Single stereo track to CD, or what?

[MaKettle]

I've scanned the Sonar manual and found only vague explanations about how to bring all my tracks down to a single stereo track to burn to CD, which is what I believe you are supposed to do. The only method I see for that would be to take all the tracks and via "Bounce to Tracks", turn them into one single stereo track, which would then be burned to CD. Is that the correct method, or is that WAY WRONG? I have all the tracks recorded, panned, EQed etc. and ready to go, I'm just not sure what the next correct step is. Someone please enlighten me so I don't burn in Cakewalk hell.

MaKettle

[dachay2tnr]

Sonar does not have native CD burning capabilities. Therefore, while you could bounce all your tracks to a single track within Sonar, ultimately you will have to export the song to a standalone wave file in order for your burning software to use it.

I personally find it easier to simply export all my tracks to a wave file, rather than using the intermediate step of bouncing to a single track and then exporting. Not everyone uses the same approach and YMMV.

That said, what you want to do is select all the tracks that are involved in the mix (i.e., make sure any tracks that you don't want have been muted or archived). Then go to File -> Export Audio.

Now you will get a menu where you get to name the file and decide where you want it saved. You also get to select your bit depth here as well. If you have been recording at 16 bits, make sure the selection is 16 bits and proceed with the export.

However, if you have been recording at 24 bits, then sooner or later you will need to drop it to 16 bits in order to burn to a CD. You can use Sonar to do this by choosing 16 bits as the export parameter, but if you do so you should make sure that you have "apply dither" selected in your audio options.

There's a lot more to learn on this subject, but this should get you started.

[MaKettle]

Thanks for the response dachay2tnr. When I select tracks to be exported to a wave file would I highlight them? Now I have all the tracks I want to use grouped together, with all the archived and midi tracks that I don't need moved to the bottom in a separate group. I'm just a little confused about what you mean by "select". Sorry if these seem like dumb questions, but I'm much better at writing music than decyphering technical manuals. My brain squirms like a fish when I reach for the book.

MaKettle

[dachay2tnr]

The easiest way for me is simply to use the menu to Edit -> Select -> All. That will select all your tracks for export. However, it will still ignore any tracks that are muted or archived.

I think Ctrl + A (for All) does the same thing, but I hate remembering keyboard commands.

Lastly, you can do it one track at a time by clicking on the Track Number while holding the shift key. This last one is the method you would use if you only wanted to export a couple of tracks, but you still had other "live" tracks that were not muted or archived that you didn't want to include in the export (if that makes any sense to you).

[MaKettle]

Thanks dachay2tnr, with your help I think I just about have this licked! I'm getting to the stage where I'm enjoying doing all this.

MaKettle