When you have mastered a mix, burn a copy of the song on a CD and take it to your car or some other place when you don’t normal mix. That way you won’t be distracted by the meters and you will be able to monitor more as a average listener and not a engineer.

Have a pen and paper ready and write down a “snag” list of how your mix compares to your reference track. Then revise your mix, comparing it to your master again. It may seem daunting how many changes you need to make in your initial master but this process over time will help you reach professional results faster than any other mixing process. Good job on the post!

So many questions and possibilities. Hard to pin it down without knowing more of your setup.

Depending on the setup of your DAW, and how you have your music project setup, you could indeed see a difference in DB peaks. I’ve had that before with my setup.

It could be best to use Adobe Audition, or the like, to master your music. This way you’ll be able to see the actual wave and it’s peaks, etc. Software level meters aren’t 100% accurate, as they tend to be slower in response.

If you have a hardware mixer, you ca use that for level feedback, but you’ll have to make sure the trim levels etc are accurate; basically, making sure that your hardware mixer is showing an accurate DB level, which can take a little while to setup. To do this you’d have to play a constant tone from your software at a sustained DB level and match that DB level on your hardware mixer when it’s played back through it. Use a 0DB tone, make sure your slider (on the hardware mixer) is at 0DB, and then trim until the level meters show 0DB.

Hope you find a solution!

According to my peak/RMS meters. My audio volume bounced from around -8 to around -15 RMS on the song I was working on today. The peak levels generally stayed around -5 to -8. Maybe I’m cutting out too many peaks. I looked at a wave form from one of Boz Scaggs songs the other day. The RMS level usually fluctuated from around -15 to -20+ RMS and the peak levels bounced up to around -1. Even that song’s audio levels were louder than mine to date.

I don’t quite have the hang of using compression. But I have learned a few tricks lately that keeps my audio and master tracks from clipping and distorting. Equalizing isn’t really a problem for me either since I learned enough to eliminate the low end rumble and the unwanted piercing highs from high end frequency instruments. Long story short. If my DAW would mix down audio files at the same volume that it plays in my arrangements. 90% of my mastering troubles would be over.

Cheers.