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render a final mix? when I have it set at +6 that's 3/4 volume on the master,
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It's not the settings it's the results that matter.
I think the best approach is to adjust the levels as a separate "mastering" step after you're done with mixing, editing, effects, etc.:
- Render to floating-point WAV. (Floating point has virtually no upper or lower limits.)
- Open the floating-point file and
normalize. That will "maximize" your file with 0dB peaks. Regular (integer) WAV files, CDs, ADCs & DACs are all hard-limited to 0dB.
- Peaks don't correlate well with perceived loudness so
if it's not loud enough you'll need to use (dynamic*) compression and/or limiting (with make-up gain) to bring-up the overall loudness.
Compression makes the loud parts quieter and/or the quiet parts louder. In general (particularly when mastering) compression is used to bring-up the overall loudness without boosting or clipping (distorting) the peaks.
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one of the band members say`s that comparing to other music track its still seems low in volume, and that in his car, or on his iPhone or even his home sound system.
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That's a common complaint with "home recordings". Perceived loudness is complicated and you probably won't achieve the same loudness (with as little "damage") as a professional mastering engineer. And, you may not want to over-compress to match modern-commercial recordings.
Of course, with compression you are affecting the dynamic contrast and that changes the character of the recording/performance, and if it has constant loudness it can be boring. But constant-loudness is the current style so it's a creative decision. See
Loudness Wars.
* Dynamic compression is totally unrelated to
file compression like MP3.