if you need one.
 
Regards,
Dan