I've been following the Mixing & Mastering Cheat Sheet Binder Course, with a fresh new project to follow along with. At the initial Gain Staging step of '12 Steps to Organise Your Session' I have come across a dilemma: In my DAW (Sonar) I can select all clips and then choose the following effects from the Process menu: 'Gain' - to cut or boost all clips by a specific number of decibels. 'Normalize' - to cut or boost all clips to peak at a specified level of decibels. My instinct is to use the Gain process so that the loudest clip peaks at the desired maximum level, but the rest of the clips are only adjusted relatively by the same amount, preserving the dynamics of the overall performance (ie quieter verses will still be quieter than loud choruses). Is there an argument to use the Normalization process instead, making all clips and song-sections peak at the same level and then restoring the performance dynamics at a later stage in the mix?

I just downloaded I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty as a reference track, and the wave file looks like it never went through a limiter. Nothing even close to peaking out. I even raised it a couple db, and still has plenty of headroom. I'm looking to do a Limiter Stress Test, and am wondering if I should put some limiting on this track. If you knew how long it took me to finally find an MP3 of it (amazon would only allow streaming) you'd know my frustration at seeing this track being so quiet. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Hi Everyone! I have been attending FTM's since last year and it's first time I got a place in contest 😃. Here is my mix, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YsqLwd3T3Qv-D-XwNWGIiIHLHieD_vwx/view?usp=sharing Your feedbacks are welcome :)

As usual in the spirit of sharing and learning, I'm posting my submission here as well - any comments suggestions welcome :) Submitted last night, but did a few minor tweaks this morning as well and updated it. Still not sure if it is a little too much low end in the first part, and I'm not totally happy with the impacts in the third section ... Within the time constraints, and the fact I'm not used to orchestral mixing, I'm fairly happy with the results :)

Hey guys, long time no speak. I went through some rabbit holes to finish the mix and master, and I lost a lot of time fighting with my PC (performance problems) and a Cubase export-and-reimport bug. I did most of the work on busses, though some more mixing work would have saved me a lot of time. Also, if my friend didn't visit me for two hours, I might have had finished in time anyway. I do hear some unresolved problems mostly caused by premature exporting sub-tracks with plugins and my lack of wishing to go back to adjust and re-export. You might notice that on the piano volume automation. Anyway, would love your feedback to my mix and master of @Luke Despain - "Birth of entropy". Might come back later to finish it the proper way.