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I understand that there needs to be headroom in your mix when you are finished
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Headroom is a funny thing... Headroom (mostly*) is for "unexpected" peaks. If you don't use the headroom you didn't
really need it and if you use it then it's no longer headroom...
Nothing bad happens when you get
close to 0dB but you can get clipping (distortion) if you try to go over 0dB.
You don't really need headroom when you're "finished". Most commercial recordings are normalized for 0dB peaks or some people normalize to around -1dB. MP3s often go slightly over 0dB... The lossy nature of MP3 makes some peaks higher and some lower. If you start with a 0dB master, the MP3 often goes over 0dB. (MP3s can go over 0dB without clipping, but you'll clip your DAC if you play it at "full digital volume".)
REAPER (like most audio software) uses floating-point internally so for all practical purposes it has no upper (or lower) limits and it won't clip. However, your ADC (recording), DAC (playback), regular (integer) WAV files, and audio CDs are hard-limited to 0dB.
The most important thing is to avoid clipping during recording because the damage is permanent. The amount of headroom you need depends on how predictable your levels are... Vocals and most acoustic instruments are very dynamic and unpredictable so you need lots of headroom. With saturated-overdriven guitar you can get-by with less headroom. Or, if you are digitizing old analog recordings the levels are also more predictable than "live" recording.
You almost can't have too-much headroom so your recording levels aren't critical as long as you avoid clipping.
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and that when working with the faders, it’s best to work with them in the single digit range (as it’s more accurate) and that an initial setting for the faders of -6dB is a good starting point. I’m not sure exactly what that means and was wondering if anyone can explain/clarify.
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The fader position isn't important. It's the actual levels (especially the master level) that are important, and more-importantly the sound of the overall mix.
Note that mixing is done by summation. If you mix a copy of a file/track with itself (with no adjustment) you'll double the level (+6dB). That's basically "worst case" because you don't normally mix identical tracks and the peaks don't line-up perfectly.
And of course effects can change the levels. The peak mix-level isn't perfectly-predictable (unless you use a limiter, and that's how some people handle it.)
IMO the easiest way to handle a mix is by rendering to floating-point WAV (which can go over 0dB). Then you can re-open the mix and normalize as a separate mastering step. But, you should still try for "reasonable" levels because you don't want to clip the DAC while monitoring.
Or, you can leave plenty of headroom, render to 24-bit, and again re-open and normalize/master to bring-up the levels.
* Some people worry about "inter-sample overs". There is no actual inter-sample digital data but the reconstructed analog
can go slightly higher than the actual peaks and/or you can get slightly higher peaks if you re-sample.