Hello all you good earthlings! My first ever release is here - the song I worked on during the RRS Intensive this summer no less. This is an instrumental electronic track inspired by the sounds and synthesizer greats of the 80’s - hopefully with a modern twist. Hope you all enjoy it! https://synkromia.com Many thanks to mastering.com and all the mentors helping me reach a level where I’m now overcoming my shadow imposter :) Special shout out to @Chris Georgiou and @Dane Holmes who provided invaluable advice and feedback to help me get this track off the ground. And everyone in the RRS course for their support!

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 :)