i'm still an amateur at this, but i've heard that none of the level should be the same and it seems to be working out for me so far. i'm wondering what's the highest any of the gains should be? i've been going by the green/yellow/orange bar that goes up and i don't let any of them hit the orange if that makes sense. is yellow also too far? am i even doing this right?

also, would it be better to master my tracks with izotope ozone in FL or use the reason mastering suite?

I feel Reason has all the tools needed for decent mastering (except for a hi-res spectrometer) but you can use FL if you like. The basic goal of mastering is to bring out every channel to the fullest, without clipping the mix. The rule of thumb is:



Highest peak level: -3dB
Average mix level: -10dB to -18dB
Noise: less than -64dB

If you're going to use Reason, be sure to use the Big Meter. It's got all the monitoring tools you need.

i'm still using reason 4 because i'm comfortable with it and i dont think it has the big meter. so basically yellow is ok? i'm on my laptop at the moment and i don't have reason on it so i cant check but i dont think there's a clipping indicator.

There is a clipping indicator in Reason 4 as well...


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